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I have to admit that when it comes to shoes and handbags, I'm a girly-girl. The more the merrier. When I heard about Bringing Home The Birkin: My Life in Hot Pursuit of the World's Most Coveted Handbags by Michael Tonello, my curiosity was piqued. It just took me a while to get to it. My To Read list is long- what do you want from me? Anyway, while I love a great handbag, I was a little skeptical that a memoir about buying and selling the infamous bag could be engaging. I'm happy to say that I was wrong.
Tonello is offered one of these "too good to be true" career opportunities and he moves to Barcelona, Spain. The deal never materializes, yet he decides to take a chance and remain in the city, since his lease was signed and everything. It's the late 90s, eBay is king, and Tonello figures out how to make good use of it. After auctioning off a ton of personal items to pay the bills, he notes that there is a cult market for Hermes' scarves. Of course, he figures out a way to give the people what they want, while keeping the lights on and the credit cards paid. But it's the elusive Birkin bag that gets him going. The bags were considered such a hot commodity, there was a standard two year waiting list for one. Tonello "breaks the code" for obtaining the bags, and then begins to really take off in his business. Along the way, he finds love, does enough traveling and eating to make any wanna-be jet setter swoon, and even gets caught up in a bit of intrigue.
I read Bringing Home The Birkin after a string of "serious" reads. Birkin was fun read, and has ignited a serious desire to spend time in Tonello's beloved city of Barcelona (and a few other European spots he frequented). Birkin is a great way to indulge without worrying about the future financial consequences. And the pics included in the book were awesome. Just for kicks, when you're finished reading the book, head on over to eBay and see what the Birkins are still going for. Yes, these are handbags people!
Djuanna Brockington
Contributor
Djuanna Brockington is the owner, writer, and often frazzled brain behind DivaFictionBytes. I love, love, love reading fiction, but because of my busy life as a single mom, consultant, girlfriend, etc, my fiction reading is usually confined to 15 minutes before bedtime.
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written by Djuanna, December 17, 2009
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written by Michael Tonello, December 17, 2009
Thanks for the great review. I'm so pleased that you enjoyed my book and took the time and trouble
to post about it. Working on book #2 now....
Happy Holidays and
Be well!
michael~
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