Halloween: The Best of Martha Stewart Living (Paperback)

~ Martha Stewart Living Magazine (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Halloween books abound, but none is as elegantly spooky or as eerily opulent as this gorgeous guide from Martha Stewart Living. Set the scene for the ultimate Halloween party with a magical yard full of pumpkins glowing with vibrant geometrics and sparkling with Christmas lights. Welcome guests with shadow lanterns flickering with bats and haunted windows. Strew the house with chiffon ghosts and fill the air with haunting sounds. Then host a pumpkin-carving feast, a crafty party, or a ghoulish supper, and whip up eyeball highballs, croaked messieurs, and spider-web sundaes. And don't forget the creepy makeup: follow along as willing victims transform into a skeleton, mummy, and several other creatures (Martha herself becomes an astonishing black widow). Excellent directions, full recipes, beautiful photographs, and an extremely detailed source list should inspire anyone to celebrate All Hallows' Eve with style. --Amy Handy

Product Description

Halloween is rivaled only by Christmas when it comes to the holidays that generate the most interest for Martha Stewart Living’s readers. Halloween is a compendium of the best Halloween ideas published in the magazine over the last decade.

To help celebrate this ghoulish holiday, the editors of Martha Stewart Living bring us Halloween, a compilation of all the best tricks and treats of the spooky season.

Organized in two sections, Halloween makes this holiday so much fun it’s scary. In “Tricking,” pranksters will find all manner of pumpkin carving, eerie lighting, and makeup and decorating ideas. “Treating” provides the recipes for having a Halloween feast or a hanted-house party and ideas for making mischief with kids.

Product Details

• Paperback: 144 pages
• Publisher: Clarkson Potter (August 28, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 060980863X
• ISBN-13: 978-0609808634
• Product Dimensions: 10.8 x 9 x 0.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (29 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #158,430 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

42 of 44 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Better than you might think!, May 5, 2003

By	Scott F. Messinger "scottm2251" (Plano, TX) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Being a HUGE Halloween fan, I would have never thought that Martha could have any good ideas for Halloween decorating. Her decorating ideas are always so cute and cheerful, right?

How wrong I was! This book has wonderfully dark and gothic decorations that really capture the essence and magic of Halloween. Even the ideas for the kids are tasteful, without being overly cutesy.

Add to this great ideas for seasonal food (who knew you could use pumpkin in so many different ways), excellent costume ideas, and party ideas, and you have a great 'grown-up' Halloween decorating guide!

And for those reviewers here who complained that the book was only a collection of Martha's previous magazine articles: The title is "Halloween: The Best of Martha Stewart Living". The "Best of" title should have clued you in that this was not brand new material. I'm sure the audience for the book was people like me, who have never picked up Martha's magazine before. I know I buy every Halloween issue now, as well as other seasonal issues.

19 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Halloween: The Best of Martha Stewart Living, October 22, 2001

By A Customer

This book is what I expected: a compiliation of Halloween ideas from past issues of the MSL magazine. If you've saved October issues over the last several years, you may be disappointed that this book doesn't have anything new (but it's convenient to have all these ideas in one place). I'm glad I bought this book, as I subscribed to the mag. just two years ago.

Many of the crafts in this book require patience and skill, and really are for adults and older children. I've made simplified versions of the shadow lanterns -- my family's delighted with the results.

If you're looking for easier Halloween crafts and projects, there are many wonderful books on the market. My children particulary enjoy _The Halloween Book_ by Jane Bull (DK Publishing), a kid-friendly guide to preparing for the holiday.

23 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars If you don't already have the magazine...., October 1, 2001

By	Dr. Nancy E. Rossiter (Amelia Island, FL) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

....It is a good book. Like the other reviewers, I bought Martha's Halloween magazine last year, and it has all of the same things, with only a few minor changes. I was also very dissapointed with the book, because the magazine was good and I had hoped for more of the same. So if you don't have the magazine, buy the book. If you have the magazine, save your money.... the one or two additional projects don't justify the cost.