Books for Prep | |
 - a successful total life makeover with Cosmo and Allure creating the roadmapI loved this book. As a magazine junkie drawn to the predictable headlines promising transformation, I found the premise interesting but a bit implausible. This month's Glamour don't may be next month's Allure hot trend, so how can one really steer a steady course by relying on magazines? I was curious. As the book begins, the author sets the stage for change by describing her messy life and the messy events that provided the the catalyst for her self-improvement kick. As I read the first few pages, I was a little put off and unsure that I would like the book or the author. The author really, truly had made a mess of her life. She was clearly intelligent and capable, but not very likeable. Reading her descriptions of repeated rounds of cubicle sex with a wholly unappealing sleazeball of a coworker, Bruno, was downright uncomfortable and made me feel oh-so-sorry for the others in the office, however equally dysfunctional they might be. The author has hit rock bottom and is not a sympathetic character -- one of her few friends is trying to break up with her as a friend in chapter one. Once the author decides to break her addiction to Bruno, and in the process treat herself to something more nourishing than vending machine meals, the book quickly becomes much more readable. The author chooses nine magazines -- the magazines she would want to sit next to at a dinner party -- to guide her life for the year. These include Cosmo, Glamour, Allure, Marie Claire, Elle, Self, O (Oprah's magazine), InStyle and Real Simple. Fuddy-duddies like Ladies Home Journal didn't make the cut (in part, it appears, because its target audience is not single women looking to makeover their love lives). The author then decides to give her life over to the magazines for a year. Each month she focuses on a single area for her life-makeover, and turns to the journals for guidance June is kick off month, "Do or Diet." Somehow the author is able to weave discussion of a Cosmo "Do You Make Men M-E-L-T?" quiz and childhood memories of Jewish ladies in leopard-print caftans at the local country club into the "Do or Diet" chapter, along the way introducing us to a number of men in her life in some shape or form -- the economics professor, the biker boutique owner, the pony-skin accessory merchant. The chapter ultimately focuses on tips for packing one's lunch -- specifically, wrapping a sandwich, interspersed with Cosmo tips on alternative uses for saran wrap. By June's end, she can wrap her sandwich without even referring to the Real Simple article, and the year appears to be off to a good start. The biggest catalyst for change comes in month one, when the author connects with new boyfriend Karl. Much of the next eleven months revolve around the relationship developing with Karl at breakneck speed, as much as anything else. July is "Roughing It" month, during which the author joins Karl and his motorcycle buddies on a camping trip in California. July's guidance is provided by O magazine and its technique for facing things you dread, with additional advice from Cosmo on "how to stroke his ego" and some Marie Claire tips on looking good in the heat. The facing-dread technique requires one to assign scores to each of the dreaded items. On the author's "Index of Dread," sleeping in a tent rated an 8, using a portapotty got a 10, and showing Karl her true self merited a 10 to the 400th power. August is Jean Therapy month, guided by InStyle and Glamour. In September, Bust A Move month, the author welcomes a new roommate -- Karl -- into her small apartment, making room by paring down her wardrobe and beauty supplies to a woman's bare minimum Must-Have's according to Glamour. September is Promote from Within, in which she relies on Cosmo tips to once-and-for-all get over sleazy coworker Bruno. In November, Party Favors month, she hosts an honest-to-goodness birthday party for Karl, creating her hostess persona by adopting Glamour's "how to be the sexiest woman in the room" tips. December is Gift Wrapped, where she learns how to get Karl to propose while, at the same time, appearing to be disinterested, not at all desperate. January is wrangle your Wiggle, where she sets off on a physical self-improvement kick, aiming to be the hottest bride around. February's Western Style involves a trip with Karl to meet his relatives in Hong Kong. March, Recipe for Success, gets back to the magazines a bit more than the previous few chapters. During March, the author, in a spurt of domesticity, turns to recipes in Real Simple and attempts chicken soup. Cosmo was called back in action during April, Booty Calls Month. May involves Living it UP, as the year of magazine therapy comes to an end. Although I really enjoyed the book, I don't think it is accurately describes as a year of magazine-inspired change. I think much of the change occurred in month one, when the author forged her relationship with Karl, and much of the self-improvement that followed was Karl-inspired rather than magazine-inspired. Despite the somewhat misleading dust-cover hype (not unlike some magazine covers with their promises of life transformation), the book was entertaining, fun to read. Alter is a great writer, very witty, unafraid to sprinkle her text with quirky but appropriate references. I would highly recommend this book to anyone familiar with (and a bit skeptical of the promises made on the covers of) the magazines described therein. Rating:  - Much Ado About (Almost) NothingThis sounded like it would be a funny interesting romp through the world of advice magazines but ended being an unappealing look into the author's sex life. If the book had only matched the hype, it could have been interesting and entertaining. A great idea for some other author to pursue. Rating:  - About like reading a 320-page glossy magazineIf you enjoy reading women's glossy magazines, you are already familiar with the light, breezy style of writing in Cathy Alter memoir's on a year lived following the advice of said magazines. It's pleasant enough, enjoyable enough, readable enough - and it will probably make a pretty successful Hollywood movie if it's ever adapted. I can easily picture the movie divided into vignettes by month, like the chapters of the book, focusing on a different area of improvement as the character's arc becomes clearer. Whenever we watched this kind of fluffy rom-com when I was growing up, my mother had a term for it: "harmless." That seems about like the right word to sum up this memoir, too. It's a good distraction - maybe a beach read - but don't come looking for too much depth. Rating:  - A Modern ParableAlthough her premise may seem a bit light, Cathy really nails the gist of affordable self-help. Although she never uses the term, she decided to apply to herself a form of "cognitive behavioral therapy" or CBT for short, and it seemed to do her a lot more good than her psychiatrist did. The translation is this: she identified a need during a period of personal crisis at age 37 to change her dysfunctional thoughts, feelings, and behaviors. Easier said than done, no? But she picked a time-limited intervention (one year) and a method (magazines) to effect change through a goal-oriented, systematic approach. She tackles month-by-month such biggies as debt, nutrition, fitness, employment--and, yes--even nailing a suitable husband. Given her sincerity and ultimately her success (she even got a book out of it!), you are rooting for her all the way. Her particular approach may not suit all, particularly guys, but reading between the lines you realize that you can set yourself any goals and achieve them realistically by choosing the technique of your choice and just sticking to it. One warning, however: in between hefty slabs of inspiration, Cathy does throw in more details of her neurotic angst and sexual gropings than are perhaps necessary for the average reader. Just regard that as adding color to her story . . . Rating: - Easy To Identify With!From this funny, seemingly whimsical book comes a surprising adventure in self-improvement. Cathy Alter is easy to identify with as she decides on a program of self-improvement through some carefully selected women's magazines. Recently divorced, she decided to change things. The so-called fun of her fast living lifestyle was wearing thin, and she wanted more meaning and direction. So she scraped together a wish list of what she wanted out of life. Realizing that most of what she wanted was found on the cover lines of most women's magazines, she decided to change her life. She carefully chose nine magazines and the better-your-life project started. The following chapters deal with the year's time she spent changing her life from the wisdom she learned from articles in from the magazines. Her power if description was hilarious as she described the ups and downs of her relationships at work and at home. She worked on her looks, attitude, outlook of life and sex appeal. She settled in with Karl, a boutique owner, whom she met through her business as an advertising writer. Karl was half Chinese and half American Jew which made for some interesting times when Cathy visited his relatives on both sides of the family. (While I was awaiting a doctor's appointment I read the chapter about her visit to Hong Kong and I laughed out loud several times - and I don't laugh very often in doctors' waiting rooms!) As Cathy tried to cope with a completely different culture she kept bringing back tidbits of wisdom she read in Marie Claire magazine. However, in the midst of the hilarity, Cathy was changing her life and for the better. She was growing; becoming her own person. She learned that her loving but very human mother may have given her a wrong impression about her lack of coordination and grace. In her own words, she decided to create a "new and more flattering photo album" about herself. She learns how to listen to her own internal authority and set her own boundaries. I appreciated this book, as I am a big-time reader of self improvement books, and although I don't read many women's magazines, I identified one hundred percent with her self-improvement program. On page 283 she states that the construction would never be completely finished, but what she has to offer, inside and out, was solid enough. And in my opinion, that statement is worth the price of the whole book. In association with Amazon.com | |