“A shoe is a very complicated object to design. It is art, but involves mini architecture: materials, techniques, tooling. The end result is a fantasy sculpture to look at, but has another life when it is worn.� - Kobi Levi Exotic shoes have been around for centuries. Sandals made of solid gold were found in the royal tombs of ancient Egypt. Six hundred years ago, women teetered around Venice in chopines with platforms up to a foot high. And in China, tiny golden lotus shoes were brightly colored and elaborately embroidered. In the twentieth century, Salvatore Ferragamo introduced platform shoes and “invisible� sandals. Beth Levine invented sprint-o-lator mules and topless shoes held to the sole by adhesive. Roger Vivier created the concave stiletto and comma heels for his extravagantly bejeweled concoctions. The last two decades have seen an explosion of creativity in footwear design. Sexy laced-up sandals, sky-high platform heels, and outrageously decorated shoes are seen on fashionable women everywhere, from the catwalk to the street. In Shoegasm, you’ll find page after page of fabulous footwear from fashion icons such as Christian Louboutin, Manolo Blahnik, Vivienne Westwood, and Alexander McQueen, as well as exciting young designers like Nicholas Kirkwood, Charlotte Olympia, and collaborators Rem D. Koohhaas and Galahad Clark. You’ll also see shoes that are truly wearable art from innovators like Kobi Levi, Julian Hakes, and Marloes Ten Bhomer.

The last two decades have seen an explosion of creativity in footwear design. Sexy laced-up sandals, sky-high platform heels, and outrageously decorated shoes are seen on fashionable women everywhere, from the catwalk to the street.

A stunning reinvention of the myth of Narcissus as a modern novel of manners, about two young, well-heeled couples whose parallel lives converge and intertwine over the course of a summer, by a sharp new voice in fiction Wes and Diana are the kind of privileged, well-educated, self-involved New Yorkers you may not want to like but can't help wanting to like you. With his boyish good looks, blue-blood pedigree, and the recent tidy valuation of his tech startup, Wes would have made any woman weak in the knees—any woman, that is, except perhaps his wife. Brilliant to the point of cunning, Diana possesses her own arsenal of charms, handily deployed against Wes in their constant wars of will and rhetorical sparring. Vivien and Dale live in Philadelphia, but with ties to the same prep schools and management consulting firms as Wes and Diana, they’re of the same ilk. With a wedding date on the horizon and carefully curated life of coupledom, Vivien and Dale make a picture-perfect pair on Instagram. But when Vivien becomes a visiting curator at The Metropolitan Museum of Art just as Diana is starting a new consulting project in Philadelphia, the two couples’ lives cross and tangle. It’s the summer of 2015 and they’re all enraptured by one another and too engulfed in desire to know what they want—despite knowing just how to act. In this wickedly fun debut, A. Natasha Joukovsky crafts an absorbing portrait of modern romance, rousing real sympathy for these flawed characters even as she skewers them. Shrewdly observed, whip-smart, and shot through with wit and good humor, The Portrait of a Mirror is a piercing exploration of narcissism, desire, self-delusion, and the great mythology of love.

Packed with travel information, including more listings, deals, and insider tips:CANDID LISTINGS of hundreds of places to eat, sleep, drink, and danceRELIABLE MAPS to help you get around Manhattan and the other four boroughsTHE BEST NIGHTLIFE, including comedy clubs, sultry jazz joints, and the hippest barsSTRAIGHT TALK about how to save money in the city--and when to splurgeFESTIVALS, concerts, and public events throughout the yearSHOPPING tips for chic boutiques, cut-rate outlets, and knock-off look-alikes

A fabulous collection of the sexiest and most outrageous footwear seen on fashionable women today--from the runways and red carpets to the streets.

With tales ranging from the deadly serious to the absurdly hilarious—including an original story for this volume—Side Jobs is a must-have collection for every devoted Harry Dresden fan. As Chicago’s only professional wizard, Harry Dresden has had cases that have pitted him against insane necromancers, power-hungry faerie queens, enigmatic dark wizards, fallen angels—pretty much a “who’s who” of hell and beyond—with the stakes in each case ranging from a lone human soul to the entire human race. But not every adventure Harry Dresden undertakes is an epic tale of life and death in a world on the edge of annihilation. Here, together for the first time in paperback, are the shorter works of #1 New York Times bestselling author Jim Butcher—a compendium of cases that Harry and his cadre of allies managed to close in record time. “One of the giants of urban fantasy…delivers some great stories in this volume…This is a great collection, featuring a hero who's proven himself over and over again, as well as delving into the odd corners of his fascinating and fantastic world. Highly recommended.”—SFRevu