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Living a Beautiful Life: 500 Ways to Add Elegance, Order, Beauty and Joy to Every Day of Your Life

di Alexandra Stoddard

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Offers more than 500 techniques for transforming the way we spend 95% of our lives: eating, sleeping, working, doing everyday tasks. 46 black and white photos.
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In this highly self-centered book, Alexandra Stoddard gives all kinds of advice about how to live an enjoyable life. It's too bad that most of it runs along the lines of, "Have a friend bring you some piñon incense from Santa Fe to burn in your fireplace. Once you do, you'll be hooked" (p. 13). The privilege and smug self-satisfaction are palpable...as is the author's perfect and complete unawareness of them.

I'm sorry for you if you are Stoddard's personal friend because she will be happy to use your imperfections to set off her own impeccable taste and style. In one passage she tells of her benighted friend who was so unorganized that she had three address books. Stoddard rushes to the rescue, with her recommendation for the very best filing system. Her friend responds with fawning appreciation; her life is now livable thanks to Stoddard's favorite planner pages.

There are many instances like this where Stoddard draws attention to her own style by using her so-called friends as a foil, but another deserves to be quoted in full:

"I will never forget going to a friend's house for dinner many years ago. We were served creamed chicken, mashed potatoes, and canned creamed corn. This colorless menu was unrelieved by being served on a beige plate! A sprig of parsley, even some cranberry jelly, would have whet my appetite. It takes a great deal to make me lose it, but that night even my imagination failed me. Dinner was so dull. I couldn't taste anything at all" (p. 70).

Oh, the horror! A friend invites you over, prepares dinner for you, but fails to make it colorful! Can anyone imagine a worse fate? Of course it takes a "great deal" to upset Stoddard's inner peace, but this colorless meal was most certainly beyond the pale of what any mortal should be forced to endure.

I recently reread The Pilgrim's Regress by C. S. Lewis and Stoddard is undoubtedly of the school of Mr. Sensible, whose advice on the art of happiness consists of "be in good health and have enough money to live comfortably" (my paraphrase). There are no words of advice for anyone who is not so happily circumstanced; Mr. Sensible, and Alexandra Stoddard, have nothing but a blank stare for anyone who does not share their affluence.

This is the worst book I have read this year and I can't believe no one at the publisher tried to tone back its unrelenting narcissism. Awful. ( )
  atimco | Nov 8, 2023 |
This was a nostalgic read for my boyfriend, he had fond memories of reading it with his mother - and there is still a lot of value in that. Unfortunately Stoddard is astonishingly out of touch and her basic message of living well through appreciation of the little things is drowned out by her excess of privilege.

Make everything a ritual she declares, set your lunch table with those lovely bowls you picked up on your last vacation in Provence. If you're having trouble organizing she recommends a lovely shop on 5th Avenue that sells file boxes covered in artisan paper. Keep an exquisitely bound journal for every thought. Indulge yourself, while in school she skipped meals so she could have a freshly cut hyacinth in a crystal bud vase on her writing table every day. She is a master of the 80s humble-brag when talking around her vast array of clients, her husband, the lawyer, and her two gifted children. Her husband Bruce, the lawyer, often comments on her many thought journals and lacquered greeting cards organized in paper covered boxes stacked amongst the ruffled skirts of her damask covered bedroom suite.

Our nightly ritual of reading her words out in lofty tones to one another between bites of stone-ground wheat crackers and aged cheese, I know of the perfect little place in Grafton, Vermont to obtain some, was just too elegant to bear.

Her message is not unique and you can find it in much better places than here. ( )
1 vota ManWithAnAgenda | Feb 18, 2019 |
This book is loaded with small ways to add beauty to one's life by creating spots of beauty in your personal space. This is not meant to be a profound, soul-enriching work, but it helps lay the groundwork for taking such good care of yourself that you have more to give. Anyone can implement Stoddard's suggestions, which range from simple (why didn't I think of that?) to genius (I would never have thought of that!). I've found this book to be so helpful that I've given it as a gift to family and friends. I bet you will feel the same way. Snatch up copies whenever you see one, and you will think of someone to give it to. I highly recommend this book. ( )
  chibitika | Aug 27, 2016 |
living with charm - so many good examples
  gardener2510 | Feb 3, 2009 |
Life is beautiful ( )
  juvy.vergara | Oct 4, 2007 |
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Offers more than 500 techniques for transforming the way we spend 95% of our lives: eating, sleeping, working, doing everyday tasks. 46 black and white photos.

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