Book Review 1 Part 1

Lillian Too has proved  beyond  a doubt that she is the public face of feng shui world-wide. With sales of her Complete Illustrated Guide to Feng Shui surpassing the 500,000 mark since 1996, it has become the best selling feng shui book ever. A large part of the book’s success rests on the popular style in which it is written and the beautiful illustrations  found on every page. The Complete Illustrated Guide is more than just complete, its a feng shui classic.

Have you ever felt a sense of confusion whilst flicking through the many books now available on feng shui? Have you ever wished that you could simply focus on one area at a time?  Well Lillian Too has finally provided the answer – Feng Shui Fundamentals, a unique series of nine full-colour, pocket sized books which highlight in depth, specific areas such as health, wealth or love. In essence, the series is a virtual distillation from The Complete Illustrated Guide however, once used in their new serialised form you begin to see the practical benefits of separating out each topic. Each book is packed with valuable information and is superbly illustrated. Feng Shui Fundamentals will fit snugly into any bag or briefcase.

Lillian Too has published numerous books and lectures world-wide on feng shui.

Once upon a time, finding a book on feng shui that wasn’t full of technical jargon or confusing formulas was almost impossible. For the feng shui beginner, trying to work through books such as these would have proven to be an exercise in sheer frustration. Simon Brown’s Practical Feng Shui however, is aimed specifically at the feng shui lightweight who is looking for a DIY manual to guide them through the  maze. Practical Feng Shui is easy-to-read and full of colourful charts and useful decorating ideas which are often overlooked in other books, such as which kind of flower, pattern or shape to use in any chosen area. There are also some excellent practical sections such as ‘Tools of feng shui’, in which a few simple devices, such as floor plans and grids, are provided for replication and use by the reader in their own evaluations. Unfortunately, the section on ‘Nine Star Ki Astrology’, gives the impression that this form of astrology is a part of feng shui, which it isn’t. Overall though, Practical Feng Shui is a vibrant, clear introduction to feng shui that will enable any reader to tell their yin from their yang, and their feng from their shui.

Simon Brown is a feng shui consultant whose clients include UK singer and club DJ, Boy George and large companies like The Body Shop in the UK and British Airways.

There is much about city life that is undervalued, particularly when compared to the idyllic countryside. Thankfully the time has come to celebrate the city’s wonderful, eclectic nature and seek out new, and more interesting, ways of living in it. Tricia Guild, a passionate urbanite and well known contemporary interior designer in the UK, has turned her creative attention to providing decorative solutions for the urban dweller. In her latest effort, Tricia Guild in Town, she presents us with a new definition of modernity and shows us how it is possible to convert any city home into a unique, urban sanctuary.

All the familiar hallmarks of her style are here – vibrant colour, natural materials and printed fabrics and they have been adapted to suit a variety of very different spaces, from a New York brownstone apartment to a Parisian pied-a-terre and a brand new London loft. This book looks good enough to eat…

In this day and age we can be assured of one thing: that the stresses and strains of modern living will catch up with us all at one point or another. These daily assaults on our sanity, caused by over-crowding, pollution, abrasive lights and irritating noises, means that more than ever, we are centring on the

The first thing that strikes you about this book is the price its certainly great value for money. Its author Stephen Skinner, is well known for his pioneering work on the subject reaching back to his first book, The Living Earth Manual of Feng Shui, written in 1976. At this time, almost all source material was only available in Chinese. Feng Shui, which is much more glossy than his earlier book, is an easy to follow manual. Full of unique and colourful illustrations it has an easy to read flavour. Each chapter manages to incorporate both the theoretical and practical elements of feng shui into basic, digestible portions that anyone can understand. Feng Shui is a very useful introduction to the discipline and a great way of getting the subject into perspective.