Beauty History

NEW YORK TIMES NOTABLE BOOK OF 2025 A TIME MUST-READ BOOK OF 2025 ELLE BEST BOOKS OF 2025 'Essential reading' Irish Independent 'Fascinating and powerfully argued' Daily Telegraph 'A captivating must-read for anyone who wants to understand how and why misogyny is as powerful a force as ever'...

“A culturally layered and gripping collection of stories that are also a testament to their resilience.”—Vanessa Walters, the author of The Lagos Wife ?In this stunning collection, nine Nigerian women discover what it means to confront traditional expectations that have held them hostage...

The adventures of adolescence had taught Piet Barol that he was extremely attractive to most women and to many men. He was old enough to be pragmatic about this advantage...' It is 1907. The belle époque is in full swing. Piet Barol has escaped the drabness of the provinces for the grandest...

One of the nation’s chief architecture critics reveals how the environments we build profoundly shape our feelings, memories, and well-being, and argues that we must harness this knowledge to construct a world better suited to human experience. Taking us on a fascinating journey through some...

Brought to you by Penguin. A dazzling exploration of the intersections of beauty and power around the globe, told through the lens of an iconic cosmetic From the distant past to the present day, humans have been drawn to lining their eyes. The aesthetic trademark of figures ranging from...

Grammy Award-winning hip-hop artist, producer, and actor T.I. proved himself a powerful storyteller as well with the publication of his debut novel Power & Beauty. Now he follows up with his second riveting street-lit epic, Trouble & Triumph. T.I.’s explosive sequel picks up the story of Paul...

Beauty, make-up, art, power: How to Be a Renaissance Woman presents an alternative history of this period as told by the women behind the paintings, providing a window into their often overlooked or silenced lives. Can the pressures women feel to look good be traced back to the sixteenth century?...

Desde o garbo e a elegância nos primeiros anos da República até a atual banalização das cirurgias plásticas, História da beleza no Brasil trata das transformações ligadas aos padrões estéticos e aos cuidados com o corpo, mas também do martírio causado pela feiura e da tumultuada luta para driblar o envelhecimento, a solidão e o fracasso.

A SPOTIFY BEST NON-FICTION BOOK OF THE YEAR 2026 Bloomsbury presents Beauty of the Beasts by Jo Wimpenny, read by Bettrys Jones In an age of catastrophic biodiversity loss, the author of Aesop’s Animals explains why we should champion and protect nature’s underdogs. Wasps. Snakes...

Acclaimed novelist of the Italian Renaissance Sarah Dunant now takes on the era's most infamous family: the Borgias. By the end of the fifteenth century, the beauty and creativity of Italy is matched by its brutality and corruption, nowhere more than in Rome and in the Church. When Cardinal...

When A Beauty That Hurts first appeared in 1995, Guatemala was one of the world’s most flagrant violators of human rights. An accord brokered by the United Nations brought a measure of peace after three decades of civil war, but the country’s troubles are far from over. W. George Lovell revisits Guatemala to grapple once again with the terror inflicted on its Maya peoples by a military-dominated state.

“Gripping courtroom drama and social commentary . . . the story flows well . . . [the author is] masterful in building suspense.”—Kirkus Reviews Set in 1920s New York, an addictively readable, thoroughly entertaining historical novel involving sex and secrets, race and redemption, and...

In this course, Father Kirby takes a look at the history and artwork of St. Peter's Square and Basilica through the light of faith. This comprehensive tour explains why St. Peter's Basilica was significant to the early Christians, and why it is still significant today. Just as the ancient pilgrims exclaimed, “Ecco Roma” (Latin for “Behold Rome”), so too does this course begin with wonder at beholding the Eternal City. Aside from visiting Italy in person, this tour will take you as close as possible to experiencing the splendor of Rome, Vatican City, and St. Peter’s Square.

The vivid and masterful story of Isabella Stewart Gardner—creator of one of America’s most stunning museums—an American original whose own life was remade by art. Isabella Stewart Gardner’s museum, with its plain exterior enfolding an astonishing four-story Italian palazzo, rose from...

A gritty and gorgeous debut that follows a cast of gay and transgender club kids navigating the Harlem ball scene of the 1980s and ’90s, inspired by the real House of Xtravaganza made famous by the seminal documentary Paris Is Burning It’s 1980 in New York City, and nowhere is the city’s...

Even as actresses become increasingly marginalized by Hollywood, French cinema is witnessing an explosion of female talent - a Golden Age unlike anything the world has seen since the days of Stanwyck, Hepburn, Davis, and Garbo. In France, the joy of acting is alive and well. Scores of French actresses are doing the best work of their lives in movies tailored to their star images and unique personalities. Yet virtually no one this side of the Atlantic even knows about them. Viewers who feel shortchanged by Hollywood will be thrilled to discover The Beauty of the Real.

Stephen Killigan has been cold since the day he arrived in Cambridge. Seven hundred years of history staining the stones of the university have given him a chill he can't shake. Then he stumbles across the body of a missing beauty queen - a body which disappears before the police arrive...

From the nation’s favourite storyteller comes a powerful, moving and heartwarming retelling of the beloved, unforgettable story of Black Beauty. A story championing kindness, compassion and humanity, and a rallying cry for the rights of animals, readers have fallen in love with the story of a...

Shusaku Endo's novel Silence took visual artist Makoto Fujimura on a pilgrimage of grappling with the nature of art, the significance of pain, and his own cultural heritage. His artistic faith journey overlaps with Endo's as he uncovers deep layers of meaning in Japanese history and literature, expressed in art both past and present. He finds connections to how faith is lived amid trauma and glimpses of how the Gospel is conveyed in Christ-hidden cultures.

Brought to you by Penguin. What would women do with their lives if they had more time? The riveting, untold story of a revolutionary campaign to change the way work is valued 'The women of the world are serving notice. We want wages for every dirty toilet, every indecent assault, every painful...