All Made Up: The Power and Pitfalls of Beauty Culture, from Cleopatra to Kim Kardashian

I write for Symbolism Explained, which discusses the symbolic meaning of a range of things (like parts of the body), natural events (snow), animals (cows), and so on. This book would make a good cross-over to the Books In A Flash book review website.

The book (which might be written about more in the future) is around two hundred pages (with notes and all), but is chocked filled with information. Early on, it gets to be a bit overwhelming, but it does provide a helpful look at makeup over time and place. Appearance sends a lot of messages, makeup being a key part of things.

I wrote a piece on eyebrows and even something as "simple" as that is a marker of class, sex, place, and so forth. With or without makeup. This book (which also has a very colorful cover and inside flyleaf pages) is also generally a good read, though again, I think a few might be overwhelmed at times with the detail. Recommended/good gift.