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Women's Fiction
Why Men Don't Listen and Women Can't Read Maps : How We're Different and What to Do About It

Why Men Don't Listen and Women Can't Read Maps : How We're Different and What to Do About It

List Price: $14.00
Your Price: $10.50
Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Hardly informative, barely entertaining
Review: After reading Deborah Tannen's thoughtful books on how men and women relate, I was eager to discover yet another 'take' on this subject. Unfortunately, I was greatly disappointed in this book by the Peases.

The book suffers from the following:
- Annoying repetitiveness
- Shallowness
- Sophomoric sense of humor
- Questionable conclusions

Other than that, it's a great read! :D

Seriously, I can distill the entire book into a few not-terribly-profound points:
- Men and women are wired differently, leading to different innate abilities and interests.
- The above sentiment is really, really politically incorrect. No, really, it is! Did we mention that this is controversial? Truly!
- It's best to be at peace with our genetic destinies. Women, don't grow up to be cowboys! Men, you're hunters!

In short, this book offers strained and not-very-funny examples under the guise of pseudo-science, and -- worse yet -- doesn't offer any substantive insight or very useful recommendations.

About the only thing I enjoyed from this book was the occasionally witty sayings interspersed here and there in large type throughout. Perhaps it's rather telling that few (if any!) were actually original contributions by the authors of the book; most are funny sayings we've all seen on the Internet.

Overall, I'm just saddened that peoples' collective time has been taken up by this book when it'd have been much better spent either reading something truly humorous OR honestly informative.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Full of Fun,Humour & Facts..........
Review: I Never Knew so Many things about Men Women relationship Before reading this book.This Is A must read book for Everyone who wanna make their relationship better,Who want to how know men & women are different & Why,How to make relationship peaceful.

I always wondered why women have six sense,how they can read anyone,How they know so many thing,How they do so many things at a time & why we men Cant?

I laughed so much while reading this book the people around me thought I lost my mind.

There is Lot More things,You must read to understand about you & women.

This is Must read Laugh & Learn kind of Book.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Valuable reading
Review: Here is a book that gives insights and understanding about one of the most difficult areas of communication. This comes at the subject from a variety of viewpoints. There is some hard evidence for their findings. The humor and human interest stories help keep the book moving along.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: A fun read - don't take it too seriously!
Review: As with any book that tries to explain the differences between men and women, this book is replete with generalizations. Once you accept that the statements made refer to probabilities that apply to the majority of subjects, but certainly not all persons, the various points start to add up. In the old genetics vs. environment debate, the Peases suggest that the hormones which govern our gender also define the pathways in which we perceive reality, pursue relationships and solve problems. Somewhat similar to the earlier 'Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus", this is a useful look at human behavior that might just reduce the number of male-female battles! For all the authors' claimed research however, this is just a light hearted book that can be enjoyed with profit. Do not expect any scientific breakthroughs, but you can certainly get a better understanding of both your own behavior and the mysterious behavior of the opposite sex, (whichever that may be)! Just read it with an open mind and have fun - don't take it too seriously!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Full of Fun,Humour & Facts..........
Review: I Never Knew so Many things about Men Women relationship Before reading this book.This Is A must read book for Everyone who wanna make their relationship better,Who want to how know men & women are different & Why,How to make relationship peaceful.

I always wondered why women have six sense,how they can read anyone,How they know so many thing,How they do so many things at a time & why we men Cant?

I laughed so much while reading this book the people around me thought I lost my mind.

There is Lot More things,You must read to understand about you & women.

This is Must read Laugh & Learn kind of Book.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: By idiots, for idiots
Review: Another terrible popular book about how everybody's prejudices about sex differences are confirmed by science, or more often, pseudo-science. Go ahead and read it, and then explain to your girlfriend that your genes made you sleep with all those other girls, or whatever.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Snazzy, Fun, and Humorous
Review: Now who would have thought that Asians can't drive because it's their lack of spatial ability (due to the low amounts of testosterone)? in this rather eye opening and amusing book, the authors explore the differences in both men and women. Come on people, you guys already know that we're not all the same despite the new millenia's idealistic standards on how we're equal. OPEN YOUR EYES -- we're not and that's what the authors point out.

As the chapters explore the differences between men and women (it's not just their genitals... it's also *gasp* (sarcasm) their personalities! Although the book pretty much banks on typical men and women stereotypes, it sums up the both of the genders quite nicely. This book also dives into the topic of homosexuality, men and women's roles in society and typical reactions from both sexes. "Why Men Don't Listen and Women Can't Read Map" provides the reader an interesting outlook on both genders but might annoy some serious readers or readers who think they're not like the described stereotypes -- but overall, this is an entirely enjoyable book.

As a note: I'm a woman and I can sure read maps and navigate when my boyfriend doesn't have a damn clue where to go. =D

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: glibandtrivial
Review: I think books like this do such a disservice to what is an interesting and complex subject. They would be better off do ing a short magazine article and not cutting down trees for this kind of dopey, uber-cute, erroneous advice.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Hilarity will ensue
Review: This book made me laugh so much. I didn't realize there were other implications to gender other than having different physical makeups. For example, women have better peripheral vision than men, so they can scan a wide area better, hence they can find the butter in the refrigerator. Men have better straight-on vision however, which makes them better at examining the close details of something from relatively far away, be it a girl or car or whatever captures his fancy. This is why men get caught ogling more often, because they have to turn their head to look at someone passing by, whereas women can keep an eye on them more subtly by using their periphery vision. And I used to think that men ogle more simply because they are more visual!

There is a neat quiz in the book that determines whether you are a masculine or feminine brained person. I am a girl, but I got a relatively high masculine score. Oh well, I haven't found there to be that many pitfills to looking like a woman but thinking like a man. Some of the questions on the test were intriguing- apparently women prefer to sit on the right side of the movie theater and men like to sit on the left side. Go figure.

What I found particularly funny was the section that talks about how men can only do one thing at a time, so they will brush their teeth in the front of the mirror, with their feet planted shoulder length apart, carrying out the task. Meanwhile, a woman can watch tv or perform a number of other tasks while brushing her teeth. Basically, men can only focus on one thing at a time. I find this funny because it makes them seem stupider or at least, more like animals. Sorry if this offends anyone, but it's just my opinion.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Male-bashing, unreferenced tosh
Review: I had high hopes for this book.

I was excited at finding a genuine, factual book, explaining the psychological and biological differences between the male and female brain.

I was looking forward to understanding more about the human sexes at an unbiased level.

And then I started reading it.

And I wasn't excited any more.

For something portrayed as unbiased and fact-based, it's a purley just another male-bashing book. There are three main issues I have with it:

Firstly, most sources for their information are completely unreferenced and look like they're just there to prove their point. Common phrases

are "scientist have discovered", "research has found" and "experts now know" - all useless phrases, lacking substance to anyone with more

than one brain cell.

Secondly, it constantly repeats itself over and over. Usually in the form of annoyingly large key phrases dotted around every paragraph or

so. They would be a great way to sum up what's just been said, particularly if it was a hard concept to grasp, but they don't. They more or

less repeat the last sentence word for word. A good example can be found on page 7:

"Whether men and women are _equal_ is a political or moral question, but weather they are _identical_ is a scientific one.

[Then in large italicised writing underneath:]

The equality of men and women is a political or moral issue; the essential difference is a scientific one."

... and you feel like yelling at the book, "I KNOW, YOU JUST TOLD ME, STOP INSULTING MY READING ABILITIES".

Thirdly, and most importantly, it's heavily biased towards women. If it were marketed as such, I wouldn't have a problem, but it's not. And

let me point out at this stage that I have no problems at all with poking fun at male stereotypes. But every single page begins to wear you

down. Especially when there's not fun being poked at women.It's advertised as a biological insight into our brains and why men can and cannot

do some things and why women can and cannot do other things. Seems simple, and if they'd have stuck to the plan, it would have worked.

Instead, anything where women excel (multi-tasking etc.) is rammed down our throats time after time after time. Everything where women falter

(knowing left from right) is also blamed upon the male for not understanding the woman's brain. Anything the men excel (direction) at is

sparse, but played down when it's there and anything men don't do well at is the cause of much "jocularity" and usually subject to a

derogatory cartoon.

Here's a selection of some subject headings, cartoons and (annoyinglylarge and unnecessary italicised quotes):

Page xv: A cartoon entitled "A Sunday Drive" where the dad is at the wheel of a car. His wife is next to him, looking scared and the kids are

leaning out the back window with a sign saying, "HELP! WE ARE LOST BUT OUR DAD WON'T STOP TO ASK FOR DIRECTIONS"

The text starts with a story about a family out for a drive where the dad gets angry because people are talking and he can't concentrate on

driving.

Page 4: [The first quote] How many men does it take to change a roll of toilet paper? It's unknown, it's never happened.

Page 17: Chapter two starts with a cartoon of a man complaining he can't find the butter in the fridge.

Page 22: [Quote] Women have wider peripheral vision, men have tunnel vision.

Page 23: [Subject] Why Women's Eyes See So Much

Page 25: [Subject] Men and Ogling

Page 27: [Subject] Why Women Have A Sixth Sense

Page 29: [Subject] Why Men Can't Lie To Women
and [Subject] She Hears Better To...

Page 30: [Subject] Women Read Between the Lines

Page 31: [Subject] Why Boys Don't Listen

Page 32: [Subject] Men Miss The Details

Page 36: [Subject] Why Men Are So Thick-Skinned

Page 41: Chapter three starts with the age-old cartoon of a cross-section fo a female's and a male's brain. The male's is full of Sex,

exaggeration and "lame excuses" as well as tiny "Asking for directions microns" and one single "Hearing children in the middle of the night

neurone". Predictable, page 43 has the womens brain full of "committment" and "lie detector"

Page 47; [Quote] Tests show [uncredited] that women rate three percent higher in general intelligence than men.

Page 52: [Quote] Ask men and women if their brains work differently. Men will say they think they do, in fact there was something they were

reading on the Internet the other day... Women will say, of course they do - next question?

... and it carries on in that vein throughout. The annoying thing is, it's all true and we all know that, but why is there such a heavy

emphasis on the women's point of view?

Credit where it's due, I'm only one-third of the way through the book. If it gets better, I'll let you know.

Sadly, I have a feeling this will be my last post...


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