Dear Avantika

I received this letter from a lovely reader,

I had a question for Lisa of Solo Lisa and she recommended me to ask you.

The question is my Mom is interested in Art, Fashion and Home Decor although she doesn't give her hobbies attention. I wanted her to get started and am looking for books on these topics although the issue is her first language is not English, in fact she speaks very little. Because of that I'm not sure what to get and she is not computer savvy either so coffee table books on these topics would be the best option but I thought they would have to be illustration heavy and be quite vivid in content right?

Can you please help me with this, I am not very sure which books to get to match her requirement and Lisa told me you might know. Pls. write back as soon as possible.

Avantika

Dear Avantika,

I am from Mexico, so most of the books I read are in Spanish. If your mom is interested in getting to know about arts, fashion and home decor, you can buy some really cool magazines, like Vogue for example, and start reading little articles about the topics she enjoys the most. She will learn about what she likes and it's a great way to learn more and more English. You can go together to a bookstore and find some really cool art books. Taschen has a nice collection for starters. There are also plenty of magazines about home decor, like House Beautiful, she can start buying them every month and I bet that in a year time your mom will be an expert. What I enjoy the most is reading biographies, so maybe you can get her some designers or artists biographies in her mother tongue. I hope this helps, if not, let's see if my lovely readers have other ideas. What do you think guys?

Recibí una carta de una linda lectora, Avantika, en la que me pregunta qué le recomiendo para que su mamá comience a aprender sobre arte, moda y decoración. No usa la computadora y su lengua materna no es el inglés, entonces necesita libros o revistas con muchas imágenes para comenzar. Le recomendé comenzar a comprar revistas que le interesen para que comience a leer poco a poco, así irá aprendiendo inglés y sobre lo que más le gusta. También las biografías son una excelente idea para aprender. ¿Ustedes qué piensan? ¿Le pueden recomendar algo para ayudarla?