The Bombshell Manual of Style

This is a great book. It's not a good book if you're looking for a guide to dress like Lindsey Lohan or how to put together a work appropriate wardrobe. It's a fun and funny book about the concept of the bombshell. The concept that started with Marilyn, Sophia and Kim, and continues today in some of the sexier and smarter women out there. Being an old movie buff certainly helps in the appreciation of this guide. If you can't stand black and white movies, and think that Marilyn was fat and over-rated, do not bother.

For some reason, the people who buy this book expect to see a step-by-step guide on how to become Marilyn, Elizabeth, and Sofia. However, there is no such thing as step-by-step guide on becoming a bombshell. The bombshell tendency is often born into a girl (or boy) but is carefully cultivated into the full-blown bombshell that we know and adore. While I admit some of the things are dated, why can't we incorporate a little bit of the forties and fifties into our lives? Champagne baths are a tad much for those of us with budgets, but why not have a grocery store-cheap bottle in the fridge for those toasting those special occasions like a dove landing on the windowsill? This book was an eye-opener for me, showing me that I can be my own type of Marilyn or Elizabeth in the modern world, it just requires a little bit of glam and a whole lot of confidence. While you and I never may be listed with the Bombshells of legend, we know we are Bombshells, and so does everyone else with the swish of our hair, the champagne in our refrigerator and our genuine effervescene for the movie of life in which we are the star. Don't purchase this book if you want a step-by-step guide or tips on how to become Marilyn Monroe. This book is not that. It's more of a catalogue of famous Bombshell tendencies (which bras, makeup, shoes, music, etc.) that you either find just like yours, somewhat like yours, or nothing at all like yours, and you could use these tendencies to cultivate your bombshell status. But no step-by-step. Sorry.

I have had this haunting feeling lately that most women today are lacking something, or trying too hard. We don't seem to express our vulnerability or our sensuality- we just show a lot of skin-- low-cut tops, lowrise jeans. What is real sex appeal? For that matter, what is real va-va voom? Finally, an adorable, tongue-in-cheek book about the classic goddesses who overcame bad childhoods and multiple marriages. They believed in dreams, they made us believe in dreams. The authors say you don't even need to be busty, or blonde, it's state of mind, a consciousness. This book is glamourous, sweet, empowering and made me laugh, too. (I ran out to Saks Fifth Avenue and bought Jicky perfume, very old school sexy.) There's even a quiz and a cute website which I found on the web when I looked up the book title. I only wish there had been a little more on exercise, but I guess the book was too honest for that....bombshell weights do go up and down but a bombshell is a bombshell because she believes I herself more than her scale. (I am buying this book for my depressed friends, it's better than Prozac.)

In a time when fashionistas prescribe either cookie-cutter, sexless Anne Taylor fashion or outfits that scream "$50 an hour, me love you long time!", the return of the bombshell is long overdue! Sexy but never trampy, playful but never moronic, intelligent but not at the cost of sensuality, the bombshell is an archetype that European feminists never crucified - although it suffered more stateside. I hope this book heralds a new interest in the joyful balancing act of the bombshell. This IS a how-to book, despite what some reviewers have said. It is, however, more of a description of a paradigm than a cookie-cutter prescription - with some concrete advice on shoes, scent, clothing, attitude, lifestyle, etc. Sometimes tongue-in-cheek, high-spirited, sensual, unapologetically feminine, delighted - with a little spritz of irony- this book is a fun, fun, fun read. I loved it - treated myself to a bottle of Coco by Chanel to celebrate, and the next day I wore a just-knee length b & w polka-dotted skirt with a fitted black top and new red open-toed 1940s heels that I hadn't previously been brave enough to wear to the office. Celebrating a kinship with the Bombshell makes me feel fabulous! You might even say... liberated! Liberated to be playful, sexy, whimsical, feminine, capricious, sentimental, *and* intellectual. The Bombshell is the well-balanced, thinking woman's Cosmo Girl. The only things I wasn't too keen on were the critiques of certain artists and authors as not-for-bombshells. As far as I'm concerned, the bombshell can read as much as she wants, and whatever she wants - and the same goes for art appreciation. A Bombshell with a Ph.D. might find it a bit naff to have sex appeal linked to reading material - but then again, maybe wrapping a copy of Being and Time in a Men Are From Mars dust jacket would appeal to her whimsical sense of irony. Never mind me, though - just go get the book and see what you think!

It's about time some practical advice was given with an air of humor, light-heartedness and sexiness. An adorable how-to manual that doesn't take itself too seriously. But watch out-if you follow this advice expect heads to turn. The information packed into this little pearl is dead on. The authors have obviously watched all the classic films and have distilled the best tips into a concise guide no aspiring bombshell should be without. I recommend this to everyone. (It will make men smile, too.) It's positive, fun and beautifully illustrated.