I enjoyed researching the background for my review of Lucia
van der Post’s Things I Wish My Mom Had
Told Me as much if not more than the book. More on that later, but first, let me tell
you about the book and the author.
One day while standing in the checkout line at Anthropology, I fell victim to one of those seductive “impulse buy” table
of items. You know what I mean. At Target it’s gossip magazines, candy and super
glue. At Anthropology it’s adorable little tea cups, salt and pepper
shakers shaped like birds, luxurious journals, and books with intriguing titles,
like Things I Wish My Mom Had Told Me: A
Guide to Living with Impeccable Grace and Style.
The table of contents promised tidbits of
wisdom on clothes and looking good, love, marriage and kids, work, food, home, perfect
presents, and how to have fun! Wow, I thought, I can use a brush-up on those topics.
Of course lurking in the back of my mind was curiosity as to how this book
might compare to my One Hundred Things My
Mom Taught Me A Million Times.
My book reading tends to migrate from room to room in my
home. I
start every book in my living room. If I can’t put it down, it graduates to my
bedroom. If it is interesting enough for casual reading, but not riveting, it takes up residence in my bathroom. If I want to love it, but can’t seem to latch on, it joins the stack by my living room chair. Things I Wish My Mom Had Told Me lived in my bathroom for a good
eight months, which tells you that I liked it but I didn’t love it, and I
wanted to finish it but I wasn’t in any particular hurry.
The first 156 pages (half the book) are all about clothes
and grooming. As a mere dabbler in fashion, this part of the book was of slight
interest to me. What I did find intriguing was van der Post’s shopping
recommendations in Great Britain (her home country), Paris, and in New York. One
doesn’t have to go any further than one’s computer to “have it all,” and exploring the websites of those tantalizing treasure troves was fun.
Other than the shopping recommendations, and some of the
entertaining, decorating and gift tips (all of which reminded us that giving of
ourselves is greater than throwing dollars to impress), the most I can say is
that this book is casually entertaining, which I doubt was the prime purpose. Now, back to the very amusing reviews of the
book that I saw here and there.
First, there were the snobby reviews by the snob snobs
(people who are snobs about snobs.) It was
actually pretty funny reading reviews that ridiculed Ms. van der Post for her
fondness of “luxury” items: “Pretentious drivel,” and “This book should have
been titled ‘Lessons in Snootiness and Snobbery,’" and, “This is probably
the Kardashian family's favorite book.”
This comment from another reviewer sort of sums up my take
on this treatise, “The book is an easy, fun read, full of non-preachy decent
advice. Sort of like having your favorite classy great-aunt sharing all her
secrets. Well worth the $, if you are looking for advice on understated
elegance for the non-aristocrat.” And then there was this titillating, 10-word
review, “Great advice for women who don't just want to exist.”
Read it? Not really. Although there are some timeless
recommendations, much of the information is probably out of date as it was
written in 2008.
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