Today on NPR's On Point with Tom Ashbrook: "Scent and sensibility: Two top perfume critics explain how their world of scent works on us."
The one hour show airs at 11 am, and the guests include Luca Turin and Tania Sanchez, authors of Perfumes: The Guide, and Patty Geissler of Perfume Posse.
You can find out more here. The station does offer both online streaming and an iTunes podcast.
In a letter to his friend Oskar Pollak, Franz Kafka (1883-1924) once wrote: “I believe we should only read books that bite and sting. If a book we’re reading doesn’t wake us up with a punch on the head, what are we reading it for?” That punch on the head, that wake-up call, was a defining element in 20th century art. In Perfumes: The Guide, authors Luca Turin and Tania Sanchez describe their favorite perfumes in similar terms: a great composition takes you by surprise, exceeds your expectations, blows you away.
Some people, of course, can’t fathom why perfumes are worthy of serious consideration in the first place, let alone why they should be reviewed in a book…
At the end of March, we gave readers the chance to ask Luca Turin and Tania Sanchez questions about perfume and their then-upcoming book, Perfumes: The Guide. Here are their answers. Note that I threw in two questions of my own at the end, and those of you who read all the way to the last answer, please join me in a moment of silence.
Nam: To both Mr. Turin and Ms. Sanchez: What is your all-time favorite perfume, if you have one? If not one, can you name some that would be in your top 5?
LT: Mitsouko.
TS: Mitsouko. Even reformulated. For lovers of top ten lists, we include several in the appendix. For haters of top ten lists, please remove them with a craft knife…
As I said on Friday, Perfumes: The Guide by Luca Turin and Tania Sanchez is due to ship from Amazon on 4/10 (list price: $27.95, today's Amazon price: $18.45). The hardcover version is 400 pages and includes introductory material plus reviews of over 1200 fragrances. According to Penguin, the book will “do for fragrance what Robert Parker’s books have done for wine”.
Many of you have pre-ordered the book, or at least read about it (if you missed the review in the New Yorker, do take a peek), and all of you can skip to the second-to-last paragraph for instructions on how to add your questions to our group interview. Those of you who need some further introduction, read on…
As most of you already know, Perfumes: The Guide by Luca Turin and Tania Sanchez is due out in a couple weeks (current Amazon ship date: 4/10). For those of you who missed that news entirely, here is a little taste of what is to come:
Stupid name, pink perfume, heart shaped bottle, little crown on top. I half expected it to be really great just to spite me. But no, it’s probably the most repulsively cloying thing on the market today.
That's their take on Vera Wang Princess, reprinted from the wonderful review in the New Yorker. The authors have graciously agreed to answer our questions, so come back on Monday to post your question, then I'll post their answers the following week.