Rating: 
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: Pure tripe
Review: This book is living proof of why publishing houses should neverpublish their own editors. How Doubleday could embarrass itself byoffering up this half-baked fruitcake of non sequiturs is all too obvious to me. However for the purposes of this review I will focus on Rubin's God-given talent for taking classic literature out of context and distorting history. Take a quick look up at Amazon.com's short description of "The Princessa." In it you will see that they refer to a passage in Rubin's book where she supposedly recounts Sun Tzu's only defeat. That defeat, according to Rubin (and sadly reiterated by Amazon.com), happened at the hands of the emperor's concubines when they simply giggled at one of Tzu's orders. What Rubin fails to tell us, and what Amazon.com did not pick up, is that that is only part of the story. The story continues and ultimately ends when Tzu lops off the heads of the emperor's favorite concubines, who were at the time nominated lieutenants and put in charge of the actions of their colleagues. Because their "troops" didn't follow orders they lost their lives despite the emperor's pleas. New lieutenants were then chosen and Tzu's orders were followed with precision. In other words, Tzu didn't lose. Tzu won!!! (Please read the ART OF WAR for the full story.) There is no justification for Tzu's heinous act, but that is not the point. Rubin fabricates and distorts history and legend to suit her weak reveries, not only in this example, but throughout the book <sic>. How could Rubin attempt to get away with such a deception, or how could she make such an obvious oversight, when her own publishing house prints an illustrated version of THE ART OF WAR, with the "emperor's concubines" anecdote--as it truly is--as the lead story. All at once, Rubin destroys her credibility as a writer, an editor, and a scholar. I wish I could tell you not to buy this book, but I can't. It proves that anyone can get published. Anyone can be an executive editor. Anyone can run their own line of books. And if not, Princessa is certainly worth a few good laughs.
Rating:
Summary: Reads like a pseudo-intellectual Cosmo article (but longer!)
Review: Tired of being walked on, discrimated against, and generally treated like I'm invisible, I bought "The Princessa" with much anticipation. "Finally," I thought, "a book that can help me steely and cunning; someone not to be messed with. Someone to be respected, feared even. Yippeee!" Within the first few pages of the book, I realized the true purpose of the book: to make the women reading it mad enough to gather up all of their assertiveness, hop in the car with vengeance, and with a confident gait......TAKE IT BACK TO THE BOOKSTORE!!! (Or in the case of amazon.com, send it back.) Oh my God, what a piece of ----! Pass this one by! It is impossible to find a coherent thought in this book
Rating: 
Summary: Real Girl Power
Review: As an intelligent and powerful woman, I struggled a great deal to accept and rejoice in my femininity and womanhood. Many books for women either told them to be men or encouraged a whiny manipulation that seemed counter to real power. Rubin's book came as a spring rain on a parched soul! I read it through rapidly and plan on reading it again. It was wonderful to have my power as a woman affirmed and valued. If you are a woman that has a dominant personality and have been accused of being un-womanly, or if you have been struggling to find power in what seems to be a weaker position, read this book. There is always so much more strength in embracing the reality of who you are and acting out of the joy and satisfaction that it brings, rather than denying who you are.
On a side note, I have had several men in my life tell me that they consider me (and my sister who also embraces these ideals) to be very powerful women, and yet still beautiful. It is not because of any sort of physical perfection, but that the joy in our womanhood and our strong personalities work together to give us power and connection with the men and women around us. Definitely worth a read!
Rating:
Summary: Rx - Reread 4 Times Annually
Review: An affirming little tome, Rubin continues to bolster those of us who just want to do good business - and are surprised when our best intentions don't speak for themselves. With wit, character studies and a bit of mystery, she continues in this writ to draw our best selves out of us - the ones that want to win at the boys' game but have a little girl's sense of play about the rules. I find myself bringing this book out when I have been broadsided and need to regain my bearings in this mannish world of business-as-baseball ethics and practices. And I bring it out to add to the underlines already there, because with each re-read there are more messages, more thought-provoking phrases and more challenges to the greater good that I have missed in readings past. It's a mysterious book; don't think you'll get all the illustrations and diatribes with the first read. But know that it was written just for you, wherever you find yourself having to 'best' instead of 'win' for the sake of good business.
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