I have owned two (2) copies of this fabulous book since the early 80's and have lived the capsule life. I can only tell you that it works. You pick your "core" color and build on it. Over the years I have had many capsules - but always using my core color which is "winter white." I put my core outfits on index cards and just pull a card daily - and there is my outfit from jacket, skirt, shirt, etc., complete with accessories. I hardly ever wear the same outfit once in two or three months and people assume I have a huge wardrobe! It's great and it works for me! I highly recommend this book to all working women!

I have always been fascinated by whatever's written about her ever since I received a Chanel purse for an 18th birthday present. There have been a number of books written about Chanel, I'm sure but Janet Wallach's will not disappoint any reader. It is simple and elegantly written with beautiful black and white illustrations. Even if one is not a fan of Chanel's style, you will be intrigued by her notorious life as told here. Either for yourself or a friend, a nice book to keep and look through now and again.

This book is very good. The text isn't hard to read, and in this book are allot of pictures, only in black and white. There should have been also a few colour pictures. This book is only looking at the period that Coco Chanel designed the collections and not the Karl Lagerfeld era.

I haven't read the book but I really need a picture of Coco Chanel. Is there any about? I need it for my A Level French Course work!!!! Any Help Thanks xxxxxx

I recommend this book to anyone seeking to gain a deeper understanding of Yasser Arafat's life and role in both the Palestinian-Israeli conflict and the internal politics of the Arab world. Based on an series of interviews conducted by the authors as well as primary documents (many of which are provided in translation at the end of the book, a useful bonus), this book chronicles the life of Arafat from his early days in Cairo and Jerusalem up to about 1990, and throws in a basic history of the Arab-Israeli conflict to boot. This book is at its best and most readable when it relays the personal reminscences of Arafat, his aides, and his rivals in the Arab world, who provide a perspective upon the major events of the Arab-Israeli conflict that you cannot find elsewhere. Also to its credit, as other reviewers have mentioned, this book provides a great amount of information on the various Palestinian factions comprising and outside of the PLO, and the characters behind each one of them (although it manages to largely ignore certain major players, such as Abu Nidal).

This book does, however, have several major flaws which relegate to secondary status in a library of books on the Middle East. Firstly, the book is a bit too biased towards Arafat, much like Patrick Seale's "Assad", which fawns upon the late Syrian dictator. One can excuse the affection they display for Arafat, however, as it was probably necessary in order to gain such impressive access to the Chairman and his inner circle. Still, one would have liked to see the comments of Arafat and his associates treated with greater critical analysis and balance. Furthermore, the authors' prose and organization leaves much to be desired. They lack the compelling narrative voice of a Thomas Friedman, Edward Said, or Bernard Lewis, resulting in a text that often comes across as very dry and stilted, particularly in historical background passages. They organize the book episodically rather than chronologically, which could result in great confusion regarding the timeline of events for someone not already very familiar with modern Middle Eastern history. Finally, this book tries to do far too much in a single volume. It begins as a very personal account of Arafat's life, yet at times abandons the story of Arafat entirely and becomes a generic history of the Arab-Israeli conflict. It is as though the authors wrote several separate books, took a few chapters from each, and threws the pages together. The result is a disjointed, often haphazard history of the Arab-Israeli conflict with slightly more emphasis on Yasser Arafat than is usual in such works.

In sum, this book has merit and provides certain insights and primary information not to be found elsewhere. It is not suitable as an introduction to the Arab-Israeli conflict, but should be read only after one has already acquired a basic familiarity with the subject matter. It is otherwise a useful addition to the library of the serious student of Middle Eastern history.

Although a bit dated, the book gives a good synopsis about Arafat's life as well as the history of the PLO. Learned quite about Araft. The list of people they interviewed is quite impressive; those people they did interview make the book what it is. Very easy to read and engrossing as well.

This book was a great book. Not only does it serve as a biography of Arafat, it also serves great as a general history of Fatah, the PLO, and the struggle for Palestinian liberation. So what if it calls legitimate attacks against Israel terrorist attacks? It is a small matter in this case since everything else is pretty unbiased. Even as someone who has a pretty good knowledge of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, one thing I appreciate is having it spelled out to me that the PLO is an UMBRELLA organization that comprises Fatah, PFLP, DFLP, Saiqa etc... And that Arafat the leader of the Fatah faction and for a time not the leader of PLO soon became that leader in 69. Hence we now have his association with PLO/Fatah faction. For the longest time my mind was just a muddle until I was able to order these various liberation organization in time and space. I also have alot more respect for Arafat as a person devoted to the Palestinian cause. I have been a bit more on the extreme side previously and currently, however, I can see the definite advantages of a political solution. I liked this book and found it highly informative. I learned alot. If you want to learn about Fatah, the PLO, and Yasir Arafat, definately get this book.

My only problem with the book is the last chaper from "Oslo to Hebron". It should have been broken up into several better written pieces. However, I appreciate the addition of this chapter in the 97 print. The story is still unfolding.

Gertrude Bell was a fascinating woman, doing things that women just didn't do in the early part of this century: meeting Arabian royalty (and bandits and terrorists as well), going places uncharted by European men or women, and becoming something of a heroine to many Arabs of high and low rank. But this book, though it starts off well, becomes rough going fairly quickly. It feels as if Wallach quotes extensively from Bell's letters simply because she had access to them, not because they were always interesting or enlightening (though some were). There is lots of repetition (we must hear about once every two or three pages that she drank "bitter coffee"; the phrase "Young Turks" is defined three times, each time slightly differently, inside of about one hundred pages) and inexact detailing (three fairly detailed maps of the Middle East still leave out a number of sites important to the events of the book). By the end, when Bell was doing her most important political work in the construction of modern-day Iraq, I was skimming over the thick accrual of tedious detail that doesn't really bring Bell to life in the way she deserves.

While the author's writing style could use some work, Gertrude Bell's life is fascinating. The idea of a British woman in that time period (or even today) leading caravans into the Arabian desert, having the respect of Bedouin tribal leaders, etc. is incredible. The book also provides an interesting look at the way the Middle East was politically shaped early on. On a side note: if you are a reader of Elizabeth Peter's Amelia Peabody mysteries, you will see some parallels--the female British fortitude, the same hotel in Egypt mentioned, the comedic tangled-in-the-bed-net description. One wonders if Peters took some of her inspiration from Bell's writing.

I am fascinated by the lives of extraordinary women who lived in the last century. Women who ignored the conventions of the times and followed their own adgenda. Gertrude Bell was such a woman. She did not conform to the times nor the society into which she was born. Instead she broke the mold and used her brilliant mind to educated herself, master numerous languages, travel and explore extensively throughout the mid east. She thought and acted like a man, prefering the company of men, shunning the company of uneducated women and engrossing herself in the international politics of the times. Her many connections and independent wealth opened doors so that eventually she became a member of the British govenment and also confidant of many Arab leaders. I am glad the author took the pains to write in great detail of her life. The reader learns much of the history of the mideast putting in perspective the chaos of today.

The book begins with a powerful scene: a Catholic priest summoned during the middle of the night to administer confession/last rites to the mother of the reigning sultan. Immediately, I was intrigued by this woman, how she came into such a situation. As the book wore on, however, I gained no real insight into her soul. I learned details about her past; I learned about the social and political boundaries of the harem, but I never cared about her or any of the main characters. The book never drew me into its world, which left "Seraglio" feeling too much like a simple romance novel.

The year is 1788 and young Aimee du Buc is on her way to Martinique when her ship is captured by pirates. The pirates realize they have a prize with this beautiful and elegant girl and they present her as a gift to the Ottoman Sultan.

For the rest of her life, Aimee will live as a prisoner in the Sultan's harem, or seraglio. But the book is the story of how she triumphs in that mysterious world and eventually, comes to rule it.

The story is based on the life of a real young woman who was a cousin of the French Empress Josephine and the best part of this novel is Janet Wallach's recreation of the historical world in which novel takes place. The details about the life of the seraglio are fascinating and Wallach includes every detail you would want to know - from her descriptions of the vast wealth of the palace to the way in which the women of the seraglio were taught to make love to the sultan and how to bring him pleasure.

One of the most fascinating parts of Seraglio is the information it contains about the Muslim religion. Many of the conflicts that took place in the Ottoman Empire foreshadow the East-West conflict going on today, so the reader will get some important historical perspective from reading this book.

I very much enjoyed this book and unlike previous reviewers I did care about the characters. The story centers around a very young french girl who is kidnapped by pirates and given to the Sultan on the Ottoman empire. Aimee is renamed Nakshidil, forced to become a muslim and to have sex with an aged and decrepit sultan. Aimee is befriended by a palace eunuch named Tulip and as we learn about Aimee's future in the Seraglio (harem) we learn about Tulip's past. This is an engrossing tale of two misfits whose friendship sustains and nutures them through the good times and bad.