I finally read this, after seeing Carolyn Hax recommend it for years, but it wasn't nearly as good as I expected it to be. It reminded me of Malcolm GI finally read this, after seeing Carolyn Hax recommend it for years, but it wasn't nearly as good as I expected it to be. It reminded me of Malcolm Gladwell's books--quick to read, lots of anecdotes and "science", but ultimately not really helpful because you can pull one of the examples to support any argument you want to make.
For example, in one of the chapters he talks about watching a predatory man strike up a conversation with a single girl on an airplane, and he ticks off the warning things the guy does that should tell the girl he's up to no good. One of the "bad" things is that the stranger struck up an unsolicted conversation with her, but then the author goes up to her and unsolictedly tells her that the other guy is a creep and to make sure not to go anywhere with him after the plane lands!
Later in the book he spends some time raking the press/media over the coals for glamorizing crimials and violence, but he contributes to it himself by using the criminals' names (instead of victims') as shorthand (the equivalent of refering to it as "the Booth incident" instead of "Lincoln's assasination"). The hypocrisy bothered me but was consistent with what I felt was the entire book being equivocal--be careful, but don't live in fear, but be aware, but not paranoid.
About the only useful things I got out of the book are: -Women should get in the habit of offering to help other women. I will try to do this more. -You're better off asking a random stranger for help than accepting help from someone who offers it, because someone offering might have ulterior motives. Kind of sad, but at least it's definitive advice!...more
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