Looks That Work

Describing how to match wardrobe to professional profile, this book offers dressing guidelines for Corporate, Communicative, and Creative career women with model wardrobes based on two-color combinations and made up of interchangeable pieces

Wallach, Janet

Health, Fitness & Dieting

Penguin??Books

From Library Journal This is a photo album of today's West Bank and Gaza. Represented are the people who together act and react in the cauldron that is Israel and the Middle East. Notwithstanding the aims of Yasser Arafat and others, it will ultimately be these people and their neighbors who will make or break any peace in this troubled area, the authors point out. Although the Wallach's have assembled good narratives and captured valuable data and emotions, the book is not up to the quality found in David Grossman's Yellow Wind and Fawaz Turki's Soul in Exile (both, LJ 4/15/88). Those two together are better written, more emotive, and more persuasive. However, if only one volume can be bought, this might do. Yellow Wind was an LJ Best Book of 1988; see the January issue, p.40.- Ed. -- David P. Snider, Casa Grande P.L., Ariz.Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Still Small Voices

Biographies & Memoirs

Wallach, John

Community & Culture

Harcourt

No woman in the Gilded Age made as much money as Hetty Green, America’s first female tycoon. A strong woman who forged her own path, she was worth at least $100 million by the end of her life in 1916—equal to about $2.5 billion today. Green was mocked for her simple Quaker ways and her unfashionable frugality in an era of opulence and excess; the press even nicknamed her “The Witch of Wall Street.” But those who knew her admired her wit and wisdom, and while financiers around her rose and fell as financial bubbles burst, she steadily amassed a fortune that supported businesses, churches, municipalities, and even the city of New York. Janet Wallach’s engrossing biography reveals striking parallels between past financial crises and current recession woes, and speaks not only to history buffs but to today’s investors, who just might learn a thing or two from Hetty Green.

The Richest Woman in America: Hetty Green in the Gilded Age

Humor & Entertainment

Anchor

Turning her back on her privileged life in Victorian England, Gertrude Bell (1868-1926), fired by her innate curiosity, journeyed the world and became fascinated with all things Arab. Traveling the length and breadth of the Arab region, armed with a love for its language and its people, she not only produced several enormously popular books based on her experiences but became instrumental to the British foreign office. When World War I erupted, and the British needed the loyalty of the Arab leaders, it was Gertrude Bell's work and connections that helped provided the brain for T. E. Lawrence's military brawn. After the war she participated in both the Paris and Cairo conferences, played a major role in creating the modern Middle East, and was generally considered the most powerful woman in the British Empire. In this incident-packed biography, Janet Wallach reveals a woman whose achievements and independent spirit were especially remarkable for her times, and who brought the same passion and intensity to her explorations as she did to her rich romantic life. Too long eclipsed by Lawrence's fame, Gertrude Bell emerges in this first major biography as a woman whose accomplishments rank as crucial to world history (especially in light of the continuing geopolitical importance of the Middle East) and whose life was a grand adventure.

Desert Queen: The Extraordinary Life of Gertrude Bell: Adventurer, Adviser to Kings, Ally of Lawrence of Arabia

Leaders & Notable People

Nan A. Talese

No single designer has had as tremendous a hold on style in the twentieth century as Coco Chanel. In this sumptuous, profusely illustrated book, Janet Wallach shows readers Chanel style in all its glory--from the fabulous fashions she created to the glamorous life she led. Like a character in a fairy tale, Coco Chanel rose from being an ordinary seamstress to reigning as the queen of fashion. Chanel was stunningly independent, beautifully feminine, and irresistibly desirable to men; most important, she was never afraid to be herself. A pioneer in an industry dominated by men, she turned her style into the revolutionary chic that set her fashions apart. Borrowing copiously from the wardrobes of her illustrious lovers (among them the Duke of Westminter and Grand Duke Dimitri of Russia), Chanel took trousers, tweeds, riding clothes, cuff links, and even neckties, and cleverly transformed them into elegant women's wear. With an understanding that only a female designer could have, she eased women's formerly confining way of dressing, adapting the freedom of men's clothing without sacrificing sensuality and femininity. Since then, women who seek the look of authority and supreme taste have embraced Chanel. Fans of her couture will devour all the delectable stories behind such Chanel trademarks as fabulous fake pearls, minimalist hats, comfortable and beautifully structured suits, and legendary perfumes, and will marvel at the 150 astonishing photographs and illustrations. A delightful feast of pictures and words as stylish and elegant as the designer herself, Chanel Style celebrates the woman, the look, and the legend.

Chanel: Her style and her life

Arts & Photography

Graphic Design

Transporting readers to the menacing yet majestic world of eighteenth-century Turkey, biographer and Middle East expert Janet Wallach brilliantly re-imagines the life of Aimee Dubucq, cousin of Empress Josephine, in her first novel Seraglio. At the age of thirteen, when en route from France to her home in Martinique, Aimee Dubucq is kidnapped by Algerian pirates. Blonde and blue-eyed, the genteel young girl is a valuable commodity, and she is soon placed in service in the Seraglio - the Ottoman Sultan’s private world - in Topkapi Palace. As Dubucq, renamed Nakshidil ("embroidered on the heart") discovers the erotic secrets that win favor of kings and deftly learns the affairs of the empire, she struggles to retain her former identity, including her Catholic faith. Overtime Nakshidil becomes the intimate of several powerful sultans: wife to one, lover and confidante to another, and adoptive mother to a third. Her life often treads the tenuous line between sumptuous pleasures and mere survival until her final years when she is awarded control of the harem as the valide, mother of the Sultan. With phenomenal research and a mesmerizing voice, Janet Wallach provides a powerful and passionate glimpse of East-West history through one woman’s distinctly European eyes.

Seraglio: A Novel

Literature & Fiction

A captivating biography of America's first female tycoon, Hetty Green, the iconoclast who forged one of the greatest fortunes of her time. No woman in the Gilded Age made as much money as Hetty Green. At the time of her death in 1916, she was worth at least 100 million dollars, equal to more than 2 billion dollars today. A strong believer in women being financially independent, she offered valuable lessons for the present times. Abandoned at birth by her neurotic mother, scorned by her misogynist father, Hetty set out as a child to prove her value. Following the simple rules of her wealthy Quaker father, she successfully invested her money and along the way proved to herself that she was wealthy and therefore worthy. Never losing faith in America's potential, she ignored the herd mentality and took advantage of financial panics and crises. When everyone else was selling, she bought railroads, real estate, and government bonds. And when everyone was buying and borrowing, she put her money into cash and earned safe returns on her dollars. Men mocked her and women scoffed at her frugal ways, but she turned her back and piled up her earnings, amassing a fortune that supported businesses, churches, municipalities, and even the city of New York itself. She relished a challenge. When her aunt died and did not leave Hetty the fortune she expected, she plunged into a groundbreaking lawsuit that still resonates in law schools and courts. When her husband defied her and sank her money on his own risky interests, she threw him out and, marching down to Wall Street, quickly made up the loss. Her independence, outspokenness, and disdain for the upper crust earned her a reputation for harshness that endured for decades. Newspapers kept her in the headlines, linking her name with witches and miscreants. Yet those who knew her admired her warmth, her wisdom, and her wit. Set during a period of financial crisis strikingly similar to our current one, acclaimed author Janet Wallach's engrossing exploration of a fascinating life revives a rarely-mentioned queen of American finance.

A NEW YORK TIMES EDITOR'S CHOICE\n"A compelling story that pulsates with the energy of a thriller"—The Wall Street Journal\n"Suspense, élan and a generous helping of glamour: Think George Smiley in a mink-trimmed coat."—The New York Times Book Review\nThe true story of socialite Marguerite Harrison, who spied for U.S. military intelligence in Russia and Germany in the fraught period between the world wars\nBorn a privileged child of America’s Gilded Age, Marguerite Harrison rebelled against her mother’s ambitions, married the man she loved, was widowed at thirty-seven, and set off on a life of adventure. Hired as a society reporter, when America entered World War I she applied to Military Intelligence to work as a spy.\nShe arrived in Berlin immediately after the Armistice and befriended the enemy, dining with aristocrats and dancing with socialists. Late into the night she wrote prescient reports on the growing power of the German right. Sent to Moscow, she sneaked into Russia to observe the results of the Bolshevik Revolution. Although she carried press credentials she was caught and imprisoned as an American spy. Terrified when told her only way out was to spy for the Cheka, she became a double agent, aiming to convince the Russian rulers she was working for them while striving to stay loyal to her country.\nIn Germany and Russia, Harrison saw the future—a second war with Germany, a cold war with the Soviets—but her reports were ignored by many back home. Over a decade, Harrison’s mysterious adventures took her to Europe, Baghdad, and the Far East, as a socialite, secret agent, and documentary filmmaker. Janet Wallach captures Harrison’s daring and glamour in this stranger-than-fiction history of a woman drawn to the impossible.

Flirting with Danger: The Mysterious Life of Marguerite Harrison, Socialite Spy

DOUBLEDAY

Working wardrobe: Affordable clothes that work for you

Working wardrobe: Affordable clothes that work for you

Warner Books, Inc.

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Wallach, Janet. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Wallach, Janet

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Wallach, Janet. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Looks That Work

Still Small Voices

The Richest Woman in America: Hetty Green in the Gilded Age

Desert Queen: The Extraordinary Life of Gertrude Bell: Adventurer, Adviser to Kings, Ally of Lawrence of Arabia

Chanel: Her style and her life

Seraglio: A Novel

Desert Queen: The Extraordinary Life of Gertrude Bell: Adventurer, Adviser to Kings, Ally of Lawrence of Arabia

The Richest Woman in America: Hetty Green in the Gilded Age

Flirting with Danger: The Mysterious Life of Marguerite Harrison, Socialite Spy

Working wardrobe: Affordable clothes that work for you