Rub it on your body, pass it along, save it for future generations or eat it: Chocolate—the fermented seeds of the cacao tree yields a delicacy that has won the world over throughout history in almost every culture that ever existed. Artisinan chocolatier and pastry chef Susie Norris’s comprehensive celebration of which, per the book jacket, fully documents the sugary food stuffs “types and flavors, health and beauty benefits, origins, baking secrets, ecological influences, and gifting delights.”

It isn’t enough to say that Chocolate Bliss: Sensuous recipes, spa treatments, and other divine indulgences is a book for the chocolate lover, but perhaps it’s more a book for chocolate’s lover.

To win a copy of The Big-Ass book,  please e-mail your name, phone/cell, city to:  giveaways@pinkmag.com

by Mark Montano; photos by Auxy Espinoza

Following do-it-yourself guru Mark Montano’s popularly successful The Big-Ass Book of Crafts is The Big-Ass Book of Home Décor: a 14-chapter instructional featuring 105 projects intended on taking an uninspiring room from shab to homemade fab. Decoupage-ing dishware, making a popsicle-stick planter, turning a tarnished tea set into striking service panache-d with primary colors, the book is complete with coordinating graphs, stencils and the recommended stores in which many of the featured items and tools can be acquired (Ikea is a frequent mention; there’s even a chapter dedicated to it.)

However, in light of the author’s opening page proclamation of “perfectly imperfect,” advising readers not to be discouraged if their post-craft outcome doesn’t reflect their pre-craft visions, the tasks at hand don’t seem readily achievable to novice decorators. Yet in agreement with the author’s closing suggestion—try and try again! The regal harlequin wall design that can be begot from the rolling pin paint technique, for one, is worth the effort, despite however many attempts it takes in which to master.

By Duane Wells

Jackie Collins is part of that rare breed of person who has figured out exactly what she enjoys and manifested it into a true and lucrative calling.

“I love what I do!“ The best-selling author exclaimed during a recent telephone conversation about her newest bestseller, Poor Little Bitch Girl. “People are always surprised, but I do.”

And still, after twenty-seven New York Times bestsellers that have collectively sold over 400 million copies  in more than 40 countries, with not a one ever going out of print, Collins’ love affair with her craft continues.

Her latest novel, Poor Little Bitch Girl is Jackie Collins at her deliciously naughty, gossipy best and may well be one of her most contemporary novels in the sense that the story it tells brilliantly dissects  the increasingly intense relationship between Hollywood, international society and Washington, D.C.

At its core, the book tells  is the story of three twenty-something women, one hot rich guy, two mega movie stars, and a devastating murder.  There’s Denver Jones, a twenty-something attorney working in Los Angeles; Carolyn Henderson, personal assistant to a powerful and very married Senator in Washington, with whom she is having an affair; and there’s Annabelle Maestro – daughter of two movie stars – has carved out a career for herself in New York as a madame of choice for discerning famous men.  The three  women, all of whom went to high school together in Beverly Hills, are reunited  when Annabelle’s beautiful movie-star mother is found dead in the bedroom of her Beverly Hills mansion and the secrets from begin to come back to haunt them.

Poor Little Bitch Girl is a particularly juicy read because significant parts of the story feel ripped straight from the headlines, a fact that Collins readily acknowledges.

“The Eliot Spitzer case did absolutely inspire me,” the author admits without hesitation.  “So I created [the character] Annabelle who’s lying in bed with Frankie Romano after they’ve just made love and they’re thinking about what they’re going to do next…they’re lying there reading the paper and they’re reading about Elliott Spitzer.  So that’s how that all came about.”

“And then with Carolyn in Washington, I’ve always had that Chandra Levy case on my mind and I wanted to kind of mirror that a little bit” Collins continues.

With that kind of storyline it’s no wonder that Poor Little Bitch Girl continues to top the  New York Times bestseller list a month after its release.

Aside from churning out bestsellers, the woman dubbed by some as the “Queen of Hollywood”  is busier than ever.

Not only is she out pushing her latest tome up the bestseller list with a slew of media interviews and appearances,  the ever groundbreaking Miss Collins is writing a cookbook with delectable recipes from one of her most memorable characters, Lucky Santangelo, and producing a direct to DVD film based on one of her original stories which will be mass  distributed in the United Kingdom by Tesco, the British mega supermarket chain.

On the subject of her latest venture, the authoress is particularly excited.  “We’ve got Nicole Steinwedell from The Unit, we have Anthony Delon, the son of the famous French movie star Alain Delon — he’s so gorgeous — and we have Trudy Styler (Sting’s wife) and Charles Dance.  So we’ve got a fabulous cast,” Collins say of the project.

“I think it’s [about] the future.  The future is selling a movie like you sell a book.  You put it on the supermarket shelves and people buy it.  People are  absolutely going to be jumping on this bandwagon.”

With more direct to DVD movies in the pipeline and at least two other  Tinseltown -inspired books already in the pipeline, Jackie Collins shows no signs of slowing down, which is a very good thing since her home domain of Hollywood just gets more and more interesting by the day.

Find out more about Jackie Collins and her latest novel Poor Little Bitch Girl at www.jackiecollins.com.

Versace. The very name conjures up images of outrageous glamour and bold sexuality, opulence and daring. Yet Versace is also the legacy of a great creative genius from a poor, backward part of southern Italy who transformed the fashion world through his intuitive understanding of women, and how a changing culture influenced the way they wanted to dress. The first book in English about the legendary designer, HOUSE OF VERSACE: The Untold Story of Genius, Murder, and Survival (Crown; $26.00) shows how Gianni Versace, with his flamboyant sister Donatella at his side, combined his virtuosic talent and extraordinary ambition to almost single-handedly create the celebrity culture we take for granted today.

Gianni Versace was at the height of his creative powers when he was murdered in Miami Beach. The story was front page news around the world and the manhunt for his killer a media obsession. His beloved sister Donatella demanded no less than a funeral befitting an assassinated head-of-state to be held in Milan’s magnificent cathedral. In what was the ultimate fashion show, the world’s rich and beautiful – Princess Diana, Elton John, Carla Bruni, Naomi Campbell, Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy, Anna Wintour and others – gathered to mourn the man who was one of fashion’s great pioneers.

Deborah Ball, a long-time Milan correspondent for The Wall Street Journal, conducted hundreds of interviews with Versace family members, Gianni Versace’s lovers and business rivals, models such as Naomi Campbell whom he helped launch to international stardom, and fashion industry icons including Anna Wintour, the legendary editor of Vogue.

Ball vividly recounts the behind-the scenes struggles – both creative and business – of  Donatella as she stepped out of her brother’s long shadow and took control of the House of Versace. The book offers the first inside look at the enormous challenges Donatella faced in living up to Gianni’s genius, her struggle with a decades-long drug habit, her battles with her brother Santo, and the mystery of why Gianni left control of his house to Donatella’s young daughter, Allegra. HOUSE OF VERSACE is a compelling, highly readable tale of a rise from obscurity, a painful fall, and ultimate redemption as the Versace empire returned to health – for now.

Artist Page Hodel gifted her girl every Monday with a homemade heart throughout their relationship. They were made of hardware, grass, fruit and flowers as a show of love—a literal assertion that said, “I give you my heart.” However later, following the tragic passing of Hodel’s partner, she kept crafting those hearts in a tradition emoting a message of undying love.

Monday Hearts for Madelene features 100 images of Hodel’s hearts in a hardcover photo book exhibiting her unique, beautiful and inspiring handcrafted art pieces with a portion of the book’s royalties benefiting the Women’s Cancer Research Center in Oakland, CA.   

Diehard LGBT Jane Austin fans have Ann Herendeen to thank for bringing a haughtily naughty same-sex twist to Austin’s most-popular work, Pride and Prejudice. In this retelling, Fitz and Charles are doing it doggy style—with no graphically dirty detail left untold—and they’re doing it despite the gentlemen of Netherfield’s courtship of the ladies of Longbourn. Meanwhile, Elizabeth is at odds with her secret discovery of the men’s gay sex even though her best friend Charlotte seems to think it isn’t any less immoral than their own lesbian love—told in comparable English akin to Austin’s era and all leading up to a crux of 19^th century bisexuality that teases and tantalizes.