A fantastic collection of portraits of the most famous "masters of the catwalk," in a fascinating journey among the mythical figures of haute couture and prêt-à-porter, from their origins to the present day. Masters of Fashion covers everything from the timeless class of Coco Chanel to the aristocratic but innovative spirit of Elsa Schiaparelli, who is credited with the invention of the fashion show as we know it today, up to the glamour of Tom Ford and the visionary and alternative creativity of Alexander McQueen. The book reviews all the major designers of the last century. It includes illuminating contributions of an expert in the field, with pictures, accounts, and entertaining anecdotes that go behind the scenes of some of the most famous catwalks. It magically recalls the lives, personalities, and immortal creations of the best-known names from the world of fashion, characters who through their inspiration, imagination, energy, and innate sense of elegance have left an indelible mark.
Demigods, gods and goddesses, angels, shapeshifters, witches, fae and more powerful beings collide in small-town New Mexico in this full series collection of paranormal and fantasy romances by Holley Trent. Maria’s magic users and immortals get more than they bargain for as they guard the town’s paranormal secrets, battle their personal demons, and—finally—accept the mates Fate has long had in store for them. Presented in chronological order are: The Demigod’s Legacy The Angel’s Hunger The Wolf’s Joy The Coyote’s Chance The Coyote’s Cowboy The Coyote’s Bride The Coyote’s Comfort The Angel’s Fire The Angel’s Desire Each story in the series follows the romance of a different Maria couple, but all the stories are connected. Masters of Maria takes place following the end of the Desert Guards series—also set in Maria.
When graduate student Bella James agrees to house sit for her wealthy neighbor, Kane Calhoun, he makes it clear that he expects her to respect his privacy. After curiosity gets the better of her, however, she manages to spill the darkly handsome millionaire’s twelve-thousand-dollar bottle of scotch all over his desk while snooping around his office. Even worse, he returns home just in time to catch her watching videos on his computer… videos of him spanking a woman. Kane is a man who knows how to get what he wants, and upon finding his beautiful neighbor in his office against his explicit instructions, what he wants is to bare her bottom and spank her soundly. When Bella offers to accept his stern discipline in lieu of reimbursing him for the damage she has caused, he makes her a deal. She will submit to a series of painful, embarrassing punishments, and that will be the end of the matter. Though Bella quickly discovers that Kane’s plans for her include quite a bit more than just his firm hand applied to her bare bottom, she cannot deny that the intense, humiliating chastisements leave her more aroused than she has ever been before. She soon finds herself aching for Kane to claim her as hard and thoroughly as he has punished her, but can she really dare to hope that the dominant millionaire will put aside his own demons and truly make himself her master? Publisher’s Note: Her Millionaire Master is an erotic romance novel that contains spankings, sexual scenes, elements of BDSM, and more. If such material offends you, please don’t buy this book.
A New York Times bestseller • A New York Times Notable Book “The tale of how Konnikova followed a story about poker players and wound up becoming a story herself will have you riveted, first as you learn about her big winnings, and then as she conveys the lessons she learned both about human nature and herself.” —The Washington Post It's true that Maria Konnikova had never actually played poker before and didn't even know the rules when she approached Erik Seidel, Poker Hall of Fame inductee and winner of tens of millions of dollars in earnings, and convinced him to be her mentor. But she knew her man: a famously thoughtful and broad-minded player, he was intrigued by her pitch that she wasn't interested in making money so much as learning about life. She had faced a stretch of personal bad luck, and her reflections on the role of chance had led her to a giant of game theory, who pointed her to poker as the ultimate master class in learning to distinguish between what can be controlled and what can't. And she certainly brought something to the table, including a Ph.D. in psychology and an acclaimed and growing body of work on human behavior and how to hack it. So Seidel was in, and soon she was down the rabbit hole with him, into the wild, fiercely competitive, overwhelmingly masculine world of high-stakes Texas Hold'em, their initial end point the following year's World Series of Poker. But then something extraordinary happened. Under Seidel's guidance, Konnikova did have many epiphanies about life that derived from her new pursuit, including how to better read, not just her opponents but far more importantly herself; how to identify what tilted her into an emotional state that got in the way of good decisions; and how to get to a place where she could accept luck for what it was, and what it wasn't. But she also began to win. And win. In a little over a year, she began making earnest money from tournaments, ultimately totaling hundreds of thousands of dollars. She won a major title, got a sponsor, and got used to being on television, and to headlines like "How one writer's book deal turned her into a professional poker player." She even learned to like Las Vegas. But in the end, Maria Konnikova is a writer and student of human behavior, and ultimately the point was to render her incredible journey into a container for its invaluable lessons. The biggest bluff of all, she learned, is that skill is enough. Bad cards will come our way, but keeping our focus on how we play them and not on the outcome will keep us moving through many a dark patch, until the luck once again breaks our way.
Wassily Kandinsky (1866-1944) was a Russian painter credited as being among the first to truly venture into abstract art. He persisted in expressing his internal world of abstraction despite negative criticism from his peers. He veered away from painting that could be viewed as representational in order to express his emotions, leading to his unique use of colour and form. Although his works received heavy censure at the time, in later years they would become greatly influential.
This insightful volumes the use of imitation and the modern cult of originality through a consideration of the disparate fates of two Venetian painters - the canonised master Titian and his artistic heir, the little-known Padovanino.
