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Tim Gunn's book recommendations
The fashion consultant recommends works by Sylvia Plath, Nora Ephron, and more
Fashion consultant Tim Gunn stepped away from a long career in academia when he became the co-host of Project Runway. On March 27, Gunn and Heidi Klum will launch their new fashion competition series, Making the Cut, on Amazon Prime.
I've been interested in the history of the ancient world for as long as I can remember, and I've devoured dozens of books on the topic. Stacy Schiff's Pulitzer Prize winner is the most compelling and eminently readable of those books, so much so that I'm reading it, again, at this very moment. Schiff weaves an electrifying story of one of history's most remarkable individuals. You'll feel as though Cleopatra is sitting next to you.
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Join more than 350,000 subscribers and keep yourself informed with a selection of The Week’s most interesting, enlightening and entertaining stories - plus daily puzzles.
Join more than 350,000 subscribers and keep yourself informed with a selection of The Week’s most interesting, enlightening and entertaining stories - plus daily puzzles.
This is a story of unimaginably ambitious sleuthing. I'm someone who loves learning about words and their origins, and I had no clue about how the Oxford English Dictionary came to be. Apparently, truth really is stranger than fiction. You'll be spellbound.
This book, which takes readers on a scientific and cultural tour of the human body, is so riveting and provocative that I've bought copies for dozens of friends and colleagues. So profound is the content that my view of the world has been permanently enhanced. And because the book is organized by body part, you can ricochet from chapter to chapter.
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Most people's go-to coming-of-age novel is The Catcher in the Rye, but as a troubled teen, I found The Bell Jar infinitely more readable and relatable. Plath's roman à clef is simultaneously beautiful and tragic, uplifting and haunting. For me, it's a spiritual catharsis.
This is a collection of essays that I return to frequently, because I know it guarantees a good belly laugh. From "The Six Stages of E-Mail" to "My Life as a Meat Loaf," Ephron's wit and insights are delightful, and her journalism remains a wonderful antidote to the troubles of the world.
If you choose to read only one book about the fashion industry, it has to be the autobiography of the great editor and style icon. Vreeland, who held court at Harper's Bazaar and Vogue, was at once a rare hothouse flower and a sphinx without a riddle.
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