A Beautiful Book

The Beauty Book is an absolutely breathtaking collection of exquisite photographs of beyond-beautiful celebrities, all bound into a collectable coffee table tome. It contains over 300 pages of photos of over 120 models, musicians, actors and actresses, including Jessica Alba, Justin Timberlake, Miley Cyrus, Hugh Jackman, Amy Adams, Nicole Richie, and of course the above-pictured cover girl, Scarlett Johansson. The celebs are gorgeous- and they are beautifully styled, right down to their makeup and manicures- and the photography is first-class.

But that's not the reason to buy The Beauty Book. The reason to buy The Beauty Book is that all profits from the sale of the book benefit brain cancer research.

The book is the work of photographer Darren Tieste and his partner on the project, Sarah "Pantera" Uphoff. After Tieste lost his close friend, 35-year-old Natalie Sattler Esposito, to brain cancer in September 2008, he says, "I used all my Hollywood connections to give brain cancer a voice and The Beauty Book was born." He soon partnered with Uphoff, who lost her mother to the disease, and who was able to rally her own Hollywood connections to contribute to the cause.

Brain cancer is a devastating disease that afflicts more than 35,000 Americans a year, according to the National Cancer Institute, including many young adults in the prime of their lives, and even many children.  Every year, too many beautiful people are lost to this horrible illness.

So it is inspiring to see the vast array of famous beautiful people who came together to be photographed for this book. And it is a good feeling to do something- anything- to help raise funds and awareness for this awful disease, even if it's something as simple as buying a book.