Book Club: Our Second Reading List and The Queen

About the Author

Inge is senior editor and a regular contributor at YLF.

Welcome! Read about what to wear and how to wear it on the YLF Blog. Join the YLF Forum to ask specific questions or just chat about fashion and personal style. Or check out the curated list of things we love in YLF Finds.

Outfits Ensembles Trends Advice

Book Club: Our Second Reading List and The Queen

— by Inge

on March 16, 2012

With British film The Queen we are wrapping up our very first YLF Book Club reading list. Grande dame Helen Mirren shines as Queen Elizabeth II in this compelling drama depicting the first days after Princess Diana’s death in 1997.

We’re chatting about the movie as we speak in today’s kick-off thread. Do stop by and let us know what you think.

It’s been absolutely wonderful seeing so many of you dive straight in and help us get the Book Club off to such a fantastic start. Your insightful and thought-provoking comments are invaluable, and we’re thrilled that Parisian Chic even inspired several forum members to start the next leg of their style journey. Fab stuff!

Now it’s on to round two. But first… the big reveal. In last week’s vote you had the final say about what we’ll be reading and watching next. A few favourites emerged very quickly and for a while it was a neck-and-neck race. Here are our three winners – we’ve already added the kick-off dates so you can pencil them in right away:

A Guide to Elegance (20 April 2012): Retro style guide with tips on how to achieve timeless elegance.
The Devil Wears Prada (25 May 2012): How to survive as personal assistant to a tyrannical boss in the cutthroat fashion magazine industry.
The Handmaid’s Tale (29 June 2012): The chilling tale of Offred, a handmaid in the totalitarian Republic of Gilead.

Three very different titles in completely different genres. How do you feel about the new selection?

We can’t wait to get cracking on our second reading list. Thanks again everyone for all your marvelous suggestions!

Books

19 comments · Add a comment

Jewell

Veteran

Love the new selection! This will be my first time participating in YLF Book Club, and I’m looking forward to every title on the new list!

March 16, 2012 at 3:13 pm

RoseandJoan

Veteran

I am already in possession of two of the three so I am very happy with this selection.

My rusty old brain remembered a topic I started on the forum some time ago regarding a guide to elegance and if I remember correctly Angie quoted Genevieve Antoine Dariaux in her 40th birthday post. I can not recommend this book highly enough for both it’s irreverence and relevance to life and style today.

http://youlookfab.com/welookfa.....legance-by

The Devil Wears Prada is all about the ‘Lumpy Blue Sweate speachr’ IMO, now I must find the third title!

March 16, 2012 at 3:19 pm

Russian Chic

A Guide to Elegance is one of my favorite books on timeless style. Wonderfull selection!

March 16, 2012 at 3:25 pm

christieanne

Veteran

I am thrilled about all three books. I have read them all and own two out of three. Should be easy to track down The Handmaid’s Tale and read again.
Inge – I do have a question about the Atwood book though before we get started on it.
If memory serves me correctly, that book has some themes that may reflect on/ lead to political comments. I am fine with that and willing to defend my own positions but in the current climate in the US, will it be awkward to discuss here in what is such a safe, unheated, supportive forum? Has that come up before? I am seeing it so often on facebook pages recently. Don’t want to see the pot stirred for anyone Just a thought.

March 16, 2012 at 3:31 pm

HelenInCanada

Veteran

I’m thrilled that 2 out of my 3 choices have been selected! I’m ahead of the game, since I’ve seen The Devil Wears Prada already (though it wouldn’t hurt to re-watch – such a fun film!), but I will do my best to get my hands on Guide to Elegance. Sounds like a gem! I’ve read most of Atwood in university and onwards…I shall see if a re-reading of A Handmaid’s Tale is possible at this point in my life. It’s more sci-fi oriented than I usually can handle. My fave Atwood novel is The Robber Bride. Delish!

March 16, 2012 at 4:17 pm

Laurinda

Veteran

I’m with Christieanne — Atwood’s “The Handmaid’s Tale” might be a little too hot to handle.

March 16, 2012 at 7:02 pm

Julie

(website)

I love the choices! I’ve read 2 of the 3 but they were on my “reread” list and the other has sat in my “to be read” pile for far too long. I know there might be a little controversy but I think we’re all adults and can handle it.

March 16, 2012 at 7:35 pm

Nadia

I’ve read all three and own two. I am glad there is some real, true-blue, literature on the list. A Handmaid’s tale won the first Arthur C Clarke award for excellence in science fiction. I pushed it on my husband and he was blown away. We are big fans of distopian sci fi.. Devil Wears Prada is a great beach-read and you cannot go wrong with A Guide to Elegance. Great picks!

March 16, 2012 at 9:25 pm

Andrea B.

Active Member

I LOVE The Guide to Elegance and was hoping that this would be a selection for the Book Club; and I devoured Devil Wears Prada at the beach the year it came out. The Handmaid’s Tale is one that has kind of scared me away, but I’m willing to give it a shot.
The Queen is one of my favorite movies, starring The Woman I Want To Be When I Grow Up, Helen Mirren. Really, she is one of my “she-roes…”

March 17, 2012 at 4:31 am

Vildy

Veteran

For you Margaret Atwood fans, have you read this very brief piece?

http://users.ipfw.edu/ruflethe/endings.htm

It used to be my favorite story but I’m more cheerful now. Less cynical
as I grow older.

March 17, 2012 at 4:42 am

Isis

Veteran

Great selection, and all are available at my public library! Yeah!

I love the diversity of this series.

March 17, 2012 at 7:03 am

christieanne

Veteran

Vildy – I wish I was less cynical thanks for the article.

Just put The Queen back in top of Netflix queue. Mom’s movies always somehow end of sliding down the list around here. Maybe it will be here Tuesday or so. That’s the advantage of living near Silicon Valley.

March 17, 2012 at 10:27 am

Vildy

Veteran

Christieanne, it’s more like choosing a team to root for over being disaffected lest I get burned.

March 17, 2012 at 1:57 pm

Inge

(website)

Moderator

Wonderful to hear you are loving the new Book Club titles.

Christieanne: There will undoubtedly be many different points of view – as is the case with any Book Club discussion (on YLF and elsewhere:-) You’re right that due to the nature of the story, politics might be mentioned in this case too. As with any other conversation on the forum and the blog, I think the most important thing is to remain tactful and respectful at all times. Let’s take that as our starting point.
(PS: Have fun watching “The Queen”)

Vildy: Thanks for the Margaret Atwood link, off to read the short story in a bit.

RoseandJoan: I remember your thread very well, it made me want to run out and go buy the book right that instant. And oh yes, I now think of that scene every time I come across the word “cerulean”:-)

March 18, 2012 at 1:21 pm

Vicki

(website)

Veteran

I’m so excited to get started on the next reading list and I love this variety of book titles. With regard to our first, I just posted on RoseandJoan’s (Julie’s) thread from a year ago: [I can’t thank you enough for posting these pearls of wisdom from the book and I’m grateful to you and Inge (just saw her link to this thread from a year ago when I wasn’t part of YLF!). I have been chatting with my parents about “aging” and “looks” and “remaining visible” in our youth-driven culture and your words on Elegance: “And in the end, it is in the moments when we forget ourselves entirely that we are most beautiful” are so amazing that I made a screen shot of this quote and will enjoy it over and over again. I am buying this book today! Looking forward to the book club discussion.]

I recall reading the Handmaid’s Tale many years ago during my Women’s Studies courses and I’ve seen the film version of “The Devil Wears Prada,” but there’s nothing like the book. Let the good times of our Book Club begin!

March 19, 2012 at 11:00 am

Travelgal Nicole

Veteran

Love the new selections. Can’t wait to get stuck in!

March 19, 2012 at 12:22 pm

Inge

(website)

Moderator

That’s a very interesting topic, Vicki, I hope you’ll share a few of your parents’ thoughts with us.

Just to be clear: we are alternating books and movies for Book Club, so we’ve selected the movie version of “The Devil Wears Prada” here. Of course the storylines in the book and movie are the same, but with the actors’ performances and film wardrobe we’ll have even more to chat about;-)

March 20, 2012 at 3:25 pm

Vicki

(website)

Veteran

Thanks, Inge, for clarifying the books and films variety. I love this even more and should have remembered this alternating schedule since I adored Bill Cunningham’s DVD. Yes, the film will give us added discussion points.

March 24, 2012 at 2:46 pm

Inge

(website)

Moderator

You’re welcome, Vicki.

March 24, 2012 at 3:18 pm

About the Author

Share this Post

Recent Ensembles