Books like The artifice of beauty by Sally Pointer

During World War II, a foster girl in Nazi Germany steals books to share with neighbors and a hidden Jewish man, proving literature’s power to nourish the soul amid darkness.

The Goldfinch chronicles the life of thirteen‑year‑old Theo Decker, who survives a museum attack that kills his mother and carries an art piece that becomes a lifelong obsession, exploring loss, identity, and art in contemporary America.

Sisters Vianne and Isabelle are pulled into the turmoil of World War II, each forging a path of courage and resistance against the Nazi occupation of France.

In January 1946, London novelist Juliet Ashton receives a mysterious letter from a Guernsey native, opening a lively epistolary journey that reveals the island’s quirky community, wartime struggles and a beloved book club born of curfew-breaking escapades.

Twin African American sisters flee their hometown after their father's murder—one chooses to pass as white while the other stays true to her identity, exploring race, family, and the complexities of self through generations.

A historical text offering advice on bodily appearance.

Almond Eyes, Lotus Feet is a nonfiction exploration of traditional Indian beauty and health practices, drawing on oral histories from royal women to share recipes, remedies, and personal care rituals across life stages.

223 pages : 29 cm

"Make-up, as we know it, has only been commercially available in the last 100 years, but applying decoration to the face and body may be one of the oldest global social practices. Lisa Eldridge, one of the world's foremost make-up artists--with a very large and loyal public following of her own--has written the first real history of the subject. Face Paint will explore the reasons behind make-up's use, the actual materials employed and manufactured through the ages, the icons that people emulate and how they achieved their effects, the impact on women's lives and the present and future of make-up from high profile practitioners artists to cosmetic breakthroughs. Along with the glamorous trappings, this is also about women's history and the ways in which we can understand their story through the prism of make-up."--