Rating: 
Summary: Loved it.
Review: I thought the book was great and I am not an editor. I felt the book was right on target. Women have immulated men in business and they have lost their tenderness, sentuality and sense of humor (which is obviously reflected in some of the comments of the book). I will use this book for the next several years to keep me grounded and have recommended it to many women. It is time women be themselves and use the tools which we have naturally and stop acting as we wished we had a penis.
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Summary: A very, very special book, not like anything I've ever read
Review: I very much enjoyed reading this book and keep picking it up again and again. It lifts my spirits. I gives me the feeling that I'm right about what I believe and that deceit and hatred is not necessary to get what you want.It's about combining love and war, that they are not opposites, but complement each other, and that your allowing your emotions to be present in everything you do can actually help and not hinder you. It suggests that you can draw on your love to tap your own energy and that you can succeed by loving people, by helping them, by connecting to them, and turning enemies into allies. This book describes and explains these ideas beautifully. You still have to make them your own and see how to actually apply these concepts yourself, but I think that's the beauty of it. You succeed because you're you, with your own beliefs, strength' and weeknesses, and they all come together. What a concept!!
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Summary: The Princessa hits the S.F. Chronicle Bestseller List
Review: I'm thrilled by reader response to The Princessa. The book hasbecome a bestseller in Denver, Chicago, London, Brazil, on theBusiness Week bestseller list, and just recently, in San Francisco. As for the critic who alleges I've misrepresented the Sun Tzu story, if he or she had read The Princessa, it would have been clear that many of the strongest, wiliest women have suffered defeat even when momentarily gaining power because they only had a piece of the complete puzzle of strategy available to them. With the Princessa, a reader has the total strategic picture needed to express her power. As one woman in my book says, "A woman is like a tea bag; it's only when she's in hot water that you realize how strong she is." The Princessa explains and codifies the strategy and tactics of women and underdog fighters throughout history. With it, a person can display her strength well before the water boils.
Rating: 
Summary: Only for that restless PEACE
Review: I've almost give up with this book. Is not a practical guide, it's not an spiritual manual, is not even an essay to share new ideas. Is has the vague thread of unargumented feminism. BUT there's something worthy in this book: THE EPILOGUS The epilogus summarizes a NEW IDEA, the definitin of that RESTLESS PEACE which means in other words: To be hapy with your own self. To have internal peace BUT this peace should be active, generating new comfortable feelings, new ideas, new adventures and new projects. The savour for this last chapter is the only deep part of the book.
Rating:
Summary: This is not a how-to book
Review: I, too, am amazed at the differences in the reviews. I go with the "read-4-times-a-year" group. This is not a how-to book with step-by-step instructions on how to get and keep power. Perhaps that is why people are so violently opposed to it: they think Rubin is telling women to cry to get their way. I read it more like: it is okay to cry, if you have tried everything else and that has failed. I find it quite meditative and like to read a chapter here and there at night. I usually sets me off analyzing situations I have recently encountered. And I must say, many of her insights are quite helpful. I recommend this book to every woman I encounter who had just taken a step up the power ladder!
Rating:
Summary: It Stinks
Review: If you can write a book by contradicting yourself and misquoting other peoples material then I quess Harriet Rubin did a bang up job. This book was absolutely a waste of my time. Rubin contradicts herself constantly which I quess is very Machiavellian but is the point of this book to educate or deceive the reader? In the chapter "The Paradox of Power Anorexia" ironically Rubin describes Jackie Onassis as a paragon of the powerful type of woman we were supposed to become, was she unaware of the fact that Jackie Onassis was a real life anorexic? Or is that something we are supposed to emulate too? In the "Book of Tactics" she simultaniously advocates telling the truth and lying to people. In tactic # 5 she says "Adopting his positon shocks the enemy, what you gain from doing so is much more effective than anything you acomplish by holding firm to your own position." She goes on to describe an Eastern Europeon rock band who won success by advocating the despots it despised. However in tactic #11 she state we should "Say the truth and act the truth. If you tell an opponent what he wants to hear, not what you mean you become a manipulator." Hello, wasn't that the whole point a minute ago! She advocates business practices for women such as bursting into tears at important meetings in order to get your way, and wearing dramatic costumes like a big floppy hats and dark glasses. You might get your way by bursting into tears at work, but I doubt you will get anyone's respect. I don't know what the field of publishing is like but these sort of tactics won't go over well at my workplace. In fact I really wonder if Rubin could have got this book published if she didn't work for a publishing company. I wonder if she burst into tears or if it was the floppy hat that did it.
Rating:
Summary: I was struck by the stark contrast of the reviews
Review: In reading over some of the reviews of this book I was struck by the stark contrast of them. To me this is evidence of the "power" of this book. I think the women (and men) who have read this book and say they hate it are true Princes and Princessas who have no need for what is obvious to them-and are discounting this book in order to maintain their own personal "power". Good for them! The ones who love it are learning some new valuable ways of thinking from this book. Whether or not all of the historical references are correct or incorrect doesn't really matter to me. The references did interest me in finding out more about those historical figures, while her "interpretations" of them and her views on how a woman should apply Machiavelli's theories got me thinking about strategy more consciously than I had in the past. My point is, whether I agree or disagree with what she says in this book, and whether you agree or disagree, reactions are strong. This is the sign of something successful, something which is stirring emotions and inciting some actions. I am a woman who has been in business for myself for the past 8 years. I have a Master of Science in Communication. I think her points are basically good ones. Some I think are questionable, such as the crying one. I do think that crying is either a manipulative tool or a weak reaction, and not one of true power. If one does cry it has to be honest and uncontrollable crying (a weak reaction). That has happened to me in the past and I found it much more disempowering than empowering. True, I did get what I wanted in the end, but there was no sense of satisfaction in getting it that way. There was shame. It puts a fear in the person(s) witnessing the crying- of hurting that person, and a shame in the person doing the crying -that they will be thought of as weak and unbalanced. There is no true power without balance. But, I found most of her other points good ones and noticed that in my business I do apply many of them. In business I have been successful with the men I work with by using (though unconsciously to this point) many of the tactics she describes. It is still difficult for women to make it in the business world. That is a definite. I think she is right when she says that women should not try to simulate men, but use their tactics without losing ones femininity. I don't believe that many women who have reviewed this book really understand what she is trying to say. Either that, or they don't have the sex appeal to use on men (some women don't). And I don't mean flaunting ones sexuality or dressing it up or anything like that. I just mean being attractive-in a sublime way. That's enough. Therefore they are angry that it is an advantage to have. And believe me it is an advantage. And it is awful that women need to have this trait while men don't. But that is because women are trying to break through a barrier of men who do put a value on attractiveness, like it or not. Men only have to deal with one another-so attractiveness never mattered. If the tables were turned and it were a matriarchical society I'm sure that women would not be impressed with unattractive, unkempt, spitting, fat, badly dressed men who were outward women haters and who would blame every woman for holding them back. Women would surely hold those men down from achievement. And men, similarly, are not impressed with radical feminists who place blame on men. Women have an intrinsic power over men which men don't have over women. Unfortunately, until there are many more women in positions of power, it is our only ace in the hole in such a patriarchical society to get to that point. Any way we can get their attention and get them to let us into their "boys club" is an advantage. But ultimately we want them as partners, not as submissives. We have to play a smarter game than they have! ;)
Rating:
Summary: Getting It Done As Only a Woman Can
Review: Power is one of those areas where writers have looked at the question from a male perspective or a unisex one that seems to be primarily male. To conceive of a book about women grasping and using power was a novel idea that quickly attracted my attention when the book first came out. I have had the pleasure of sharing this book with many women in business and later discussing the book with them. Clearly, the part of the book where Rubin argues that women should act like women in gaining and using power is very controversial with some women. The most extreme example of this point in dividing women readers I know is the advice to cry in front of men. Many women feel like this will cost them power, rather than gain them power. Others want to play the game like a man, and don't want to remind men that they are women. Other women feel that they should cry if they feel like it. Why shouldn't they? So, one of the interesting aspects of this book is that it helps the reader (female or male) to understand more about her or his assumptions about power. My experience is that coming to grips with assumptions is the essential first step to making progress, in this case towards more effective uses of power. A fascinating aspect of the book is that there are so few female historial characters for Rubin to draw on. Though each one is full of useful insights. I only wish there could have been more. An argument that Rubin makes is that many men would like women to take charge more. That makes sense to me. Why should women always hang back to see what the men want to do? Certainly, in our company the women who have done best are those who have taken charge. Unfortunately, opening the door and inviting people to step through it to set their own course is not enough for some. I encourage any woman (or man) who works with people of the opposite sex to read this book and think about its implications. Then use it as a discussion base for helping power be used more appropriately in your organization. Have a powerfully good time reading this book!
Rating:
Summary: Historical figures?
Review: Seeing how Harriet Rubin misrepresents history, I don't really see what difference it makes that she didn't have many female figures to draw from. She'd have distorted the facts on them just as she did with Sun Tzu, Walt Whitman, her own self, and Jerry Jones (though she's pretty cagey--probably for legal reasons more than anything--about the last two.)
Rating:
Summary: puhlease
Review: Self-absorbed, poor imitation of the brilliance and irony of Machiavelli. Sad. And now there's a Machiavelli for Kids on the market. Poor readings of a classic text.
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