Even Manolo Blahnik loves this coffee-table book about shoes, our favorite accessory; he says so on the back cover.

"The Seductive Shoe" (Stewart, Tabori & Chang, $40) is written by Jonathan Walford, fashion historian, private collector and former curator of several fashion-related institutions.

Organized chronologically from the 17th century to the present, the book covers significant developments in shoe design, as well as historical events, social changes and industrialization and their influence on style and production. And hundreds of photographs capture the progression of styles.

METROPOLIS EDITOR GIVES TALK

The importance of design history in our fast-forward world is the subject of an interactive evening that includes a conversation with Susan S. Szenasy, editor in chief of Metropolis Magazine, and the screening of "Site Specific: A Legacy of Regional Modernism," a short film about the climate and place-sensitive architectural experiments of the Sarasota School.

It's free at 5:30 p.m. today in the University of Hawai'i-Manoa School of Architecture's auditorium, Room 205. The event is co-sponsored by UH, Leo A. Daly and Historic Hawai'i Foundation.

FINAL WORD

"My parents read me the books when I was 9, and I fell in love with them."

Dakota Blue Richards | child star of "The Golden Compass," in Entertainment Weekly