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Sotheby’s and eBay unite

I recently finished The Supermodel and the Brillo Box by Don Thompson a book about the economics of the contemporary art world (it was fine, he’s no Michael Lewis but if you’re interested in the subject you’ll enjoy it). The last few chapters are dedicated to art sales in an increasingly digital driven world and the struggles the industry has faced with this medium.

This recent New York themed Sotheby's auction caught my eye because of the addition of eBay alongside the high end auction powerhouse to help facilitate online bids. It's a good move by Sotheby's to use a platform consumers are already familiar with; the whole art auction process suddenly seems much less intimidating.

The potential increase in audience reach is obviously worth the gamble of any decrease in brand perception from the association with the lower end eBay. Since auction houses are A) essentially a duopoly (Sotheby's and Christie's easily dominate the industry) and B) selling pieces that often can't be found anywhere else, my guess is they simply don't care. A wider audience (and more bidders) means everyone wins.  

Late night eBay browsing just got a whole lot more dangerous.

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The girl with the dragon tattoo is back—under slightly different circumstances. The fourth book in the best-selling Millennium series by Stieg Larsson will be published in the U.S. on September 1, under the title “The Girl in the Spider’s Web,” Alfred A. Knopf and other publishers of the series announced today.The book was written by Swedish writer David Lagercrantz, a former crime journalist and novelist best-known for co-authoring the 2014 memoir of Swedish soccer player Zlatan Ibrahimovic. “The Girl in the Spider’s Web” will be the first novel in the series not written by Mr. Larsson, who died of a heart attack in 2004 at age 50.Mr. Lagercrantz was selected by the Larsson estate and the author’s Swedish publisher, Norstedts, to continue the series, said Sonny Mehta, Editor-in-Chief of Knopf. “I think it has all the richness of the original sequence of novels,” said Mr. Mehta in a recent phone interview. “It’s got a whole chain of American characters in it, and American settings as well.”

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Diary of a Juice Cleanse

My piece on juice cleansing is up on Melbourne Girl.

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Product of the year? Biologique Recherche Lotion P50

There’s only so many raves I can read about something before I must get my hands on it to try for myself. Biologique Recherche Lotion P50 was one such product: it kept popping up in articles on sites I trust (Into the Gloss among others).

I finagled myself some samples.

These came in the form of three little ampules, maybe about 5 applications each. By the time I’d opened the second one I never wanted to be without Lotion P50 ever again (EVER), it makes that much of a difference that fast. I’ve now spent the equivalent of a decent facial on a big bottle which sits reassuringly on my bathroom shelf (pictured above with some friends).

I don’t get worked up over things easily. Most products I try I like well enough, but don’t see noticeable results so would hardly run out and rave to my friends.  Lotion P50 gave me a noticeable pore tightening and glow after just a few uses. I didn’t even know that was possible! It has made a visible difference to how even my skin tone is, basically the effect wearing a tinted moisturiser would have had previously. Cue raves...

Note: There is an original “1970s” version and the new formula. The new formula is the one I use. Skin and Tonic has done an excellent job breaking down the difference.

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Book Review: The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss

I think reading a friends' book recommendation/favourite book is a really nice thing to do for someone. It shows you trust their judgement and want to know more about what makes them tick. I'm always so pleased when someone reads (and even better, loves) a book I've told them about.

So that's how I got here. I have a friend, totally cool, very fashioned up girl who you would not peg to love "nerd books" (her words) but does. She almost exclusively reads fantasies, which, as a genre, are almost exclusively over 600 pages. So when I asked her for her favourite, I knew I was going to be buckling in for a long ride. Enter Patrick Rothfuss' The Name of the Wind.

My friend told me it takes a while to get going and she wasn't wrong. The first half focuses on Kvothe's childhood in a traveling theatre group. I'm not sure why, but circuses and their ilk just really don't do it for me. It's one of my least favourite topics*. So yes, I struggled a bit to begin with. Things got more interesting once that time in his life was over. More adventure and magic, less singing.

Are you allowed to call fantasy books contrived? I felt like many parts of this book were a bit "fairytale convenient", but like I say, it's probably par for the course with this genre (if I want harsh realism I'll read Jonathan Franzen). That said, overall I enjoyed this and would like to read the second in the series at some point (I'm told this is a while away so sounds like I've got lots of time).

It's also occurred to me that this might be a fun (maybe not the right word... enlightening?) reading challenge at some point. Pick 10 friends and read their favourite books.

*Probably part of the reason I didn't love Water for Elephants and The Night Circus as much as many.

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I don't have a lot of patience for stories in which women are rescued by men.

Neil Gaiman

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Books for days. (Taken at the excellently curated The Avenue bookshop in Elsternwick, Melbourne)

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Book review: Annihilation by Jeff Vandermeer

Vaguely post-apocolyptic events, sci-fi lite and adventure all tick boxes for me, so there wasn’t much about Jeff Vandermeer's Annihilation I didn’t expect to like. Plus, it’s the first of a trilogy – I love trilogies!

The summary please, Goodreads:

Area X has been cut off from the rest of the continent for decades. Nature has reclaimed the last vestiges of human civilization. The first expedition returned with reports of a pristine, Edenic landscape; all the members of the second expedition committed suicide; the third expedition died in a hail of gunfire as its members turned on one another; the members of the eleventh expedition returned as shadows of their former selves, and within months of their return, all had died of aggressive cancer.

This is the twelfth expedition.

Their group is made up of four women: an anthropologist; a surveyor; a psychologist, the de facto leader; and our narrator, a biologist. Their mission is to map the terrain and collect specimens; to record all their observations, scientific and otherwise, of their surroundings and of one another; and, above all, to avoid being contaminated by Area X itself.

Sounds good right? WRONG.

This is nothing more than a poor (wo)man’s Oryx and Crake (a truly excellent book). Vandermeer’s style is stark and clinical and the whole time I was reading this I was having book déjà vu.

I figured out that Annihilation reminded me of Ann Patchett’s writing*, but Patchett does it better. Being clinical doesn’t mean characters need to be one dimensional, and I felt like all those in Annihilation were. No one was given a first name (they go by their job title), and, while the narrator is given a back story, it doesn’t make her any more likeable.

My other main gripe was the lack of explanation, or story conclusion if you will. Authors can throw in all the spooky weirdness they want, but some sort of reveal/explanation needs to be provided or the reader is left frustrated. A trilogy is not an excuse either. You need to give readers something per book or else they shouldn’t be split. No way I'm reading the second or third book after this one, so I have no idea WTF I was supposed to get from Annihilation’s bizarre lack of a conclusion.

To summarise – this would go into the list of books I’d actively advise friends against reading. The pros are that it was short and was a library book.

*Especially  State of Wonder, which also has a vaguely similar theme to Annihilation. The other book was Barbara Kingsolver's Flight Behaviour, again for the similar-ish theme but also for the hard to like protagonist.

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My latest piece for the wonderful Life Instyle blog is up now.

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Outside of a dog, a book is a man's best friend. Inside of a dog it's too dark to read.

Groucho Marx

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EXCLUSIVE: Following an Emmy-nominated run on Netflix's House Of Cards, Kate Mara has been offered a role in Ridley Scott's The Martian. The 20th Century Fox sci-fier is picking up steam: Deadline ...

OMG I'm so excited for this movie!

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Head to the library to pick up your prescription.

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DIY: Floral embellished sweatshirt

Firstly, credit where credit's due. I got the original idea for this from P.S. I Made This (which was inspired by an MGSM Sweatshirt...it's the circle of fashion life).

On their version they used beads which could be sewn on. I couldn't find any like that (except for the fimo-style ones I used) so I used the flat back ones with fabric glue*. I also didn't cut off my sleeves.

I bought my flowers from AliExpress (just search for "Flower Cabochon" and you'll get a lot of results). I had to put in a few orders to get a variety of flowers (apparently the 'ol mixed bag of flower cabochons doesn't exist). I now have a lot of spares, so I'm on the lookout for something else I can cover with flowers *cat scurries away*.

Along with your flowers and fabric glue, you'll also need a sweatshirt. Yes, I also go by the name of Captain Obvious.

To assemble, first I laid all my flowers out in an arrangement I liked. I then took a picture (highly recommend doing this), took everything off, and  reassembled with glue. Once dry I sewed on the fimo flowers. Easy! Done!

Here is a fairly terrible shot of the old girl in the real world:

Enjoy. May the sweatshirts of the world be your embellishment oyster.

*Please make sure you use actual fabric glue! If you don't, the beads will come off the first time you try and wash it. Which would be sad.

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I can't recommend enough having these two tools in your arsenal (even if you're not a regular DIY-er). Jewellery breaks, it happens. The combination of round needle nosed and cutting pliers can fix almost anything.

Plus you'll feel like a total MacGyver.

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Joshi’s (and my) Alkaline Diet - Day 13

Day 13! How am I already at day 13? Over halfway there. Almost 3/4 there.

Honestly, this has not been hard at all. Well, let me qualify that with "When I'm at home". Being out is definitely more of a challenge.

Last night I went to an event at a museum where there were drinks and food. I actually would have had some sushi if they'd had tamari sauce (tamari is still a cheat, it's got yeast in it, but I figure it's much less of a cheat than gluten-filled soy sauce). Instead I got to eat my BYO veggie sticks and carob snack*. I've become that person. My friend drank her champagne and felt sorry for me.

Tonight a friend came over for a cleanse-friendly dinner. I took two recipes out of the Honestly Healthy cookbook which met Joshi's rules: corn and fava bean patties and cashew cream coleslaw. They were delish, my friend kept asking if they were actually healthy. It's a good cookbook and I look forward to trying more from it once I can eat things like... tomatoes again.

I still haven't made any of Joshi's recipes (there is a chicken curry one I might try though). My new favourite snack is a rice cake with tahini and honey. OMG yum. It tastes like halva.

I'm feeling lighter, have more energy and am sleeping well. I'm also actually lighter, which is nice.

*Carob, by the way, is disgusting. Something is just not right there. I'll eat anything even remotely sweet/chocolate-like, and I only got about 1/3 through this piece of work. I'm going to have to blend it up with dates and other things to make some power balls (once I'm allowed to eat all that stuff again).

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Book Review: Sharp Objects by Gillian Flynn

This is the second Gillian Flynn book I've read, the first being the oh #sohotrightnow Gone Girl. The review I wrote for Gone Girl basically applies to Sharp Objects - Flynn clearly has a working formula and is sticking to it. That said, endings: not her strong suit (to my taste at least).

The story is around a Chicago reporter (Camille) who is asked to return to her small hometown to report on the murder of two underage girls. This means going back to live at home with her estranged mother, step father and step sister.

I feel like it's almost best just left at that*. Reading them now, I'm actually disappointed  how much the summaries of this book give away. So beware!

As with Gone Girl, this is a great beach read. Although some of the characters are intensely unlikeable and some of Camille's logic is questionable, overall I enjoyed it.

I'll be lining up Dark Places for a holiday sometime soon.

*I often don't read the backs of books before I read them. I'll read a review or have something recommended to me, it goes on my to-read list, and then I just read it. I feel like it's more of a surprise that way.

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"Designing the monsters world was the hard part. It’s a place based purely on imagination."

Harley Jessup, production designer of Monsters Inc.

An appropriate quote given my recent thoughts on the subject.