My review of "Treasure Yourslef," By Miranda Kerr.

According to The Great Wiki, Miranda Kerr (born 20 April 1983) is an Australian model best known as one of the Victoria's Secret Angels since mid-2007. Kerr began modeling in the fashion industry when she was 13. She is married to Legolas.

She is also an author. And, I will admit, this burns me up inside.

Having read much of "Treasure Yourself," this afternoon, I have to admit, I see the appeal of her brand, especially among the shy awkward girly set. It's a pink, cute package with a neat and clever look and feel. And it is pink. Kerr seems to genuinely try to present a positive, pro-girl message aimed at encouraging young ladies to love themselves and hone in on what makes them unique. And also, she's a Victoria's Secret Underwear model married to goddamn Will Turner. So, she's got that going for her, shy and awkward girl. What do you have? A sock monkey? A sock monkey's a good start. That's just as good. Really. A sock monkey. Try to love who you are, ok?

The words in the book are arranged competently, and overall, the writey parts are mercifully short. It's padded out with girly artwork and illustrations in the same way that an undergraduate student tweaks linespacing and font choices in order to make his last-minute term paper seem more substantial than it really is. Seriously, the plaintext file of this book is probably, like, 25 pages.

However. the writey bits of the book are just not very good, and if Kerr wants to be the 'good girl' of the superfashion world, she needs to try harder. The sections of "Treasure Yourself," about body image and nutrition are incomplete and made nearly laughable given the lack of scientific validity to Kerr's recommendations:

• "If you're having trouble sticking with your exercise plan, try running with friends!"
• "Yoga keeps me fit and healthy, inside and out."
• "I eat the right food for my body, drink lots of water and detox regularly."

Given the attention and criticism lobbed at the modeling industry, Kerr's approach to this topic is at best vapid, and at worst harmful. Seriously. if you're not thinking about Malibu Stacy you should be.

I'm not saying that Kerr is a bad person. And I genuinely believe she thinks she is doing good work. She maintains that she doesn't believe that girls should feel the need to hold themselves to the standard of beauty set by the modeling industry in general and by herself specifically. When accused of having an Eating Disorder in October of 2009, she told Grazia Magazine, “I really don’t want girls to think they have to look like me. I want them to nurture themselves and really be the best they can be." Of course, as she continues to participate in a image-obsessed industries like modeling and cosmetics, one has to question Kerr's commitment to that belief.

The last 100 pages or so of the 230 page book are short, fluffy quotations and affirmations tied loosely to the topics explored in the first half of the book. These quotes are culled from popular inspiration gurus like Louise Hay, Deepak Chopra, Steven Covey, and, of course, Kerr herself.

This is not a self-help book. This is not a memoir. This is a ugly and obvious piece of marketing for Kerr's brand of organic cosmetics-- the book is featured prominently on the Kora Organics website. The design of the book and is obviously -on brand- with the Kora line.

"Treasure Yourself" is just as predatory to little girls as Joe Camel was to teenagers. This book is about getting the brand hooks in to our young. HayHouse, the book's publisher, Kerr herself, and the five Astroturfers who gave the book positive reviews on Amazon.com should be ashamed of themselves.

Miranda Kerr's "Treasure Yourself" Final Rating: Do. Not. Want.

PRL gave me 'The Geography of Bliss' by Eric Weiner for Christmas, and for reasons I can’t really explain, it didn’t come into my possession until March. And it was worth the wait. I don’t read much non-fiction, as a rule, but this travel book ala road movie of self discovery is very, very good. And, as is my way, I have a passage I really want to share with you.

When Ambition is your God, the office is your temple, the employee handbook is your holy book. The sacred drink, coffee, is imbibed five times a day. When you worship Ambition, there is no Sabbath, no day of rest. Every day you rise early and kneel before the God Ambition, facing the direction of your PC. You pray alone, always alone, even though others may be present. Ambition is a vengeful God. He will smite those who fail to worship faithfully, but that is nothing compared to what He has in store for the faithful. They suffer the worst fate of all. For it is only when they are old and tired, entombed in the corner office, that the realization hits like a Biblical thunderclap. The God Ambition is a false God and always has been.

The cynic in me wants to just shout, “Ok, it’s hamlet, right?” But re-read it. It’s a great passage. This passage made me think about the sort of endless race that society seems to be caught up in in terms of productivity and creativity. I’m probably the last person to need a reminder to slow down and smell the roses, but with the modern-day emphasis on trying to getting somewhere and being  someone greater, it might be interesting if we spent more time realizing that we are someone great, and that we’re in the middle of something amazing.

Once you realize that being you is more important than becoming the better you, it’s possible that you’ll actually become the better you that you sought to become.

*woah*

The relatively recent phenomena of "kindling" a laptop confuses and frightens me. I mean, yeah, orienting your screen to the portrait mode is a nice way to read a book, and it's a little unusual, but it's not something unique to Amazon's Little eReader That Could. I've been reading ebooks this way since long before the Kindle. I'm that cool.

Regardless, once you've got *buntu running on your laptop, you need only open a PDF in Evince Document Viewer (Ubuntu's default) reader. Then, if the PDF isn't oriented for portrait viewing, simply click the "rotate" button that suits your orientation preference. (Edit --> Rotate Left) Make sure you're in "Best Fit" mode (View --> Best Fit.)

Wala. You are in "Kindle mode." PgUp and PgDN move you Backward and forward in your document respectively. Holding the control key while pressing the page keys moves them 10-pages at a time. (This is contrary to the keyboard shortcutssuggested on the menu. I suspect this has something to do with "Best Fit mode.")

For extra spice, press the f5 button and enjoy full-screen Kindle Mode.