Madison news - August reading shortlist

All Hail McQueen

Revolutionary, twisted, progressive, unwearable… whatever you thought of the late Alexander McQueen’s creations, there was never any doubt that fashion’s enfant terrible created the kind of legacy that few designers could ever hope to achieve. Fashion blogger Kristin Knox casts a detailed eye over his work in Alexander McQueen: Genius of a Generation ($45, Allen & Unwin), a tribute that features highlights from 15 years of runway collections. The looks are fearless and expansive; as Knox writes in the introduction, “McQueen sought not only to dress the women of the world… but to inspire them to epic artistic proportions.” This slim volume is a worthy addition to what we assume is a coming flood of works that will honour McQueen,
a master who always combined glamour and the grotesque to stunning effect.


Other books out this month ...

The Bucolic Plague by Josh Kilmer-Purcell ($45, HarperCollins)
In 2007, Kilmer-Purcell and his partner Brent − who served as Martha Stewart’s on-air health expert − bought a historic fixer-upper in an upstate New York hamlet, added dozens of goats to the mix and tried to make it look like a spotless corner of domestic bliss. This droll and touching account of their experience will resonate with anyone who’s ever taken on a home renovation project − and almost taken off their partner’s head in the process.

The Butterfly Mosque by G Willow Wilson ($32.99, Allen & Unwin)
A young American woman finds herself irrevocably drawn to Islam and converts. She moves to Egypt, where she finds love and works hard to integrate the polar opposites
of her present and past lives. Wilson is careful not to become defiantly defensive about the less palatable facets of her adopted country, nor parochial about the US. There’s a bit of the Eat Pray Love about this book, but with fewer grandiose spiritual epiphanies, mercifully.

I Think I Love You by Allison Pearson ($32.95, Random House)
The best-selling author of I Don’t Know How She Does It returns with this paean to teen idols and forgotten dreams. In 1970s Wales, Petra and Sharon enter a contest to meet David Cassidy, not knowing that the “letters” the Partridge Family star sends to his fans are actually penned by a no-name English grad working from a London office. Twenty years later, hurt by divorce and raising a teenage girl on her own, Petra learns she’d won the contest − and decides to claim her prize.