Product Description

In this glittering beauty and lifestyle guide packed with pearls of wisdom, Laren Stover has compiled everything a woman needs to know to live the Bombshell life: from how to dress and make an entrance to what to eat and where to shop. It tells readers what makes a Bombshell tick; road-tested outfits for 25 occasions; must-have Bombshell sleepwear, handbags, and fragrances; whats in the Bombshell library; and what she looks for in a man. With scads of little-known facts about real-life bombshells like Liz, Mae, and Lana this fun and ever-so-practical little book is certain to bring out the inner Bombshell in every woman.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #58848 in Books
• Published on: 2001-05-16
• Released on: 2001-05-16
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 190 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9780786866946
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
• Click here to view our Condition Guide and Shipping Prices

Review
"By Laren Stover, it offers advice to all women, brunettes and redheads included, on how to detonate the inner bombshell." -- New York Times

"Stover, Forrest and their colleagues are . . . shrewd and insightfully observant field anthropologists . . ." -- Tom Robbins

"With prose and perception of rare and natural grace . . . deserves a place beside Neumann's The Great Mother . . ." -- Nick Tosches

About the Author
Laren Stover is currently editor-at-large of Contents and was associate creative director of advertising at Bergdorf Goodman. She has been a resident at Yaddo and Hawthornden Castle and received the Ludwig Vogelstein Foundation grant for fiction in 1991. She lives in New York City. Ruben Toledo has created witty, incisive illustrations for L'Umo Vogue, Harper's Bazaar, Details, Paper, the New York Times, Visionaire, Louis Vuitton, and Tiffany. He lives in New York City.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
What Makes a Bombshell Tick

A Bombshell is full of contradictions. She is a combustible blend of confidence and vulnerability. Sauce and naivete. She wears high heels but kicks them off at every opportunity. Adores negligees and charmeuse gowns but can't wait to get out of them. She always expects to run into someone who matters, even if she's home alone. A Bombshell never dresses carelessly and wears marabou mules around the house. She behaves as if all life's a movie in which she is the star.

A Bombshell Radiates Confidence

When she enters a room, everyone looks. When she exits a room, everyone looks. Not because she is more beautiful than other women, or because her clothing is ooh-la-la, a Bombshell's magnetism flows from the inside out.

A Bombshell doesn't edit her feelings or her body language. She is, in fact, extravagant with her body language. She touches people. Spontaneously. She expresses her feelings as openly as she displays her curves. Her body may be human and imperfect, not at all mannequin-like, yet she puts herself on a pedestal as easily as she lounges on a couch. "She wasn't classically beautiful by any means," writes W.J. Weatherby in his book, Conversations with Marilyn, "but she had a strong, attractive body and chameleon moods that could make her body convey anything she wished."

A Bombshell Believes in Her Fantasies

Even if her bracelet is dime-store cheap, she wears it as though it were Cartier. She doesn't need real diamonds to feel like a million dollars. She expects people to send flowers and stop by with champagne. And somehow, they do. Watching her emote over a bouquet is a performance that her suitors and fans want to see again and again.

A Bombshell Is Authentic

Some women cultivate a blase attitude. They act bored. They think this makes them sophisticated. The Bombshell is never bored and, therefore, never boring. She never pretends to be anyone other than herself. She is not censored, careful or contrived. She does not read the rules or follow the rules, or color her hair to conform to the latest trend. The Bombshell cannot pretend excitement not deeply felt, nor gush over movies and books and art she finds disagreeable.

A Bombshell Is Vulnerable

While some women contrive to cover their hearts, the Bombshell reveals her feelings without calculating the consequences, regardless of the risk. She is so in tune with her emotions that she allows them to surface in a heartbeat. However, she is so endearing that most people are more inclined to come to her rescue than to do her harm.

A Bombshell Is Resilient

Bombshells prove you don't need to have an enchanted childhood or privilege to triumph. Failure- a film that bombs, a job that doesn't pan out, a marriage on the rocks, an unpublishable manuscript- is only a mild setback, and will at least garner some sort of publicity. No matter what's going on in her life, the Bombshell finds everyday occurrences thrilling.

A Bombshell Puts Glamour Before Comfort

A Bombshell is willing to overcome a little discomfort for a nude leg. She doesn't complain that her feet hurt in 4-inch heels. She endures the constraints of boned underpinnings, and even celebrates them. She dresses up for evenings at home with friends, even if it's just to watch the Academy Awards.

A Bombshell Is Compassionate

She always follows her heart. She wants to rescue animals. All animals. Lions, monkeys, kittens, beagles. She is too loving and innocent to be malicious. While she might have a temper- one of her charms- she never plots. She is a good listener. She cries if you cry, then she'll try to cheer you up.

A Bombshell Is Intelligent

She's smart enough to know that it doesn't matter if other people think she's too sensual or pretty to be brainy. She's never obnoxious or loud when she's right. She doesn't correct people. A Bombshell brushes up on topics that will enhance her social life. She does this not only because she has a genuine interest in everything, but because she wants others to feel comfortable.

Customer Reviews

The Genuine Article
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.)

This is not a "How to Be a Bombshell" book. Understand that, and then you can enjoy this book thoroughly.
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.

Return of the bombshell!
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!