Organic? Fair trade or local? Rooibos. Black varieties. Herbals. Petite fours and traditional English high tea and low tea times. Something about the decorum required, elegant dress, and quality, taste-bud tingling food and drinks included in this past-time that make me happy, simply put. (I recommend the lesser fermented version of rooibos at Ladybug down the street, or the "Doot Da Doo" at Anna Banana's for a chai/espresso mix.)

  I have a great adoration for Jane Austen's novels, her clever observations of people and motives and the way in which she weaves fairy tale endings with "universal truths" and relatable characters so seamlessly that one cannot help but dream that such flawed but eternally human heroines can be within one's self and her endings within one's grasp. 

  Favorite all-time authors include Jane Austen, Oscar Wilde, George Elliot, Mark Twain.

 I favor the classics (Joyce to Sartre to Dumas to Shakespeare, etc) and I tend to gravitate toward them rather than novels written in the last couple decades. However, I cannot give enough praise to Nick Hornby, Chuck Palahniuk, Barbara Kingsolver, Richard Yates, and a few more. Many types of art interest and inspire me but namely painting/watercolor, sculpting, photography, and filmmaking. I have a background in science and am interested in such areas of the discipline as naturopathy, eastern medicine and nutrition/exercise science.

Revolutionary Road (Movie Tie-in Edition) (Paperback)

By Richard Yates

$14.95

ISBN-13: 9780307454621
Availability: Usually Ships in 1-5 days
Published: Vintage, 11/01/2008

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Eleven Minutes (Paperback)

By Paulo Coelho

$13.95

ISBN-13: 9780060589288
Availability: Usually Ships in 1-5 days
Published: Harper Perennial, 04/01/2005

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Stranger Than Fiction: True Stories (Paperback)

By Chuck Palahniuk

$14.95

ISBN-13: 9780385722223
Availability: Usually Ships in 1-5 days
Published: Anchor, 05/01/2005

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The Importance of Being Earnest (Paperback)

By Oscar Wilde

$1.50

ISBN-13: 9780486264783
Availability: Usually Ships in 1-5 days
Published: Dover Publications, 07/01/1990

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Anna Karenina (Centennial Edition) (Mass Market Paperback)

By Leo Tolstoy, David Magarshack, Priscilla Meyer

$6.95

ISBN-13: 9780451528612
Availability: Usually Ships in 1-5 days
Published: Signet Classics, 11/01/2002

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The Awakening: And Selected Stories of Kate Chopin (Mass Market Paperback)

By Kate Chopin, Barbara H. Solomon

$4.95

ISBN-13: 9780451524485
Availability: Usually Ships in 1-5 days
Published: Signet Classics, 04/01/1976

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The Picture of Dorian Gray (Paperback)

By Oscar Wilde, Robert Mighall, Robert Mighall

$8.00

ISBN-13: 9780141439570
Availability: Usually Ships in 1-5 days
Published: Penguin Classics, 02/01/2003

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Bridget Jones's Diary (Paperback)

By Helen Fielding

$15.00

ISBN-13: 9780140280098
Availability: Usually Ships in 1-5 days
Published: Penguin (Non-Classics), 06/01/1999

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About a Boy (Paperback)

By Nick Hornby

$14.00

ISBN-13: 9781573229579
Availability: Usually Ships in 1-5 days
Published: Riverhead Trade, 04/01/2002

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Pride and Prejudice (Paperback)

By Jane Austen

$7.95

ISBN-13: 9780307386861
Availability: Usually Ships in 1-5 days
Published: Vintage, 09/01/2007

One of my favorites of Austen's and the first of her novels I ever read.

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The Elements of Style Illustrated (Hardcover)

By William Strunk Jr., E.B. White, Maira Kalman

$24.95

ISBN-13: 9781594200694
Availability: Usually Ships in 1-5 days
Published: Penguin Press HC, The, 11/01/2005

Such a fun way to learn the most common rules in grammar and style. Intelligently written and with humor from E.B. White's contribution.

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The Little Prince (Paperback)

By Antoine de Saint-Exupery, Richard Howard

$14.00

ISBN-13: 9780156012072
Availability: Usually Ships in 1-5 days
Published: Harvest Books, 06/01/2000

Just a great little book for kids and even adults.

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Vanity Fair (movie tie-in) (Paperback)

By William Makepeace Thackeray

ISBN-13: 9780143034445
Availability: Out of Print
Published: Penguin (Non-Classics), 08/01/2004

I just adore the story and its message and just as relevant today. How far would you go to be on the top of the social ladder? An unlikable heroine or one more relatable? Or both?

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Eat, Drink, and Be Healthy: The Harvard Medical School Guide to Healthy Eating (Hardcover)

By Walter C. Willett, P. J. Skerrett, M. D. Willett

$25.00

ISBN-13: 9780684863375
Availability: Special Order - Subject to Availability
Published: Free Press, 07/01/2001

Reassesses the value of a food pyramid created by lobbyists and special interest groups. Has some of the most comprehensive formats and great sources. It's Harvard, come on!

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Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies (Paperback)

By Jared Diamond

$17.95

ISBN-13: 9780393317558
Availability: Usually Ships in 1-5 days
Published: W. W. Norton & Company, 04/01/1999

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A Guide to Elegance: For Every Woman Who Wants to Be Well and Properly Dressed on All Occasions (Hardcover)

By Genevieve Antoine Dariaux

$14.99

ISBN-13: 9780060757342
Availability: Usually Ships in 1-5 days
Published: William Morrow, 08/01/2004

Keep an open mind and you might just be surprised!

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Daniel Deronda (Paperback)

By George Eliot, Graham Handley

ISBN-13: 9780192834812
Availability: Out of Print
Published: Oxford University Press, USA, 09/01/1998

Her insight into the psychology of people and her adroit prose leave me in awe. George Elliot's heroines and plots, for me, are a more adult and cynical version of Austen's. However there is never a lack of insight into the psyche and human condition within Elliot's writing as with Austen.

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