Rating: 
Summary: What a disappointment!
Review: This book started out great. In fact, I considered buying it for several of my friends for Christmas. Then I read on. This book is not for women leaders...it is for women "leader wanna-bes"! So much chatter about "proving" your stength to your boss, strategies and tactics. And when she said, "A women who is unafraid to cry, who shows her tears, strenghtens her presence" to her superiors...oh my god! And then, Rubin retorts that "tears are a freedom of speech issue." Then to advise wearing bright colors and big jewlry to "stand out and get attention." What planet and what century is she from? Great start, very poor finish. I couldn't even bring myself to read the last 50 pgs.
Rating: 
Summary: Maybe really only 1 1/2 stars...
Review: Finally, a book for wannabe braindead yuppie-type career oriented women with a case of executive-office envy! Having read the other reviews, I'll add that the Sun Tzu thing isn't the only error in the book. Rubin thinks it was women who invented birth control technology (cheering for the girls...), whereas it was actually male doctors and scientists who did this work. It was women reformers and physicians who opposed birth control early on... She tosses out the term "strong attractors", which is from chaos theory (she's for "constructive" chaos, an oxymoron); unfortunately, it should be "strange attractors". -Guess the scientifically illiterate target female audience would never catch this, but an editor should. Rubin has an obsession with what's called a one-down position, leading to guerilla tactics. It then seems contradictory that she's also trumpeting "women's special powers". As if all that weren't enough, the original Machiavelli was ultimately concerned with the well-being of his land and his people, service to the community if you will. By contrast, Rubin wants *you* to get ahead in the rat race, though I doubt this book would do one any good at being a better rat. Make sure you get that tear-proof mascara for those important meetings...
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.
Rating:
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!!
Rating:
Summary: courageous and upbeat
Review: To paraphrase another reader, as a woman and an executive I don't think lies and manipulation are good policy. But that reader and I must have read a different book. The Princessa's advice is quite the opposite: Rubin urges women to be moral, honest and thoughtful. Not to get attached to the outcome to the expense of one's character; and to resist evil. I've had the book for two years. I go back to it frequently, when I feel I'm doing something wrong and can't place my finger on it, when I need a boost, when I need to take a wider view. I found it easier to forget Machiavelli when reading Rubin: the Princessa, while taking the Prince as a starting point, is not in any way a "reading" of the classic text, nor even a variation. It is an attempt to counter its influence amongst would-be movers and shakers, who, whatever Machiavelli's ironic intention, take his "screw them to rule" advice as gospel. I found her examples illuminating; given the size of the book, I couldn't expect a detailed dissertation on each character she chooses as a role model - if you want to know Gandhi in shades of grey, read a biography of Gandhi; if you want inspiration from his essential strategy in getting the British to "quit India" without resorting to violence, then you will find it, alongside many other sketches. This book is not a replacements for our own instincts and learning, nor for more sustained arguments on women and the role of the feminine, rather it encourages us to look at prevailing orthodoxy, and see how this orthodoxy has failed women. For my money, Rubin gets it right - not everywhere, but in the main. And her chapters on power anorexy and tension hit the mark particularly. It has set me thinking in many different ways, it has helped me in others, it has guided some of my decisions to good effect, and it has challenged some of my assumptions. Not perfect in spite of the 5 stars, but a little gem all the same. Sceptics beware - this book is not for you. But if you are open-minded and want more from life than other people's rules...read it, return to it and pass it on.
Rating:
Summary: If there were a lower rating, i.e. zero, I'd have given it
Review: I am a VP in a startup corp, my second, and have been a woman to contend with in 30 years of business life. The book is 99% drivel. Don't waste your money. Every woman i know, that I've thrown it at - - aka Dorothy Parker - - has agreed. Incidentally, I couldn't wait to give it away.
Rating: 
Summary: A trifle disingenuous; take on The Prince not convincing.
Review: An interesting work which makes subtle use of weakness as strength in various situations, however, the use of flaunting where flouting is the correct word is extremely irritating, and the example of the concubines from The Art of War is just plain wrong.In my translation once the two favourite concubines were executed for NOT obeying orders the rest of the 180 obeyed with great precision. So much for "besting". None-the-less I found the book an entertaining read, but give me the real Machiavelli any day !
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.
Rating: 
Summary: Some critics protest a tad loudly?
Review: I do not know the author, I do not know her critics. I noticed there were plenty of people posting here who hated the book, and plenty who loved it. I sincerely wonder if some of the posters aren't also, say, editors?? Just a thought. Apparently different things appeal to different people. I liked the book for some interesting and insightful viewpoints (yes, helpful ones) couched in a colorful, readable presentation. I don't agree with it all, but found the book rather tongue-in-cheek in its tone, and thus see no reason to skewer the writer. I do agree with her in the 'geez, why can't we all just get along?' arena. Healthy discourse, fine... and if you don't like the book, you don't like the book. Don't you hate it when someone at the brainstorming meeting keeps insisting 'that idea's *wrong*'?
Rating:
Summary: how a women can focus her energy to be more succesfull
Review: This book really thought me about do's and don'ts in proffessional life of a woman
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