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LifestylesFamily & Relationships

Keep it Simple

Review by bookpagedev

The Simple Stunning series of wedding books from Stewart, Tabori, &andamp; Chang focuses on simplifying the wedding planning process without taking the beauty out of a bride’s big day. Simple Stunning Wedding Showers: Festive Ideas and Inspiration for Perfect Pre-Wedding Parties and Simple Stunning Wedding Flowers: Practical Ideas and Inspiration for Your Bouquet, Ceremony, and Centerpieces, both by party planner Karen Bussen, offer practical advice in a concise form.

These quick-reading books provide tons of tips on their respective subjects. Simple Stunning Wedding Showers offers 20 themes for wedding showers, form the classic tea party or 24-hour shower to more modern themes like a bubbly brunch and a night-at-the-movies-inspired bash to outfit the entertainment room. The book includes recipes for food and drinks and ideas for party games. The recipes, and even some of the themes, would be great for other parties, making this book more versatile than it seems on the surface.

In Simple Stunning Wedding Flowers, Bussen covers the basics of floral design, from ceremony dŽcor to bouquets and boutonnieres, centerpieces to escort card tables. Her guidance will help those who don’t know a geranium from a gerbera daisy decide what kind of flowers they want and find a florist who can help them realize their dream without blowing their budget. Little advice is offered to women who might want to try to design their own floral arrangements, but for brides who only need to know enough about flowers to communicate their desires to a florist, this book is a good guide and a great value.

The Simple Stunning series of wedding books from Stewart, Tabori, &andamp; Chang focuses on simplifying the wedding planning process without taking the beauty out of a bride’s big day. Simple Stunning Wedding Showers: Festive Ideas and Inspiration for Perfect Pre-Wedding Parties and Simple Stunning Wedding Flowers: Practical Ideas and Inspiration for Your Bouquet, Ceremony, and […]
LifestylesFamily & Relationships

Keep it Simple

Review by bookpagedev

The Simple Stunning series of wedding books from Stewart, Tabori, &andamp; Chang focuses on simplifying the wedding planning process without taking the beauty out of a bride’s big day. Simple Stunning Wedding Showers: Festive Ideas and Inspiration for Perfect Pre-Wedding Parties and Simple Stunning Wedding Flowers: Practical Ideas and Inspiration for Your Bouquet, Ceremony, and Centerpieces, both by party planner Karen Bussen, offer practical advice in a concise form.

These quick-reading books provide tons of tips on their respective subjects. Simple Stunning Wedding Showers offers 20 themes for wedding showers, form the classic tea party or 24-hour shower to more modern themes like a bubbly brunch and a night-at-the-movies-inspired bash to outfit the entertainment room. The book includes recipes for food and drinks and ideas for party games. The recipes, and even some of the themes, would be great for other parties, making this book more versatile than it seems on the surface.

In Simple Stunning Wedding Flowers, Bussen covers the basics of floral design, from ceremony dŽcor to bouquets and boutonnieres, centerpieces to escort card tables. Her guidance will help those who don’t know a geranium from a gerbera daisy decide what kind of flowers they want and find a florist who can help them realize their dream without blowing their budget. Little advice is offered to women who might want to try to design their own floral arrangements, but for brides who only need to know enough about flowers to communicate their desires to a florist, this book is a good guide and a great value.

The Simple Stunning series of wedding books from Stewart, Tabori, &andamp; Chang focuses on simplifying the wedding planning process without taking the beauty out of a bride’s big day. Simple Stunning Wedding Showers: Festive Ideas and Inspiration for Perfect Pre-Wedding Parties and Simple Stunning Wedding Flowers: Practical Ideas and Inspiration for Your Bouquet, Ceremony, and […]
LifestylesFamily & Relationships

Destination delights

Review by bookpagedev

As society becomes more mobile and friends and family members are scattered all over the country, more couples are planning destination weddings to give them more time with friends and to make their wedding more like a vacation for their guests. The Knot Guide to Destination Weddings by Carley Roney is the perfect nuts-and-bolts guide to planning a destination wedding, from picking the locale and choosing destination-friendly wedding wear to working with local vendors. The destination wedding directory highlights some of the most popular wedding destinations, while timelines and checklists will help keep the details organized.

Brief features on real-life destination weddings help couples see how it all comes together, and the advice on how to pack will be absolutely invaluable to harried brides (rule number one: carry your wedding dress with you).

As society becomes more mobile and friends and family members are scattered all over the country, more couples are planning destination weddings to give them more time with friends and to make their wedding more like a vacation for their guests. The Knot Guide to Destination Weddings by Carley Roney is the perfect nuts-and-bolts guide […]
LifestylesFamily & Relationships

Southern charm

Review by bookpagedev

The stereotypical Southern wedding is extremely traditional, but Southern brides create celebrations every bit as modern and sophisticated as those held anywhere else in the world.

Tara GuŽrard, owner of SoirŽe, Inc. in Charleston, South Carolina, knows all about planning chic weddings with Southern charm. Her Southern Weddings: New Looks from the Old South details 12 weddings created by SoirŽe. Highlights of the dŽcor of each wedding are discussed, as well as signature elements that made each wedding unique. The SoirŽe Secrets section offers tips brides can adapt to their own weddings.

Sometimes it’s hard to see what makes these weddings especially Southern other than their location, but that is part of the point. It certainly is no longer possible (if it were ever possible) to peg a wedding’s style by region.

The best part for many brides will be the step-by-step instructions for recreating some of the ideas used in the featured weddings. From centerpieces to floral monograms to table designs, there are many great ideas for brides of all budgets in this book.

The stereotypical Southern wedding is extremely traditional, but Southern brides create celebrations every bit as modern and sophisticated as those held anywhere else in the world. Tara GuŽrard, owner of SoirŽe, Inc. in Charleston, South Carolina, knows all about planning chic weddings with Southern charm. Her Southern Weddings: New Looks from the Old South details […]
Memoir

The Saints of Somalia

Review by Linda Stankard

Glamour has called them “the Saints of Somalia, equal parts Mother Teresa and Rambo.” It’s a fitting description of Dr. Hawa Abdi and her two doctor daughters. Their must-be-heard story, told by Dr. Abdi with Sarah J. Robbins in Keeping Hope Alive, is one ofincredible humanitarian effort coupled with fierce courage, even as they face violent extremists. But it is also Dr. Abdi’s private story—her trials and tribulations as a Somali woman, as a mother, as a wife—as one small person with a big dream for peace.

In spite of the atrocities she has witnessed, Dr. Abdi writes with a lyrical gentleness about her homeland. Her grandmother, she tells us, came from “the region called Lafole, where the sandy roads of Mogadishu meet the soft brown earth of the Shabelle River basin.” Lucky to be raised by parents who had a then-rare “marriage of love,” she was able to become an educated woman, a lawyer and the first female gynecologist in Somalia. When civil war broke out in 1990, she also became a hero and a legend: the unwavering protector of tens of thousands.

As “victims and survivors flooded the main road that led out of Mogadishu,” many came to her farm and clinic. “I took them in, and I gave them whatever I had—cool water, a place to sleep, a portion of our farm’s harvest.” As the unrest continued, her 1,300 acres became a camp for up to 90,000 displaced people. With help and recognition from the United States and other countries, her clinic grew into a hospital; the children are now being educated, and there is hope, but the dangers persist.

In 2010, insurgents kidnapped Dr. Abdi, invading and destroying much of the hospital and her personal possessions. “These young men are our own sons as well—an entire generation that has grown up without law and order,” she writes. Public outcry helped secure her release, but she worries for the future when so many are born into a world of hate, growing up knowing only division, violence and poverty. “A Somali proverb,” she writes, “says that you don’t deliver a child, you deliver a society.”

A Nobel Peace Prize nominee, Dr. Hawa Abdi has sent an urgent message to the world in Keeping Hope Alive. Read it; heed it; pass it on.

Glamour has called them “the Saints of Somalia, equal parts Mother Teresa and Rambo.” It’s a fitting description of Dr. Hawa Abdi and her two doctor daughters. Their must-be-heard story, told by Dr. Abdi with Sarah J. Robbins in Keeping Hope Alive, is one ofincredible humanitarian effort coupled with fierce courage, even as they face […]
Social Science

What giving gets you

Review by Heather Seggel

In life as in business, the evidence of success lies in what you get in exchange for your effort. Doesn’t it? Not so fast. Give and Take posits that there are three types of people in the workplace: Takers, who want to get as much value as possible; Matchers, who prioritize a fair and equal exchange; and Givers, who will help or contribute without expectations. Who do you think does best overall? Who does worst?

If you guessed “Givers” in answer to both questions, congratulations! Author and Wharton professor Adam Grant’s research reveals that those who give to excess do sometimes offer a leg up to colleagues who then walk all over them. But those who give in an “otherish” fashion, helping others but also the organization and themselves, do exceedingly well personally and financially, and are therefore in a position to give more overall.

To support his conclusions, Grant studies basketball draft decisions that looked terrible at the time but led to better things; the career arc of George Meyer, who made “The Simpsons” one of the funniest shows in television history while staying well behind the scenes; and the rise and fall of Kenneth Lay, who seemed like a Giver at first glance, but whose self-centered giving patterns were predictive of the Enron collapse.

Grant goes deep with his subject matter but keeps it entertaining for the reader; there’s a section at the end titled “Actions for Impact” which makes it clear this isn’t simply a look at an interesting idea but a manual for change. Give and Take is a must-read for HR professionals, who can surely use it to promote a more interdependent workplace, but the lessons here transfer out of the office and into the world. Read it and start your own Reciprocity Ring, chart your giving for a set period of time to see where it leads, or become a Love Machine at work and in life (don’t worry, it’s legal). We could all use more of those nowadays.

In life as in business, the evidence of success lies in what you get in exchange for your effort. Doesn’t it? Not so fast. Give and Take posits that there are three types of people in the workplace: Takers, who want to get as much value as possible; Matchers, who prioritize a fair and equal […]

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