“The very rich,” F. Scott Fitzgerald famously observed, “are different from you and me.” Well, yes and no, says Michonski, who has been selling ultra-luxury properties to the upper crust for thirty years. Although he wasn’t... Read More

Behind the scenes in the world’s international luxury hotels is a hectic world of activity that must be orchestrated in such a way that its existence is only guessed at by guests. A general manager, Feninger writes, must be “a good... Read More

California’s San Fernando Valley is branded in the popular imagination as the apotheosis of middle-class tackiness. “Sadly,” Cooper writes, “we have allowed others to define us: Valley girls, strip malls, post-World War II... Read More

Over the past century the percentage of Americans over the age of sixty-five has grown from 3.1 million to 34.5 million. As the baby boomer generation reaches retirement age, those numbers will again skyrocket. “Declining birth rates... Read More

The notion that fairy tales can come true is on reflection a scary thought—think of all those wolves and witches. “The power of fairy tales lies in the fact that they are timeless stories of the struggles of the child who feels... Read More

Few enterprises require as much vigilance on the part of the consumer as hiring a contractor. Whether repairing a leaky roof or remodeling the whole house, “When that time comes,” author Amabile writes, “you had best be prepared to... Read More

Women make 91% of home-buying decisions, holding the purse strings on about $2 trillion-worth of buying power annually, according to a Harvard study quoted here. Although they initiate 80% all remodeling projects, preconceptions die... Read More

The self-hypnosis diet is not a diet, insist the authors (who are behavioral nutrition experts) from the outset. They call it a way to modify behavior through self-hypnosis so that their readers can eat anything they want and keep their... Read More