Tuesday, June 3, 2008

Sex Appeal Book Review

When I got this book, I wondered "why me?" However, it has turned out to be a great read. I love the pastel pages but could do without all of the squiggles and dots on them. In a way, I wish the primary information was in the white boxes and the secondary material was in the multicolored, multihued, hard to read parts. With that said, this was a very hard book to read in bed, with less than ideal light and the pretty designs became distracting after page 30 or 40.

As for content, this book contains a no-sense, practical approach to being more feminine even though the title is a guide to being sexier. Written by two coaches who walk people through presentation makeovers, it contains little boxes with research done on various related topics. I really liked that though the placement of the books could be distracting at times. Otherwise, the content was 1) what I was taught in high school about how to act like a "lady" (and that may give away my age because I don't think many place offer such classes now), 2) mixed with the type of instruction that modeling schools or agencies charge a couple of thousand dollars for -- how to sit, stand, walk, preen, pose to draw attention to your body, plus a smattering of 3) Dr. Phil-type psychology and lessons on reading body language and NLP training on mirroring, leading, and pulling.

My favorite chapter was the 6th one, in which "Sally", the invented client, gets to try it all out on "Stan", one of the authors and he throws her a couple of mixed message curves.I also liked the drawn illustrations although in a couple of the more subtle ones (like the how to smile in three different ways), I could not see the difference in the printed pictures.

Overall, I would highly recommend to anyone who needs to adjust their confidence levels in meeting, greeting, and relating to others. I also hope that the dropped lines in the middle and the end (one was about charisma coaching) indicate additional books that are in the works.