TODAY I would like to talk about not one book but three, all of them on housekeeping!
They are Mrs Beeton's Book on Household Management, Clare Coulson's House Rules and Martha Stewart's Homekeeping Handbook!
Mrs Beeton's Book on Household Management comes from the Victorian era. It was written by Isabella Beeton, writer and journalist. Published in parts at first, Household Management got out in a single volume in 1861. Sadly, Mrs Beeton died four years later, at the age of 28, immediately after the birth of her fourth child.
For the Victorians, housekeeping was a skill and an art. It was the Victorians who elevated the orderly home to an article of faith. Cleanliness, thrift, taste in decoration, were all essential virtues. Household Management was a 19th century housekeeping bible!
Clare Coulson's House Rules is a lovely volume, full of useful advice for the modern woman and household manager. Advice is divided per room (e.g. kitchen, bedroom) but also per activity (entertaining, etiquette). There are pretty illustrations and it is well-written and easy to read. Coulson is fashion editor at the Daily Telegraph. I love her book!
Finally, Martha Stewart's Handbook is the absolute bible of housekeeping. The advice is amazing, it helps you to organize and it is very pleasant to read. It taught me many things I didn't know. It's a wonderful book! The only thing, it is quite large in size, and therefore not very easy to handle.
Have a good weekend, always with beauty and a good book! xxx
I WASN'T going to write again in the blog before the weekend book review, but I saw this amazing painting and I just had to share! Beauty, roses, fashion, mirrors -- perfect for The Lipstick Papers! And what a lovely way to end the Friday night! xxx
HI ALL, thanks for reading and visiting this blog! A blog for fashion, beauty, books -- blog for you! ;-) P.S. The Lipstick Papers Weekend Review coming soon!
BEAUTY is everywhere, as summer reaches its peak! In the agricultural diary, August is the month of produce (grapes, nuts, figs) and a "boundary" month, leading from one season to another. It was a custom in some parts of Greece to jump over a fire on the eve of August the first!
THE VIRGIN MARY was renowned for her beauty, and that is why she is also called The Rose of Paradise and the Queen of Heaven!
The 15th August marks the assumption of Mary to Heaven; it can be called Feast Day of the assumption of Our Lady, Dekapentavgoustos (Δεκαπενταύγουστος) in Greek, Ferragosto in Italian.
In Patmos and Cassiope, Greece, the day is marked with an epitaph, or funereal procession, for Mary. In seaside Italy, a statue of Mary is brought from the sea to town, and then loaded on a truck full of grapes and carried around town. This way, Mary blesses the town, the sea and the fields and produce of the land.
Have a beautiful 15 August, wherever you are!
WHEN I was in my late teens, I read Danielle Steele novels by the truckload. I guess these were the equivalent of young adult novels today, which did not exist in my time, or were few.
A favorite theme for Danielle Steele is the journey. Often the young lady protagonist would go on a journey, either for a holiday, a purpose or a quest, and there meet love and adventure!
The journey is an old theme in literature, starting from Odysseus in the Odyssey, then Aeneas in the Aeneid and Dante in Divine Comedy.
Personally, I loved young Edward Waverley's journey in Sir Walter Scott's lovely novel, Waverley. Like with every journey in a book, Edward travels both outwardly, across Britain and through battle and war, and inwardly from childhood to young adulthood.
Those Danielle Steele novels were not without faults. Yet, you know what? I wish I had learnt something from those novels too: taking control of your life, believing in love, not waste time, get rid of all things negative at once. Better learn from a novel than learn the hard way.
More on Sir Walter Scott and Danielle Steele in later posts!
HOW I would love to do this one day, gossip under a champagne-laden table!
Of course, when I say gossip I only mean the positive form --exchange of news and ideas-- "good" gossip. I don't mean the claustrophobic gossip meant to do harm or used for social control. This is the kind of gossip which, as George Elliot shows in Middlemarch, is positively evil and should be avoided at all costs.
"Good" gossip can be found in a wide spectrum of novels, ranging from Charlotte Bronte's Villette, where Lucy and Ginevra gossip about the men at a ball, to Fifty Shades of Grey, where Ana and Kate sometimes gossip about Christian <3 In Jane Austen's Sense and Sensibility, Elinor's strict refusal to do even "good" gossip is shown to be actually harmful and repressive!
I wish you all a great start to the week! xxx
START the week with beauty, roses and a good book! The roses book I had ordered has arrived, and I will review it for The Lipstick Papers as soon as I read. A lot of thanks to all who read this blog! New posts coming soon! xxx
HI all, this weekend I am going to talk about a book I have just started. It is a Greek Cypriot special edition book, which also exists in English translation, and is called, The Cyprian: The Aphrodite of Cyprus in Ancient Sources and Archaeological Accounts!
The book was commissioned, funded and published by the Leventis Foundation, which is a Cypriot cultural and research institution.
Though I have just started it, I am impressed by how much lovely historical, cultural and archaeological information there is inside about Aphrodite!
Aphrodite is among my favorite Goddesses and I am proud she comes from Cyprus! However, it is difficult to pick a patron Greek Goddess, because, (a) they are all cool, and (b) being jealous deities, you don't want to anger anyone by picking another!
;-)
At any rate, this book contains an incredible amount of reference from ancient sources and a wonderful collection of photographs from archaeological sites and findings.
Also, it features some new developments in Aphrodite research, such as the new Aphrodite temple discovered near Larnaca (the Ancient Kition, Κίτιον).
According to Homer, Aphrodite is the daughter of Zeus and Dione, a Goddess who bore Zeus this beautiful girl. According to Hesiod, however, she was born from the sea foam outside of Paphos. Shakespeare follows the Paphos story, calling Aphrodite "the Paphian", the Pafitissa (η Παφίτισσα) as we would say in my native Cypriot Greek. I think Aphrodite is not only the Goddess of beauty, but also the Goddess of Mermaids!
Until next weekend, xxx
WHETHER you are on the beach, working, doing something creative or all three of them together, have a great Friday -- with beauty and summer in the heart! The Lipstick Papers Weekend review coming soon! xxx
