Book Review – ‘What would Audrey Do’

This is quite possibly the best book I have read in a very long time. A realistic way we all can live like Audrey Hepburn and she would wholeheartedly approve, charming, fun and witty this book takes you through every aspect of modern living and how AH would have conducted herself in these modern times.

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What Would Audrey doIt’s enigmatic, down to earth and modiste just like the lady herself. From advice on dating to style, coping in bad times to conducting yourself in public. It’s simply a must read and you won’t be able to put it down for love or diamonds.

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This wonderful book will give you inspiration creating the perfect home, scattering your world with flowers, Diptyque candles and fine white china, it will embody your inner most self with touches of AH.

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‘What Would Audrey do’ has ideas for party themes in an oh so graceful manner, how to apply the best simple makeup, for the look she created. It will give you so much advice, I live by these rules and so should each and everyone of you. Try it for a day and I promise you will feel amazing. Plus my own little rule…don’t stress, don’t worry about your day and don’t worry about tomorrow as it’s all meant to be. Even in nasty horrid times remember this has a path that’s leading me to a positive place and be calm, take a moment to understand this when life gets tough and you will be ok my friends!

Audrey’s Check List:

Wear Mascara
Stand up straight
Get your clothes tailored
Lower your voice
When in doubt love
Be generous
Don’t kiss and tell
Forgive
Turn around and check the back of your reflection in the mirror when you leave the house!
Smile.

 

It will want make you rethink your every day, you will instantly adopt her mantra for learning to do one thing at a time, you will get more done and feel more relaxed about life, the stresses of the days will drift away and in short you will probably be a lot happier and even loose a few pounds! Stress makes us put on weight didn’t you know!

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It will make you feel rewarded for time out and not guilt for slowing down, for saying no every now and again when you feel you need to.

I say take yourself off for some time out and open this pretty book What Would Audrey Do?: Timeless Lessons for Living with Grace & Style: Timeless Lessons for Living with Grace and Style and turn the pages and go on a delightful journey with the graceful Audrey Hepburn.

It’s my new bible!
Tweet me @sarahbacchus and visit www.slbstyle for more fashion and lifestyle. www.sarahbacchus.com to take a look at my professional work.

Influence: What It Really Means And How To Make It Work For You |Book Review

Influence: What It Really Means And How To Make It Work For You by Jenny Nabben.Influence is important. In fact, it can mean the difference between success and a mediocre career. This book, Influence: What It Really Means And How To Make It Work For You by Jenny Nabben is a good all-round book on influence. It starts of with what influence is. It is in-depth and fun to read. It includes lots of fascinating stuff about neuroscience and some excellent case study. There are also exercises, in this and the other chapters, making the book interactive. The chapters end with brain rules and top tips.
There is a chapter on different personality types, the language of influence and why stories change the world. The book has outlines and is a fascinating read. I love the quotes and case studies, in particular, the one about Bill Clinton. This is a great book which really informs and helps understand influence and lets you know how to make it work for you.

I can’t recommend this book enough. I raced through it but will also read it again as it has so much great information. Good stuff.

How can it be that some business leaders are so incredibly influential and persuasive when others struggle to enforce even the simplest request? And how can people harness those vital skills to get what they want in a corporate environment?

 

A new step-by-step business guide set to published by Pearson, the world’s largest education publisher, promises to help professionals gain the “ultimate” managerial ability — getting people to say ‘Yes’.

 

In Influence: What it Really Means and How To Make It Work For You, author Jenny Nabben — a leading business communicator who has worked with global organisations including Coca Cola Enterprises and the UN’s World Food Programme — divulges the critical “building blocks” of influence and the science of persuasion.

 

This unique and straightforward guide takes a “real-world tour” of influence, uncovering the scientific and cognitive drivers behind it and clearly showing how to develop this subtle skill   which is central to efficiency, productivity, team-building, the empowering of employees and achieving of results.

 

Across 224 pages, the book addresses all key business contexts where influence is most effective: managing, leading, coaching, negotiating, controlling difficult situations and handling change.

 

Nabben, who runs her own training company providing workshops on corporate messaging and influence for global businesses, reveals how simple changes in everyday leadership style can effect positive results for all personality types.

 

Chapter by chapter she helps readers develop a deeper understanding of influence and persuasion,

allowing them to apply their new abilities more naturally, fluently and to greater effect.

 

She also discusses the latest neuroscience insights into “brain plasticity” and emotional intelligence, and how listening and empathy are key skills for anyone who wants to tune in to, and modify, the ‘brain states’ of others.

 

By the close of this fascinating book, the reader will have all the tools necessary for building trust, respect and credibility, as well as advancing professional standing, integrity, presence and authority — all indispensable and powerful skills for every executive.

 

Nabben has been at the forefront of the UK’s corporate communications industry for more than a decade. Previous roles have variously included Vice President of Leadership and Internal Communications at Coca Cola Enterprises, Head of Communications at Lloyds General Insurance, and Head of Internal Communications at HSBC.

 

Speaking about influence, she said: “The skills of influence are built on finding the balance between heart and head, between using our intellect and using our emotional intelligence, between knowing when to push through and knowing when to yield to others.

 

“If building our confidence is about having a better sense of our self in the world, influence is about having a bigger effect ON the world.

 

“If you aren’t influencing, your competitors or colleagues probably are, and that’s driving increased attention and business for them.”

 

Packed with the latest scientific and psychological research, and reinforced by powerful case studies and practical exercises throughout, this must-have handbook is essential reading for managers and leaders looking to get the best out of their staff, and themselves.

 

Influence: What It Really Means And How To Make It Work For You by Jenny Nabben

 

A London Pub For Every Occasion Book Review

A London Pub For Every OccasionA London Pub For Every Occasion is an amazing book for a number of reasons:

One: It has a chapter on pubs with cats. PUBS WITH CATS!! This has made me very happy and from now on, if anyone ever wants to find me, I will be in one of the pubs that have a cat.

Two: It has maps. I love maps, especially fun, brilliantly illustrated maps.

Three: It whittles down the 7.000 pubs in London and makes them easier to navigate by separating them into occasion. This is obvious from the title but with someone else doing all of the legwork, this pocket book becomes very handy indeed. It is divided into 22 sections to suit every whim. It has 161 of the capital’s usual and unusual pubs to best suit the mood or occasion. It is beautifully illustrated in black and white.

There are pubs for cold days and for sunny ones; pubs with cats and pubs that welcome dogs; pubs for parties and pubs when you just want to be alone; pubs where you can have breakfast and some you’ll never want to leave. It is the ultimate pub guide.

London Pub MapThe guide is weighted to the centre of London, the part of the city in which all Londoners have an equal share, where friends from the south and north of the river meet on common ground.

Herb Lester Associates, who made the book,  say ‘The book’s selections are based on dogged research filtered through a genuine appreciation of the pub, the ale or the odd animal roaming around. The handy fold-out paper map makes sense of the confusing territories away from a familiar pub routine many of us fall into,’

Published in hardback by Ebury Press on 1st May at £9.99

A London Pub for Every Occasion: 161 tried-and-tested pubs in a pocket-sized guide that’s perfect for Londoners and travellers alike

 

He Texted: The Ultimate Guide To Decoding Guys Book Review

Technology usually makes things easier, but when it comes to dating, things are now more complicated than ever. Sure access is easier: Twitter and Facebook has given all of us the chance to stalk. Not that we would, of course.

But with access comes more problems: we know a lot about people just from their social media, but also nothing at all.

As the He Texted: The Ultimate Guide to Decoding Guys back cover puts it:

He Texted The Ultimate Guide To Decoding Guys Book Review

‘You’re a busy, intelligent, modern woman. You stay on top of work e-mail. You “like” all the baby photos your sister posts on Facebook. You found your dream job through LinkedIn. But when your crush texts you “Sup?” every few days, yet never asks you out, what the hell does that mean?

These days, dating is more confusing than ever. Friending? Following? Liking? Poking? Linking? LOLing? WTF? In an era when FaceTime is no longer the same as face-to-face, it’s no wonder you can’t tell if he’s into you or just really into his iPhone.

This hilarious and essential guide from the founders of HeTexted.com—with totally straightforward guy sight from the HeTexted Bros—will help you autocorrect your digital dating life, from decoding your Facebook friendships, to reading the intentions behind guys’ perplexing texts, to deciding when—if ever—you should text him first. It’s He’s Just Not That Into You for the digital age and What to Expect When You’re Expecting . . . a second date—all in one invaluable package!’

I found this book entertaining, interesting and full of great information and advice. It reminded me of a He’s Just Not That Into You for the modern age. The book comes from the creators of HeTexted.com, which consists of Lisa Winning and Carrie Henderson McDermott. Lisa has worked in start-ups all of her life and Carrie bravely left her job at Glamour magazine. And with great success: He Texted is an indispensable guide to dating in the modern age.

There is a lot of amazing advice for decoding texts and avoiding modern dating pitfalls in this book from different sources, including some men. It is fun to read and will help you through the minefield that is modern dating.

He Texted: The Ultimate Guide to Decoding Guys

 

The Wealthy Women: A Man Is Not A Financial Plan Book Review

The Wealthy Woman: A Man is Not a Financial Plan: A Woman's Guide to Achieving Financial SecurityThe Wealthy Woman is a book that is sorely needed. I have lost count of the amount of women I have met who are terrible at finance, and that is saying nothing for the ones that really do think that a man is a financial plan. I mean, they’re really not.

Relying financially on a man causes a lot of problems: he could leave you, he could lose his job, he could treat you badly and you  feel you can’t leave because you would be too poor, he could think he has all of the power because he pays the bills…the list goes on. True freedom and happiness comes when a women is financially independent. Can this book help? Yes.

Some finance books can be scary but this one isn’t. In fact it is fun, concise, comprehensive and educational all at once. The author also takes two women, one savvy and one not-so-savvy, and follows them through the years and charts the consequences of their financial decisions. I found this particularly useful. I think a lot of women would read it and it will (hopefully) give them a wake-up call.

The book gives you financial advice for each decade of your life, and where you will end up. It let’s you know that only you can be responsible for your financial future and being an ostrich won’t help at all. It also helps you calculate your net worth, sort out your finances and get out of debt if you have it.

It also covers pensions, saving and investing. In fact, most things are covered in this excellent book. Buy it for yourself or/and the females in your life. It is packed with good advice and tips that could change your life for the better.

 

‘The Wealthy Woman – a man is not a financial plan’ by Mary Waring has worked with 100s of women helping them take control of their finances.

Far too many women find ‘dealing with the money’ a daunting task and leave it in the hands of their partners. However, this can leave them with little control over their own financial lives and sadly, if they then get divorced or are widowed, they are left floundering with little understanding of how much money they have, or don’t have, and what this means to their lifestyle.

By understanding your finances and taking control you can make your money work for you. That’s the message in Mary Waring’s new book ‘The Wealthy Woman: A Man is Not a Financial Plan: A Woman’s Guide to Achieving Financial Security’.

“Many women tell me that they simply don’t do maths – and this mental block seems to be an epidemic among women everywhere. However, these are often admirable women with high-level jobs. My message is simple – you are more than able to handle all of your finances,” says Mary Waring.

So, do you want to be more confident about your finances? Do you want to be a wealthy woman?

“Wealthy” will mean different things to different women. It doesn’t necessarily mean “rolling in it” and having so much money that you’ll enter The Times ‘rich list’. It may simply mean you feel confident you will have enough money to do the things that you plan to do in the future, no matter how lavish or frugal a lifestyle you lead.

Mary’s book will guide you on your journey to become a wealthy woman by showing you how taking small steps on a regular basis can lead to a significant increase in your wealth.

If you currently have such a lack of control over your finances that you are too afraid to open your credit card statement at the end of the month, this book will show you how to take control.

“The Wealthy Woman” will encourage you to think about your attitude towards money and your relationship with it.

As Mary says; “It’s easy to be wealthy just as it’s easy to be poor. There’s very little difference in the way you can become either. You are in a position where you can improve your wealth. Whatever your dreams and aspirations around money there is nothing to stop you moving towards those dreams.”

Mary Waring is an independent financial adviser and the founder of Wealth For Women, specialising in financial advice to women going through divorce. She is both a Chartered Financial Planner and a Chartered Accountant, being one of only a handful of advisers in the whole of the UK with this high level of qualification.

Mary is passionate about changing the way women think about finance. Too many women stick their head in the sand and ignore it. Or…rely on a man to sort it for them.

‘The Wealthy Woman: A Man is Not a Financial Plan: A Woman’s Guide to Achieving Financial Security’ is available from Amazon and all good bookstores.

For more information see: www.mary-waring.co.uk

 

Kerry Wilkinson Thicker Than Water & Behind Closed Doors Book Review

Kerry Wilkinson is the author famous for writing and self-publishing his first novel as a challenge and then having it go straight to No 1 in the Kindle bestseller chart. He became Amazon UK’s top-selling author for the first quarter of 2011. The first three books in the Jessica Daniels series sold 250,000 copies in six months. Very impressive. We reviewed the sixth and seventh books in the series below.

 

Thicker Than Water

thickerthanwaterbookAnother brilliant, pacey novel. A good read from start to finish. Keeps you engaged and entertained.

When Cameron and Eleanor Sexton arrive home to find their teenage babysitter missing, their immediate concern is for their young daughter. Detective Sergeant Jessica Daniel is dispatched to find out what’s going on, but with all apparently well, she thinks she’s been sent on a fool’s errand.

 

Soon, the teenager’s body is discovered in an apparently random house on the other side of Manchester. The puzzle deepens when a journalist points out that someone placed an obituary for him just days before his disappearance.

 

A string of clues point to a club whose owner has an unhealthy interest in Jessica, but then something happens which makes her question the very core of her beliefs.

 

She is left to turn to the one person she knows she can rely on . . . but is that trust misplaced?

 

Behind Closed Doors

9781447247852With great twists and turns and a brilliant flawed heroine: we reckon it is only a matter of time before these novels get snapped up and made into a TV series. Behind Closed Doors is yet another brilliant crime novel from Kerry Wilkinson. Entertaining and well-written.

Detective Sergeant Jessica Daniel has barely left her house in months, isolated away from friends and colleagues. She may have given up on herself but one man is sure she still has something to offer.

DCI Jack Cole gives her a chance at redemption: An opportunity to help a neighbouring force by discovering what is going on with a reclusive community living in a stately home in the middle of nowhere.

People are going missing, turning up dead with only a vague link back to the house. But can Jessica beat her own demons in time to find out exactly what’s going on behind closed doors?

Thicker Than Water

Behind Closed Doors: A DS Jessica Daniel Novel, Book 7

The Financial Times Guide to Management Book Review

For those in business, or hoping to be, management is very important. Or to be more precise, being good at management and doing it properly is important. This guide to management comes from The Financial Times and is written by Ann Francke, CEO of the Chartered Management Institute. So far so impressive.

Ann Franckle book The Financial Times Guide to Management

Also impressive is that it has an entire chapter on managing yourself. I think this is a genius idea that not many books would think of. Getting yourself sorted out first obviously makes perfect sense: lead by example. Each chapter starts with what you will learn in that chapter and then ends with top tips, pitfalls and takeaways.

For all of the wealth of information in this book it is surprisingly easy to read. Add in the graphs, anecdotes and exercises then you have one hell of a book on management. Part 7 even has view from the front line: top tips, pitfalls and takeaways from top managers, along with views from the FT’s Finest.

FT Guide to Management: How to be a Manager Who Makes a Difference and Gets Results is an essential business book for managers. Don’t be without it.

What they say:

“Ann Francke, CEO of the Chartered Management Institute, writes a much needed straight talking guide to management.


According to a 2012 survey by CMI and Penna*, 43% of individuals rated their managers as ineffective or highly ineffective. This statistic will be no surprise to most – many surveys and research papers have revealed similarly gloomy results in recent years.

 

So why do we struggle to ‘get management right’? Probably because so many people have become ‘accidental managers’; they have been promoted into management positions due to specialist skills. Many are given little or no training when they are promoted and are left to work it out for themselves.  The mind boggling array of management books on the market does little to simplify the ‘management message’ as approaches are many and varied.

 

In response, Ann Francke, CEO of the CMI, has written The Financial Times Guide to Management. Backed by the wealth of CMI research, her extensive global management experience, and advice from over 40 frontline managers, Ann has created a straight talking and balanced guide to management.

 

It covers the full spectrum of management skills, including managing others, managing change, managing stakeholders, managing budgets and resources, creating business strategy and executing plans.  A chapter offering Views from the Front Line, grounds the book in practical advice, with over 40 senior executives sharing their top tips, pitfalls and takeaways. Contributors include Paul Polman (CEO, Unilever), Steve Marshall (Chairman, Balfour Beatty) and Cilla Snowball (Chairman and CEO, AMV BBDO).  In a similarly neat framework, a 20 page Guide to the Gurus takes readers through a pithy summary of the bestselling and most admired management gurus.

 

From motivating a team and developing star talent to controlling budgets and fostering innovation, The Financial Times Guide to Management is the authoritative guide to becoming an effective manager.”

 

The Financial Times Guide to Management, is published by Pearson.

 

 

Tomorrow There Will Be Apricots By Jessica Soffer Book Review

Tomorrow There Will Be Apricots By Jessica SofferTomorrow There Will be Apricots is written by Jessica Soffer who is a mere 25-years-old. It is an impressive book, drawing you in immediately and not letting you go until the very last page. Not one word is wasted in this heartwarming- and at times heartbreaking- book about redemption, love and food.

It is impossible to not fall in love with the characters: Lorca, a troubled 13-year-old who just wants her cold mothers loves and will go to any length to get it, and Victoria, recently widowed and finding it hard to cope. They find themselves through cooking and friendship.

I don’t want to give too many spoilers but this absolutely amazing book is now one of my favourites. I love the characters and I learned a lot about food and other cultures. I was very hungry when I was reading it and even got inspired to learn how to cook. No mean feat for someone who usually hates cooking. Buy this, steal this*, borrow this: just read it.

*not really.

 

Two women adrift in New York – an Iraqi immigrant widow and the latchkey daughter of a famous chef – find each other and a new kind of family through their shared love of cooking.

 

Lorca, a sensitive and troubled thirteen-year-old, spends hours poring over cookbooks, seeking out ingredients for her distracted chef of a mother, who is about to send her off to boarding school. In one last effort to secure her mother’s love and prove herself indispensable, Lorca resolves to replicate her mother’s ideal meal.

 

Victoria, an octogenarian Iraqi immigrant, teaches cooking lessons. Grappling with grief over her husband’s death, Victoria has been dreaming of the daughter they gave up forty years ago.

 

Together these two women – a widow and an almost-orphan – begin to suspect they are connected through more than a love of food.

Tomorrow There Will be Apricots