I am a huge Roberto Cavalli fan, I think he captures the beauty and essence of being a woman through his collections.  To celebrate his 40th Anniversary Roberto Cavalli is putting out a 200 page book with eye popping images taken by photographers  Mert Alas and Marcus Piggott, and Fabien Baron as creative director. This book essentially captures 40 years of magnificent clothing, beauty all from Cavalli’s interpretation of today’s women. Some of the models in the book happen to be some of the most gorgeous women: Jennifer Lopez, Cindy Crawford, Heidi Klum, Gisele Bündche, Karolina Kurkova to name a few.

These images are hot and sexy to say the least, take a look below.

*all images and content courtesty of this site.

I just finished reading The Zahir by Paulo Coelho  and it was such a wonderful read. I read a lot of books but not many that make me reflect on my life, and how to improve. I must first begin by saying Paulo Coelho is by far one of my favourite authors, the way he uses words to paint pictures is one of a kind. You really feel as though you are part of the story. I would love to be able to write such beautiful novels one day.

The Zahir  was written in 2005, Paulo Coelho is a Brazilian writer and first wrote this book in Portuguese. The book was then translated to 44 languages ! This book like The Alchemist, another one of the books Paulo Coelho wrote that is my favourite, revolves around pilgrimage, love, loosing love and obsession over love.  As I was reading the book, I felt the book was about him, and his life. Then by searching online, I realized that it was indeed an autobiography that was intended to be fiction.

I have learned so much in this book and want to share all my thoughts. I don’t want to make this post too long either, so I will continue the rest in another post ! Check out my first thoughts on the book below.

My thoughts

I literally just read the last page, and felt compelled to blog about it right away. Definite signs of a great book. Paulo Coelho describes “Zahir” as something that occupies your mind and body completely, something you can’t get rid of no matter how hard you try. It can be anything from a loved on, a job, a place and it can be different for everyone. “Zahir” first manifest itself ina  dream, because of how badly we want it. With time it becomes so strong that it takes over your every thought, you can’t think of anything else except for Zahir.

It can be a person who left us in our lives, a loved one who left, someone very close who passed away, these things can all be a powerful Zahir. It can be a place you visited that changed you, or a job that becomes a compulsion in your life. The book also speaks volumes on the fact that we all carry our personal history with us no matter where we are in life, or how far we go. Who we are, what our past is, which sometimes can occupy our minds with a state of sadness. The Zahir will have us in such a state of mind that we are prepared to go through any sort of sufferings for its sake. By doing so we are doing more harm to ourselves, as the book says “Do our loved ones want us to suffer for the sake of their happiness, the answer will obviously be no”

The easiest way to escape The Zahir and be content with life is to forget your personal history, which carry all the sufferings, pains and disbelief. In order to do this we have to empty our hearts by sharing our stories as much as we can with others and right away replacing that now empty space with new stories from other people. Sounds easy, but most of us don’t always have someone that we confide in to do this. Perhaps a way to deal with this is to refer to Writing Therapy. Instead of spending sleepless nights in bed, thinking of the pain, past history and the overwhelm of The Zahir, maybe writing before bed whatever comes to mind without caring about grammar, as though telling the story to a friend.  This is very easy and can be done once or twice a day for up to 15 minutes. ( I feel that I do this with the blog)

Before you know it, this writing therapy will help to completely empty ourselves and refrain our thoughts to reoccur over and over. Finally we may be freed from Zahir ! This is one way, but I would much rather go on a pilgrimage like Paulo Coelho.

Another great way may be to forget who we are, and act as the person we now are.

In October, I had the pleasure of reading  “Girl On Top” by Nicole Williams and doing a review. I thoroughly enjoyed the book, as it could not have come at a better time. I was looking for inspiration in taking my career to the next level. That’s exactly what I found in this book, Nicole Williams shares a multitude of dating rules turned into career rules.  I would recommend this book to any woman who is ambitious about her career, and looking for inspiration on how to climb the corporate later while staying true to herself in the process. She is a best-selling author, a career expert and surely an ambition career minded woman.

Thursday, I will have the pleasure to interview Nicole Williams and get a bit more insight about her, and her thoughts behind writing the book. She also has an amazing blog at www.nicolewilliams.com

Do you have any questions related to your career you would like me to ask Nicole Williams? Let me know and I will ask them.

One of my favorite quotes from her is:

This weekend I purchased, PUSH by Sapphire, national bestseller that inspired the movie  Precious. I haven’t seen the movie, and usually prefer to read the book before watching the movie inspired by the book. Sometimes the movie version is tweaked, so I thought it would be best to read the book first. I love the way the book was written. I felt that I was hearing the main character Precious Jones’s story first hand, as though she was a friend explaining this to me. I especially enjoyed watching her grow through the book, as she narrates the book, and her progression is seen through each page. This book brought all kinds of emotions inside of me, from anger, to disgust, to hope.  I sympathized with Precious through the whole story.  It really made me think about perseverance and “pushing” through the moments that we think are impossible to overcome. She faces countless “broken heel moments”, which she could have taken as a reason to stop in her journey. The triumph was seeing her rise despite the obstacles that were placed in her way, which I think is something we can all learn from. Although I may not have gone through what she has, I completely relate with the title “PUSH” and the reoccurring theme of  continuing regardless of how hard the past may have been. I do feel that the ending left me wanting more, I don’t feel that I completely understood if  Precious overcame all her obstacles.

I don’t want to speak too much on the book itself, in order to not giveaway too much. I definitely think everyone should read this book, as there is a lesson to be grasped for all readers.

What Women Want is hosting their second annual Literary Event, next Sunday November 22nd in Troronto. The book chosen for this round is PUSH. If you are in Toronto, definitely worth checking out. Find more info here.

Here is some info on the book:

Claireece Precious Jones endures unimaginable hardships in her young life. Abused by her mother, raped by her father, she grows up poor, angry, illiterate, fat, unloved and generally unnoticed. So what better way to learn about her than through her own, halting dialect. That is the device deployed in the first novel by poet and singer Sapphire. “Sometimes I wish I was not alive,” Precious says. “But I don’t know how to die. Ain’ no plug to pull out. ‘N no matter how bad I feel my heart don’t stop beating and my eyes open in the morning.” An intense story of adversity and the mechanisms to cope with it.

Book description and image from Amazon

I love reading and the lovely people at Random House Canada have graced me with tons of books to review. I finished reading “The Wife’s Tale” by Lori Lansens in 48 hrs. I am working on the review of the book and will have something for you next week. Great book, boy is the main character ever fitting for broken heel diaries.

Stay tuned !