by Gloria Vanderbilt
Vanderbilt is a woman of many talents, but writing is not one of them. Compulsively stylish, she is a painter, designer (everything from bed sheets to blue jeans), actress, mother and perfectionist who has compiled this book of secrets of her personal "development" as if it were one of her collages. Between the chapters Early Me and Discovering Yourself she is chatty, often redundant and mostly boring. She devotes chapters to intimate descriptions of four homes ("The happy, pulsing part of the house was my quilted bedroom"), relives, almost bon mot for bon mot, her favorite parties, mentions her four sons and all but ignores her four husbands (who included Leopold Stokowski and Sidney Lumet). Dramatic photographs are the book's salvation, especially since her tips are not always practical. It's hard to imagine, for instance, a real fad developing around lining terrace awnings with worn-out Porthault sheets. (Doubleday, $14.95)
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