Rating: 
Summary: Helpful and worthwhile
Review: This 400 page book on social anxiety gives a good overview of the subject, indepth coverage of therapeutic choices, and discussion of relevant topics not generally covered. I have found the exercises on dealing with arousal, thoughts and beliefs, and avoidance behaviors very useful but wish the book could have been more workbooklike. Unfortunately in reality that would have made the book huge and not one I would have picked up. There is a good balance between technical and personal information. While there is a lot of information it is easy to read. I like the author's own anecdotes as well as other people stories. The book is ambitious, trying to give the reader some of everything needed to start recovery. No book on social anxiety is perfect but I give this one good marks for not only what it is trying to do but what it does.
Rating: 
Summary: Informative, comprehensive, progressive
Review: I have read a great many books on social phobia but I especially like this one because it covers the subject from all angles. It provides the reader with the background of the condition, current research findings and recommendations, step by step exercises and advice, and what to do to increase further the reader's social effectiveness as recovery occurs. The book is progressive, building each new step on the last. The sequence of chapters is geared to take the reader in a logical fashion through the process.But if one merely reads the book and eschews working on the treatment basics in this step by step manner, the reader will gain something but he is not likely to get a firm footing on the path to recovery. Certainly he will not be able to handle the more advanced advice the book offers in later chapters. Getting from being socially phobic to being recovered requires a lot of work. Once the reader has mastered the basics and made some progress with his anxiety, he can begin to address successfully his many other social needs which the book covers in detail.
Rating: 
Summary: Do not buy this book!
Review: Do not buy this book at all! I bought this book looking at the stars rating listed on the site. But it actually causes the anxiety to increase. Because the ways of overcoming given here are not realistic and cannot be used directly. For example the book just says that you need to dress well, listen to what other person is saying, do not worry, do not get scared etc. Even I know I don't wanna get scared and worry but I just can't help it! It comes naturally. Trust me, the only thing that works is The 20 tape CBT series by Dr. Richards. Its the best money you'd ever spend.
Rating:
Summary: Lots of recommendations on the net
Review: I found this book recommended on a bunch of social phobia web sites. I am glad I got it because after the attack on the World Trade Center I am even more afraid to be around other people. I like how personal and helpful the book is, like showing you you're not alone in how you feel and where you can get all kinds of help, like social security disability. It tells you lots of stuff you need to know, like what you can do if you are pee shy or blush or sweat too much. I like its humor too. The author tells some funny stories about her own battle with social phobia. It is a big book and will take a while to read because it tells you everything you should know about social phobia and how to recover it from it. Some of it is technical but mostly it is easy to read and understand. It is good for information, exercises and finding help.
Rating:
Summary: a good book,but too heavy
Review: i could feel some of the fillings in the stories in this book. since i myself had been a social phobic for 18 years. the book contains a lot of information about social anxiety and can help to people that suffers from tension in social situations (what medicaly is called social anxiety/social phobia /avoidant pesonality disorder.). how ever,it has been a little difficult for me to read it since my mother tongue is not english and the style of the book is not very simple. it is a good book.if you never read about sp/sad you will find this book good.but there are better books in the market. i think that is a must have book for therpists and just a good book for social phobics.in comparison to other books about sp this book was a little boring to me because of its style. good luck to all the social phobics in their war against it !
Rating:
Summary: Survival guide
Review: This is a survival guide for social phobics. That is one of the main differences between this book and the many others on SP. The focus is social effectiveness - how to apply what you learn from assessments, exercises and/or therapy everyday in everything you do. To this end it has whole chapters on meeting people and dating, communicating effectively, getting a job, and creating the image of yourself you want others to see. These are important areas of SP's lives which do not get discussed in any depth in other SP books. It has tips SPs need, like where to find free medication programs, how to apply for disability payments, and what therapy is like. These are things SPs need if they are to become socially fit again. Recommend.
Rating:
Summary: Credibility, warmth, and practical information
Review: I like this book because it goes way beyond so many other social phobia books. The average social phobia self-help book seems so cold to me with questionnaires and exercises and not much else. This book is by a professional who suffered with social phobia for over 20 years and who writes about her personal experience and the reader's with warmth and support. I like that the treatment approach which includes traditional and alternative treatments is balanced with lots of information and pros and cons so the reader can decide for himself which is best for him. There is also information on necessary but frequently ignored topics like avoidant paruresis, blushing, sweating, Internet resources and use, finding a therapist or job, making friends and dating. The book is very big. That's because it is crammed full of information. It even has a large bibliography for those of us who like to do our own research. Don't let its size or density of information discourage you. You can read it in chunks. It's well worth the time and effort. I also like this book because it finally convinced me that if I'm to recover I have to do all these exercises and do them over and over and over. Since starting them I am seeing changes I like. This more than makes up for any minor flaws the book may have.
Rating:
Summary: A worthwhile and useful book
Review: This is a very good book that a group of us online are using for our social anxiety. I know lots of people on social phobia lists are using it too. Many social phobia and anxiety sites and online therapists recommend it. That means a lot to me. Many of us have written reviews praising this book because it is really helping us work through our negative thoughts and fear behaviors. No one in my group or on the social phobia lists I belong to have been paid for their good reviews. I am very happy to find a book that tells me what I want to know and need to know and shows me how to get better with or without psychiatrists and drugs.
Rating: 
Summary: An eclectic mix
Review: This book contains a good deal of information about numerous facets of social anxiety, but doesn't really tie everything together. As such, the book doesn't present any kind of a program -- hence "working through" in the title may be a little misleading. I found myself wishing the author would dig a little deeper at times, and other times found her a bit too eager to apply disparate theories from other fields to treating social anxiety. But she does assemble a lot of practical information (such as her section on insurance coverage), most of it quite up to date, and so this book may be very useful as a reference. The anecdotes she relates are dead-on.
Rating:
Summary: Mixed Review
Review: First of all, this book is very badly edited. It has many comical typos, weirdly condensed diagrams, a discouragingly dense layout, and somewhat unclear writing. It also crams in as much information as possible, ranging from the repetitive and unhelpful, to the coincidentally useful, to the salient. Nonetheless, it's still worth reading. Or skimming through to find relevant sections, anyway. There is so much in this book that some of it is bound to be useful and validating. Although I have not yet gotten any other books on this subject, there do not seem to be many lay books on Social Anxiety, so this one may still be the best at the moment.
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