Perfumes--the A-Z Guide by Luca Turin and Tania Sanchez

Remember the book The Emperor of Scent? It was about the scientist Luca Turin? Well, he and his current lady-friend (also an experienced perfume enthusiast and a writer herself) are the authors of this very large guide to over 1,800 perfumes.

The most entertaining parts of this book (to me) are the essays that come before the actual perfume reviews. They are titled things like "How to Connect Your Nose to Your Brain" and "Beauty and the Bees" and "Masculine Elegance and What It Smells Like" and are entertaining and informative. I really enjoyed those.

The reviews themselves are, of course, highly subjective (if the authors hate your favorite perfume, you will strongly agree with me here), if expert, but also quite entertaining. I like learning to recognize what type of ingredients are in each perfume and which category each is in. I appreciated the indications of the expense of each one. I liked the top ten lists in the back... I just liked the whole book. I love perfume--I find the whole (rather mysterious to me) world of perfumery and scent rather fascinating, so I particularly found this book entertaining. Highly recommended if you are interested in perfume at all. However, if you just want to know what they said about your favorites, I'll be happy to look them up for you! :)