Wine & Book Group Pick for Jun-Jul '09
In 1965 Helen Gurley-Brown became the Executive Editor of Cosmopolitan Magazine. She earned the spot by coming up through the ranks as a secretary whose writing abilities were next scooped into the copy writing department at a prominent L.A. advertising agency. But what really tipped the scale for the position offered by Randolf Hearst's magazine was her first book, published at the unlikely age of 40, titled Sex and The Single Girl (1962) that is still in print and now labeled a cult classic. At the time, it was rare for a woman to choose a career over motherhood and a life of domestic bliss. (Yeah, yeah... we hear the criticism of those who say it was just a play at the secretary pool to seduce their bosses.) The magazine's profitability and circulation increase was as shocking as its content with its sexual preoccupation and encouragement of the emancipated woman. Heck, even I remember the stir in my young
July 01, 2009 — loins caused by the near-nude centerfold of actor Burt Reynolds smiling coyly on a bear skin rug back in 1972: the beginning of reciprocity. For 32 years HGB enjoyed a career as the flame lighting a beacon of advice for women seeking fashion, professional emancipation and freedom of sexual expression. COSMOPOLITAN, the magazine is today published in over 34 languages and distributed in more than 100 countries with 58 international editions. But wait, that's not the point! At long last a biography on her has been published—appropriately titled, Bad Girls Go Everywhere: The Life of Helen Gurley Brown (Oxford University Press, April 2009) I had the curious pleasure of meeting HGB at the Stanford Publishing Courses in Palo Alto when she appeared as our guest lecturer to talk about her remarkable success in magazine industry. True to her unpredictable and startling form, in the middle of her talk after the comment, "People think chutzpah is in the genes. It isn’t…it’s in the needing and wanting and being willing to fall on your face," where upon she suddenly collapsed hard on the floor of the lecture hall. At her age with an obvious birdlike structure, everyone in the room took a collective gasp, which after her dramatic pause and to our collective relief, she rather wobbly got up and finished her point about... well, getting back up! I will never forget it. So this month, pick up the latest copy of Cosmo, laugh at it's continued sexcapades and quizzes, and read this delightful biography of the original maven of sex in the city. To accompany Bad Girls we've got the most passionate red voted #1 by Wine Spectator for '08- we think it's worth the splurge. Why not join our Wine & Book Group today and learn about wines as you read fabulous books!
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Wine of Choice
Wine Spectator listed this wine as its top wine of 2008. It's a robust red that is the perfect splurge for this book. As Helen would say, "Your worth it baby!" Check out
Casa Lapostolle Clos Apalta Colchagua Valley 2005
96 points / $75
5,987 cases made in Chile
Owner Alexandra Marnier-Lapostolle and her team created a blend of Chile's distinctive Carmenère variety, Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon sourced from the estate's oldest vines in Colchagua's Apalta sub-valley. Rich and velvety.
Previous Book & Wine Picks
Mar-Apr Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell set in reality land
Jan-Feb Fifty Miles From Tomorrow set Alaska
Nov-Dec Distantly Related to Freud set Montreal, Canada
Sept-Oct Red Dog, Red Dog set the Interior, British Columbia
July-Aug A Romance On Three Legs set Toronto, Canada
May-June The Cellest From Sarajevo, set in Sarajevo
March-April Cellophane set in the Peruvian Rainforest
January-February Eat, Pray, Love set in New York, Italy and India
November-December Madonna:Like an Icon,
October-November Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, set in New England
August-September On Chesil Beach, set in England
July The Last Chinese Chef, set in Shanghai
June The Birth House, set in Nova Scotia
May Water for Elephants, set in Depression-era America
March-April Snowflower and the Secret Fan, set in China
February Cloudstreet, set in Perth, Australia
January The Good German, set in Berlin
December The Historian, set in Eastern Europe
November One Good Turn, set in Edinburgh
September Lost in the Forest, set in Napa Valley
August The Hummingbird's Daughter, set in Mexico
July The Devil Wears Prada, set in NYC
June Woolf in Ceylon, set in Ceylon
May Everyman's Rules for Scientific Living, Australia
April The Mermaid Chair, set in South Carolina
March Memoirs of a Geisha, set in Japan
February Get a Life, set in South Africa
January In the Shadow of the Wind, set in Barcelona
December Pride and Prejudice, set in England
November Beyond Measure, set in Renaissance Italy
October Breakfast at Tiffany's, set in New York
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