Emily Schuman

Oh dear. I think I'm just the wrong demographic for this book. It's attractively presented and has a nice variety of topics, but somehow it just irritated me.
I'm not an existing reader of Ms Schuman's blog, and I suspect I'm older than her target audience, which I guess might be 20-somethings. And this book might still make a nice gift for a young woman, not long out of college. For a woman over 30... not so much.
Having read women's magazines for more than a few years, I found nothing fresh or enlightening here. To me, it jarred a little for the author to declare herself an expert on everything from interior design to entertaining to cooking to fashion, and the corresponding advice was notably tame. Packing tips included 'make a list,' accompanied by a stupidly large number of outfits for an example week in New York. My husband chortled when I shared with him Ms Schuman's suggestion that a scented candle makes an ideal gift for a man. And was the author trying to be ironic with her advice for making cupcakes (part of the book's title, no less?). The precious secret: use a mix from a box.
Lastly, a matter of personal taste: although the photographs were professional and high quality, I got sick of seeing Ms Schuman on almost every page.
It's lovely to see a blogger hit the big time with a book deal... but unless you are a dedicated fan, best skip this one.… (mais)

Found at the library and read in about an hour. I like picking up random home/lifestyle books and magazines at the library to see if I can get any ideas from them. I didn't get any from this one, mostly because Schuman shares my aesthetic on a lot of things, down to favored shoe styles and preferred candle and makeup brands. This was indeed a random find; I've never even heard of this blog before. After finishing the book I went to look at the blog, and it lived up to my expectations: little content, lots of pictures of the blogger, lots of mentions of products she was sent. Sigh. I'd honestly just recommend checking out the book if you're unfamiliar with the blog and leaving the blog alone; I like the tone of the book a lot better than I do the tone of the blog. (I should have suspected something when looking at the books on the bookshelf organization part and noticing the only books we appear to have in common are "Brave New World" and "Moneyball," which I suspect does not belong to her--no posts about the Giants in October!)… (mais)