It is said that beauty is not only skin-deep, and that to feel really good one needs to nurture mind and soul, as well as body. Divided into three main sections, this book offers information and exercises, which combine to provide a practical guide to achieving well-being.

Why do we still have nits? What exactly are 'purity rules'? And why have baths scarcely changed in 200 years? The long history of personal hygiene and purity is a fascinating subject that reveals how closely we are linked to our deeper past. In this pioneering book, Virginia Smith covers the global history of human body-care from the Neolithic to the present, using first-hand accounts and sources. From pre-historic grooming rituals to New Age medicine, from ascetics to cosmetics, Smith looks at how different cultures have interpreted and striven for personal cleanliness and shows how, throughout history, this striving for purity has brought great social benefits as well as great tragedies. It is probably safe to say that no-one who reads this book will look at his or her body (or bathroom) in quite the same way again.

Ladies who Lunge: Essays on Difficult Women dances through history with the unconventional woman. Witty and refreshing, the tone, texture and feeling of the words on the page are as unconventional as the plucky women who punctuate the prose. It is a tough, determined, moving, frank and funny review of difficult women: how they got there, how we can understand their actions, and how we can learn from them.

The sociology of consumption has concentrated unduly on the more spectacular and visual aspects of contemporary consumer behaviour, thereby constructing an unbalanced and misleading view. This collection emphasises ordinary rather than extraordinary items, routine and repetitive behaviour rather than conscious decision-making. It studies practical contexts of use rather than decisions to purchase and analyses collective identification rather than personal identity. Each essay argues one or more of these points, for the most part using new empirical material from several different national contexts. The topics analysed include shopping in Taiwan, second-home ownership in France, environmental considerations concerning food choice in Denmark, the take up of new domestic technologies in Finland and kitchen design in England. Key concepts like tradition, routine and habit are clarified and new conceptual distinctions are made, with the book defending theoretical approaches deriving from Simmel, Weber, Durkheim and Bourdieu. Ordinary Consumption promotes a distinctive approach to the understanding of the central practices of consumer society, it is a book with a controversial message, one which will be a source of debate about the appropriate agenda for future research.

An accessible, beautifully packaged guidebook that is perfect for newcomers and veterans alike, Spa clearly explains the methods and formulas of a range of easy-to-perform spa treatments. Spiral bound.