A little dry in places and she tends to veer off on tangents, but it kept my attention to the extent that I read it all in one sitting. Overall, an interesting read about a fascinating woman. ( )

Annoyingly written, but it did make me want to read a real biography of Chanel... ( )

So much fun to read! ( )

Ok, so I couldn't even read this one. I read a few pages and was bored. Usually I give a book a chance, but the writing steered me away from wanting to read more. ( )

Things I Learned: Coco Chanel came up with my favorite quote about style: "Elegance is refusal." I always thought it was Diana Vreeland, but no, Coca said it first.

Coco Chanel was a woman ahead of her time, but she was able to pay the game by her own rules, and by bending the rules of the old game.

She was in many ways a brilliant visionary as a designer, but she was also able to look around her and make something new from what was available ... and charge a fortune for it. She was privileged to be in Paris society at a time of artistic and cultural revolution. She knew Stravinsky, Diaghalev, Cocteau and Pierre Reverdy, and a great many other social and cultural bright lights. Her influence on fashion is still felt today: I was perusing Bill Cunningham's style articles on NY Times last night and there were women in their Chanel jackets and skirts, now courtesy of Karl Lagerfeld.

Karbo paints a picture of a fashion icon who was indomitable, took crap from no one and lived Wallis Simpson's dictum: "Never complain, never explain." She wasn't an easy person to love, but she got the job done. She built a fashion empire that lasts. ( )