In this delicious, practical and efficient guidebook Pat Montandon - queen of California's jet set - tells every party giver how to become a great hostess and give unforgettable parties. ESQUIRE magazine chose Pat as one of the nineteen best hostesses in the United States. It is Pat Montandon's conviction that..."...Anyone, regardless of circumstances (i.e. income), can be an outstanding hostess and party giver. Self-confidence gained by being a good hostess can create a completely new world, especially for the unmarried girl who may want to enlarge her circle of friends and therefore her opportunities to meet the right man - also important for the married woman who wants to be something other than just a housewife."No kidding. This book is not a good-grief-let-someone-else-try-it come-on that no lady would follow. It is an immensely useful book that explains the makings of a party people remember, even if you start out not knowing anyone and your bank account registers almost zero: taste, imagination (Pat has plenty of both and is willing to share), hard work, plus a genuine love of people.According to Pat (who arrived in San Francisco a few years ago, a shy little girl from the Southwest), liking people and being considerate of their feelings is the cornerstone of social success. People enjoy good company. They like to have fun. So you don't have to break the bank to entertain well. From your office buddies (the first people you'll meet in a new town) to Social Bigwigs, to very special men - the people you know will be flattered by your attention. To make sure you shine in your hostess role there are chapters on grooming and wardrobe. Pat suggests imaginative themes for all different kinds of parties, and lays down rules for guest as well as hostess.Step number one is to invite them. They'll come.....The next steps are just as simple. Pat discusses food, clothing, decor, whom to ask and whom to avoid. In friendly, big-sister tones she tells you how to cope with the crises that occasionally come up in event the best-organized gal's life - and if you follow Pat's advice being a party girl is a lot simpler, and a lot more fun, than you think!Although Pat keeps in mind that most girls entertain to meet and keep men, she also makes it crisply clear that men don't trust the girl whose only social aim is sex. They prefer the girl who entertains because she loves to, who can say no and stay friends. And in her last, wonderful chapter, Pat discusses how to be a great hostess to one grand guy every evening (and morning and afternoon) of your life.

Celebrity journalist Amelia Stone is the quintessential L.A. party girl. She goes to Hollywood's most exclusive, star-studded events, where she rubs shoulders (and occasionally more) with celebrities, stays out until all hours of the night, and indulges in the ultimate sex, drugs, and rock 'n' roll existence. In short, she's got everything a party girl needs: the looks, the job, the lifestyle. And oh, yes, the out-of-control coke habit. But it's hard to keep topping your own outrageous exploits, and after losing her job, her friends, and much of her mind (not to mention waking up in the hospital after combining five Ambien, four lines of Special K, and an inestimable amount of cocaine), Amelia makes the drastic decision to end her drug abuse. Sobriety, she finds, has its rewards: she starts seeing the man who could be her Mr. Right and gets hired by a big-name magazine to write a column detailing her wild adventures with the celebrity party crowd. And who could write it better? After all, she has plenty of experience to draw on. There's just one little problem. Overnight, Amelia Stone has become the new face of Hollywood nightlife, and her editors—who don't know she's come clean—want her to play the part. As her popularity skyrockets and the film and TV agents start calling, the lure of her former fast-and-furious lifestyle begins to pull at her. Faced with the most exciting opportunity of her career, she must now decide to either save herself—or salvage her reputation as the ultimate party girl. Acidly hilarious and achingly honest, Party Girl is a harrowing ride through the world of Hollywood excess with a heroine who's deliciously flawed. Whether snorting coke or crying in rehab, hooking up or breaking down, Amelia Stone makes her way across the treacherous grounds of addiction, self-destruction, and recovery without ever losing her sharp wit, unapologetic candor, or odds-defying optimism.

A brilliant and utterly engaging novel—Emma set in modern Asia—about a young woman’s rise in the glitzy, moneyed city of Singapore, where old traditions clash with heady modern materialism. On the edge of twenty-seven, Jazzy hatches a plan for her and her best girlfriends: Sher, Imo, and Fann. Before the year is out, these Sarong Party Girls will all have spectacular weddings to rich ang moh—Western expat—husbands, with Chanel babies (the cutest status symbols of all) quickly to follow. Razor-sharp, spunky, and vulgarly brand-obsessed, Jazzy is a determined woman who doesn't lose. As she fervently pursues her quest to find a white husband, this bombastic yet tenderly vulnerable gold-digger reveals the contentious gender politics and class tensions thrumming beneath the shiny exterior of Singapore’s glamorous nightclubs and busy streets, its grubby wet markets and seedy hawker centers. Moving through her colorful, stratified world, she realizes she cannot ignore the troubling incongruity of new money and old-world attitudes which threaten to crush her dreams. Desperate to move up in Asia’s financial and international capital, will Jazzy and her friends succeed? Vividly told in Singlish—colorful Singaporean English with its distinctive cadence and slang—Sarong Party Girls brilliantly captures the unique voice of this young, striving woman caught between worlds. With remarkable vibrancy and empathy, Cheryl Tan brings not only Jazzy, but her city of Singapore, to dazzling, dizzying life.

The room smells of sweat, smoke, beer, and longing. The music pulses, the lights flash, and Kata and Ana dance. For a moment the raucous crowd is tamed, and together the two girls soar above their lives. But then the deafening applause sends the dancers crashing down to earth, back to the gang wars, the gunfire, and the only way of life they know. In a neighborhood consumed by violence, every day may be a gang member's last. And sometimes the only life you can hope to save is your own.

South Beach in the late 1990s is a town of blink-and-you'll-miss-'em nightclubs populated by celebrities, models, mobsters, heiresses, drug dealers, drag queens, and fun seekers of all stripes. It's a place where the famous come to party like locals, the locals party like rock stars behind velvet ropes, and the press is savvy enough to know what not to report. Rachel Baum is a sheltered, career-oriented everygirl when she moves to South Beach from her quiet Miami suburb, searching for a life less ordinary. Quickly making friends among SoBe's most exclusive scenesters, she spends her days building a career and her nights building a reputation. But in a town where friends become enemies faster than highs become hangovers, the life less ordinary turns into more than Rachel bargained for. As she pursues the endless party in penthouses, dive bars, after-hours clubs, and cocaine speakeasies, Rachel struggles to balance her goals and ambitions with the decadence and excess -- especially her drug-fueled, on-again off-again relationship with Yale-graduate-turned-addict John Hood -- that threaten to destroy everything she's always worked for. With tremendous wit and razor-sharp insight, Diary of a South Beach Party Girl portrays the innermost sanctums of South Beach's privileged Beautiful People through the eyes of a no longer innocent heroine.

Dirty Helen lived life by her rules. This irascible and defiant woman chucked tradition behind her as she fought for her independence the only way she knew how-on her back.

From invitations, party favors, decorations, music, games, food, and drinks, --this highly entertaining cookbook will serve as any fun-loving girl's personal manifesto for new ways to live and to celebrate life.