While the rest of the fashion world is living it up and getting down to work in New York, I am laid up at home in Los Angeles with pulled muscle. Trying to turn sadness into gladness and not thinking about all the fun I am missing, I am trying to catch up on some reading.

My reading of choice are two volumes by Karen Homer: Things a Women Should Know About Beauty and Things a Woman Should Know About Shoes. Beauty is chock full of fun little beauty tips and secrets. Lots of them are retro, to accompany the almost-exclusively vintage photos decorating the book

Shoes is almost like porno to me. The one bummer is that there are not nearly enough photos of SHOES! But lots of fun shoe info: history of shoes, different types of shoes and how to wear them, highlights of major shoe designers, famous quotes about shoes from celebrities, how to care for your shoes, the debate between leather shoes and vegan shoes, even how to shop for shoes with your kids.

These cute, stubby little hard bound books are inexpensive and make great gifts. They also make nice coffee table books when traditional oversized art books are too big or too pricey. Though the Shoes book could stand for a few (thousand) more photos.