Biography: Tim Gunn: The Natty Professor, Tim Gunn with Ada Calhoun

Tim Gunn: The Natty Professor: a master class on mentoring, motivating, and making it work!
Tim Gunn & Ada Calhoun
ISBN: 9781476780061
Biography and inspirational memoir.



I love this man so much.  From the very first episodes of Project Runway, I thought that this would be a person I would be so happy to have as a mentor or guide.  His first book (Gunn's Golden Rules) was lovely, and showed a fun, somewhat snippy, side of his personality, one that wasn't as obvious with his carefully crafted "on camera" persona.  This book was fairly similar, and reveals how he's been shunned for plain-talking by lots of the "high and mighty" in the fashion world.

The focus of the book is on mentorship and teaching, and how he loves to help students be their best.  He offers a lot of good advice and encouragement to students, teachers, and mentors, and offers a lot of anecdotes from his time at Parsons and with his tv shows.  I have a feeling that some of the less positive anecdotal subjects won't be as thrilled to read the stories as I was, but anonymity is preserved, at least for former students.

The read was short, easy, and enjoyable.  I wish him all the best, and enjoyed reading about him and his ideas as much as I've enjoyed watching him help the contestants ton Project Runway and Under the Gunn.

American Girl: Isabelle, Designs by Isabelle, To the Stars Isabelle, by Laurence Yep

American Girl's 2014 Doll of the Year is Isabelle, and while I've never owned an American Girl doll (I wish I had that kind of money) I am always very impressed with the books that go along with them.

Isabelle is a ballet dancer living in Washington DC with her older sister (also a ballerina) and her museum-curator/fabric-artist mother and hospital administrator/jazz-musician father.  Despite her skills in costume and fashion design, Isabelle feels like she's shadowed by the dancing talent of her older sister Jade, and also struggles with a classmate who is prickly and meanspirited.

All read June 25, 2014

Isabelle
ISBN: 9781609583712
Introduces the character as she practices for a school recital, performing choreography that is proving difficult to master.

Designs by Isabelle
ISBN: 9781609583729
Chosen as part of the cast of a modern-day Nutcracker, Isabelle helps her older sister adjust to a growth spurt, and uses her design talents to help improve the costumes, but her own part in the show is causing her trouble.

To the Stars, Isabelle
ISBN: 9781609583736
After mastering her role in the Nutcracker, Isabelle is thrilled when her dance idol chooses her as part of a small outreach program to perform in nursing homes and hospitals, but performing in impromptu locations proves to be a challenge, and Isabelle needs her sister Jade's support to feel inspired.

These three are written by the award-winning (and very good) author Laurence Yep, and he does a very good job within the obvious strictures of the extremely socially-conscious American Girl framework.  With him at the helm, obviously-included mentions and characters almost seem like grace-notes, and less like a rigid requirement. Doubtful that younger readers will even notice, making these nearly-seamless inclusions even more important.