{"product_id":"coming-to-my-senses-isbn-9780143123385","title":"Coming to My Senses","description":"\u003cb\u003e“It’s been a long while since I’ve read a book so luscious. This memoir about falling in love with perfume made me want to smell \u003ci\u003eeverything\u003c\/i\u003e.” -\u003cb\u003eCeleste Ng\u003c\/b\u003e, author of \u003ci\u003eLittle Fires Eve\u003c\/i\u003er\u003ci\u003eywher\u003c\/i\u003ee and \u003ci\u003eEverything I Never Told You\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“A woman, I think we can all agree, should smell like herself. But which self?” \u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Late one night near the middle of her life when all her careful plans have gone awry, Alyssa Harad stumbles across a blog devoted to reviewing perfume. She is not the kind of woman who wears perfume. But she is a reader, and the ability to describe a fragrance unfolding in the air with words seems like a magic trick. In the reviews perfume becomes a place, a person, a moment in history. Perfume becomes a story at a moment when she needs a new one. Harad follows the magical trail of scent from a private museum of rare essences in Austin, Texas, to the glamorous fragrance showrooms of Manhattan, and finally to a homecoming in Boise, Idaho—undoing and expanding her understanding of gender, femininity, pleasure and identity along the way. Candid, elegant, insightful, full of lush description and gentle humor, \u003ci\u003eComing to My Senses\u003c\/i\u003e reveals the intimate connections between our senses and our selves.“It’s been a long while since I’ve read a book so luscious. This memoir about falling in love with perfume made me want to smell \u003ci\u003eeverything\u003c\/i\u003e.”\u003cb\u003e-Celeste Ng, author of \u003ci\u003eLittle Fires Eve\u003c\/i\u003er\u003ci\u003eywher\u003c\/i\u003ee and \u003ci\u003eEverything I Never Told You\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e “I love \u003ci\u003eComing To My Senses\u003c\/i\u003e. I love its quietly revolutionarily gender politics, and its politics of pleasure. Alyssa Harad is thoughtful, expansive, wise and playful, especially on all matters gender.”\u003cb\u003e -Katherine Angel, author of \u003ci\u003eTomorrow Sex Will Be Good Again\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eDaddy Issues,\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eUnmastered: A Book of Desire Difficult to Tell \u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e \u003ci\u003e“Coming to My Senses \u003c\/i\u003eis a book I think of often, even years after having read it. It’s about perfume, but also about sensuality and self-knowledge and so much more.”-\u003cb\u003eLauren Elkin, author of \u003ci\u003eFlâneuse: Women Walk the City in Paris, New York, Tokyo, Venice and London\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e \u003ci\u003e“Coming to My Senses\u003c\/i\u003e is an intoxicating journey of a book, as lush, sensual, and complex as the finest French perfume. A must-read for any fragrance lover.”\u003cbr\u003e \u003cb\u003e-Deanna Raybourn author of the Lady Julia Gr\u003ci\u003ee\u003c\/i\u003ey and Veronica Speedwell Mystery Series\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e “Alyssa Harad’s smart and sensuous memoir is not really about perfume; the book cites only a handful by name. \u003ci\u003eComing to My Senses\u003c\/i\u003e is a book about perfume lovers—that very special brand of aesthete—and a sly and moving interrogation of the conflict between her identity as a feminist and an intellectual and the popular idea of perfume as something frivolous.”\u003cb\u003e-Elisa Gabbert, author of \u003ci\u003eThe Unreality of Memory\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eThe Word Pretty\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e “Alyssa Harad's memoir is a complete delight, not only for the senses, but for the mind. If her sentences had a fragrance, they would smell like the most opulent rose with a squeeze of crisp citrus -- sumptuous, fresh, delicious.” -\u003cb\u003eRachel Syme, staff writer at \u003ci\u003eThe New Yorker\u003c\/i\u003e and co-author of \u003ci\u003eThe Dry Down\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e“Harad recounts her Kate Chopin-like awakening to the sensual joys of perfume and the fulfillment, happiness and fragrant friendships that follow.”\u003cb\u003e— \u003ci\u003eLos Angeles Times\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e“Bursting with sensuous delights .\u003cb\u003e—\u003ci\u003eDallas News\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cbr\u003e“This is a book that arouses and galvanizes the senses—all of them. . . . The very word puts a lot of us on edge—perfume—but turns out it’s just the elbow crook inching open the door into Harad’s memoir, which is as much about her surprise at delighting in perfume’s history, community, and aromatic allures as it is about her own reckoning with what it means to be a woman. . . . For the reader, her pleasure is catching.”—\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eAustin Chronicle  \u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cbr\u003e“...what makes this memoir so appealing are its deeper notes, the ones that linger on after reading: the story of a how a no-nonsense, underemployed English Ph.D., who usually dresses like 'an unmade bed,' discovers the pleasures of femininity and her own senses through an affair with fragrance.”—Catherine Hollis, \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eBookPage\u003c\/i\u003e (Top Pick)  \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cp\u003e \u003cbr\u003e“Harad charms everyone—with stories, recommendations, and delight. . . . This memoir is lovely and evocative, as she becomes more comfortable with herself and her open appreciation for things, like perfume, that are about beauty and pleasure.” \u003cb\u003e—\u003ci\u003ePublishers Weekly \u003c\/i\u003e \u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cbr\u003e“... most surprisingly of all, Harad found herself reclaiming a femininity that she had disowned. . . . Like a good perfume, this book is slow to unfold, but the author’s account of her experiences is well worth the wait. A quiet delight.”\u003cb\u003e—\u003ci\u003eKirkus Reviews\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e“Few delights match the instant, primal gratification given by a beautiful fragrance—yet too often we ignore the power of this sense. Alyssa Harad’s fascinating (and often funny) story of how she became bewitched by the pleasures and culture of perfume will give readers a new appreciation for scent's intimate role in their lives.”\u003cb\u003e—Gretchen Rubin, author of \u003ci\u003eThe Happiness Project \u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e“By turns witty, sensuous, and poignant, \u003ci\u003eComing to My Senses \u003c\/i\u003eis a book that demands to be savored and shared. And I challenge anyone to read this without ransacking the dark corners of their closets and cosmetics bags for a scent to put on, and then another and then another…”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e—Deborah Harkness, author of \u003ci\u003eA Discovery of Witches\u003c\/i\u003e \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cb\u003eAlyssa Harad\u003c\/b\u003e holds a PhD in English from the University of Texas, Austin. She has written about perfume for \u003ci\u003eO, The Oprah Magazine\u003c\/i\u003e and the award-winning perfume blogs \u003ci\u003eNow Smell This \u003c\/i\u003eand\u003ci\u003e Perfume-Smellin’ Things.\u003c\/i\u003e She lives with her husband in Austin, Texas.","brand":"Penguin Books","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46300035580133,"sku":"NP9780143123385","price":24.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1842\/7735\/files\/9780143123385.jpg?v=1767723965","url":"https:\/\/k12savings.com\/products\/coming-to-my-senses-isbn-9780143123385","provider":"K12savings","version":"1.0","type":"link"}