This compilation of snapshots, many from backstage in the fashion world, tries very hard, but misses by a mile. The pictures are OK, mostly, but no more, and the design is just too precious -- ring-bound, in a looseleaf-notebook-style cover (Oh, HOW clever!), and much of the minimal text (one full page) is set black-on-dark grey, so you can't read it. There are pithy comments from famous folks juxtaposed with some of the pix, but they don't amount to much. If you want a book like this, try Arthur Elgort's Models Manual -- it's 1000% better. I was given this book as a gift -- otherwise I would have sent it back.

What a great book! Makes the perfect gift, but be sure to buy two because you are going to want to keep it for yourself!

This thing is abyssmal, just terrible and amatuerishly written. Nuff said.

This book was a spin-off from the movie, Stealing Beauty, and like most books based on movies, the book fails to capture the mood and romance of the original. Description of the Italian countryside in this books pales in comparision to Bertoluccis' masterful use of the camera. The magnetic appeal of the film is lost in second-rate descriptive attempts and clumsy use of words. Regretfully, the author gets caught up in retelling the movie's blocking and action scene by scene and forgets to focus on the characters and the story being told.

However, if you enjoyed following Lucy's coming of age story and want to relive the moments, you could like this book.

For people who loved the film, Stealing Beauty may be worth a look. For everyone else, I'm sure you could easily find a more thoughtful, worthwhile and enjoyable book to read.

This movie is unbelievably bello, carino, it is beautiful. The story is touching, the landscape is like candy, and the ending is beautiful as well. Lucy is a girl almost a woman, who is searching for her the answer to an intriguing passage she found in her mother's diary. She is also searching for the boy, now almost a man also, who she kissed the last time she visited the breathtaking Italian villa four years past. This movie will leave you feeling like you have just witnessed a moment of beauty so strong and so intense that you will feel changed.

This book is very limited in its helpfulness. The title is very misleading, because Minot only knows what he's talking about in one of them. He should not even have attempted to touch drama. I wonder if he's ever even seen a play, as his attempts to instruct are completely off. Minot also focuses heavily on "don't do" lists rather than the instruction of helpful insight. In three words: the book blows.

I had fond memories of this book from years ago, so I used it for my creative writing class. I was surprised, upon revisiting it, to find out how little it offers in the way of actual terminology, which is pretty important information when you want to talk about parts of poems or parts of fiction. If the parts don't have names, it's hard to have specific conversations about pieces of writing. Also, I and my class were turned off by the long lists of what NOT to do. My students found this to be somewhat patronizing and definitely an introduction to writer's block as that list of negatives rang its little list of 'not' in their ears. Further, Minot places a lot of emphasis on writing about family and the relationships therein. Most writers know that relying on the familiar is not always a good idea, as it can result in the trite, the sentimental, or the overly dramatic. It takes a long time to learn how to control the elements of the familiar to make it "fiction" that can be talked about with others, so this does not seem a good approach for beginning writers. Minot does not seem to like writing as an exploration of writing. He seems to favor it more as a means of exploring personal relationships. He does present many good ideas in the book, but they are good in the way that most obvious information is good--great to have, but irritating to receive.

This book, which focuses on writing with subtlety and finesse, succeeds not only in discussing writing techniques but through careful study of poems, plays, and short stories, conveys reading techniques as well. Although the best, and really the only way to learn to write well is through practice, I highly suggest Three Genres to anyone who enjoys writing.