Rating: 
Summary: This is a book about listening.
Review: "The Wonder of Girls" is about listening - listening to the inherent nature of a girl and how that nature is informed by her biology, her family, her culture, and her own sense of self.
The author begins by giving us an intelligent discussion on the importance of feminism as it has attempted to make the lives of women safer and more fulfilling. Mr. Gurian then pulls us forward into a new form of feminism, "womanism", that balances the independence of feminism with the natural relational needs of females in a way that can be respectful to both men and women.
He makes several provocative statements throughout the book that will likely enrage many women, As an example, his statement about a female's "natural need for dependency on men," (p. 13) must be taken in the context of his surrounding words about establishing a vision of a life for girls that will provide them the equal status of men but won't rob them of the need to have a mate. Michael is saying that women deserve to be respected for wanting connection and strong families and for creating those relationships in a world that sometimes seems to esteem only "corporate thought and deed." On page 101, Michael discusses the support that he gave his own wife as she "assumed her right to become a mother of her own children... I, as a man, knew that her internal call-her 'biological clock'...was in fact a sacred thing, a voice of spiritual importance." Many women will not take this path in their lives, but for the women who do, what better mate can they have than the man who will honor and support their creativity in making this biological clock into a loving family?
Michael provides a good chapter on female biology and two chapters that can help guide mothers and fathers about using this information to be more conscious about the needs of their daughters. He offers concrete ways for parents as they help navigate their daughters' journey into womanhood.
Many people will not like this book. Many people will not be able to use the information in this book in a way that helps them raise their daughters. But many others will find inspiration and courage (and the ability to listen) in "The Wonder of Girls" as they tackle the tough challenges of raising their beloved daughters in a world that is oftentimes dangerous and unforgiving.
Rating: 
Summary: Save time, read the manual
Review: Did you really think that little girls are made of sugar and spice and everything nice? Well guess again. There is much that makes girls the way they are, and another factor that we need to pay attention to in order to help our daughters be the best they can be.The book, "The Wonder of Girls," by Michael Gurian, describes many things about girls that would help us to understand why we act the way we do. There were many ideas in the book that were of no surprise to me -- being a girl I had some "insider" information :). But readers who really want to get an insight into the "nature" of girls, will find this book interesting. The author explains that there is another element we need to pay attention to in order to help our daughters exceed in life. Not just exceed in the business world, but exceed in their personal lives as well. The book goes on to explain female biology; how we attach emotionally; our approach to intimacy; stereotypes; and gives a lot of advice on how parents can learn the "nature" of their own daughters. MyParenTime.com recommends "The Wonder of Girls," -- for one reason, the topic is interesting enough :). It also helps parents learn the best way to respond to their daughter's behaviors, and how to deal with the challenges that come along with each stage of their daughter's life. What parent wouldn't want help in this area? I'm certainly looking forward to using some of the information with my daughter as she grows :).
Rating:
Summary: An eye-opener for parents of girls!
Review: Did you really think that little girls are made of sugar and spice and everything nice? Well guess again. There is much that makes girls the way they are, and another factor that we need to pay attention to in order to help our daughters be the best they can be. The book, "The Wonder of Girls," by Michael Gurian, describes many things about girls that would help us to understand why we act the way we do. There were many ideas in the book that were of no surprise to me -- being a girl I had some "insider" information :). But readers who really want to get an insight into the "nature" of girls, will find this book interesting. The author explains that there is another element we need to pay attention to in order to help our daughters exceed in life. Not just exceed in the business world, but exceed in their personal lives as well. The book goes on to explain female biology; how we attach emotionally; our approach to intimacy; stereotypes; and gives a lot of advice on how parents can learn the "nature" of their own daughters. MyParenTime.com recommends "The Wonder of Girls," -- for one reason, the topic is interesting enough :). It also helps parents learn the best way to respond to their daughter's behaviors, and how to deal with the challenges that come along with each stage of their daughter's life. What parent wouldn't want help in this area? I'm certainly looking forward to using some of the information with my daughter as she grows :).
Rating: 
Summary: The Book By The Water Cooler
Review: Don't bother buying 'the wonder of girls,borrow it from a friend cause it will only make a turn around the office with many a snicker.I couldn't think of a girl I grew up with including myself who needed constant reassurance or had more
trouble with math than boys.I agree with the other review about we grow our own brains and make connections.Infact,research
shows if you give any child a chance at spatial tasks,the child
improves.Girls often are given dolls .,so how can a girl
develope spatial ability playing with a doll? Go fig!Gurian
doesn't tell the reader anything about experience and environment ~ instead he is vocal about fixed brain function which of course leaves a child in a narrow subgroup.Girls are all lumped into one.I wouldn't let your daughter read this book,'it might give her a bad case of low self~esteem and leave her wondering about herself as a woman.Gurian wants women in
second place at best.Teach your daughter to believe in herself not some pop psychology from a questionable author bent on messing with her success.
Rating:
Summary: this book will not help your daughter
Review: Gurian has an obesession with the word "hard wired".He
insists the sexes are so different that there is no point
where they meet in the middle,except when a girl has a
"bridge brain".Otherwise Gurian assigns completely
opposing and opposite traits and abilities to boys and girls.
These "bridge brain" girls are only 20 % of the female
population and they are basically unusual because they are
said to exhibit the structural brain of a male.
What Gurian will not let you in on is the brain of a spatial
person regardless of sex is different from a verbal oriented
person,regardless of sex.No he will not let you in on this
because he is trying to prove a point,and the point falls short
when one has heard of research which conflicts with his.
He gives women and girls a small list of attributes.Girls are
religated to the emotional,social,dependent and verbal side of the arguement.The boys on the other hand,have a large amount of
very useful gifts in society.One might say these gifts enable
one to be the survivor - aggressiveness,confidence,independence,
curiousity,spatial ability,mathematical ability,reason,logic,
non emotional thinking - all the goodies you need to survive in
this tough world we live in.
Girls are boxed into the catagory of dependent and emotional.
If a girl lacks this elusive "bridge brain" she is limited to
an exsistance of dependency and emotionality,yet Gurian states this is normal behavior for females and should be celebrated.
The book is preachy and limits the reader to a world of
narrow minded "facts".
It has an agenda and the agenda is to keep women at a lower
economic level so they will be dependent on men.
The base of this book is,aDON'T TRY TO HARD OR YOU MIGHT BURN
OUT THE DELICATE WIRING OF YOUR FEMALE BRAIN.
In reality,you have your own brain,it's not male or female,just
a brain ready to take on everything in the world around you.
Don't limit expectations of your girls and yourselves by
applying this book to your life.Simply read it and notice the
lack of logical conclusions and vague presentation.
The premise of this book is hormones affecting thinking and
emotions.It narrowly locks the human race into opposing
sexes.
Rating:
Summary: WELL RESEARCHED, WELL WRITTEN
Review: Gurian has written am enlightening book on understanding and raising daughters. The book takes a look at both the biological differences and psychological apsects of raising daughters in this follow-up book to "The Wonder of Boys" (also, an excellent book for those parents rasing sons.) The author addresses the emotional, social and physical needs of daughters and gives readers a better understanding of how to fulfill those needs. There are a few apsects of the book, however, not all parents may agree with, particularly when Guirian suggests parents should prepare their daughters for "the sacrifices of motherhood." While it is true that mothers often put their children's needs before there own, I am not sure they consider this role in terms of a "sacrifice". That statement conjures up visions of mother being martyrs, and few mothers actually think of themselves in that light. Most mature and responsible parents would consider the time, energy and financial resources it takes to raise a child, a small price to pay in return for the blessings and joy of having a child, regardless of the challenges that come with parenting. The book does make some very valid points, and whether one agrees entirely with the author or not, the book is worth reading and, on the biological side at least, it is quite informative.
Rating: 
Summary: Should men write about women?
Review: Gurian's book has some good points and some poor ones. Good things are the summaries and commentaries on others' work or on feminist philosophies. Some of the anecdotes are interesting albeit told too much from the author's .. viewpoint. The author rarely questions whether his perceptions and thus his conclusions could be wrong! There is too much repetition of information already published or chatted about extensively, such as eating disorders. Too, other books that the author cites were written by women, and quite frankly women have a better perspective on women's reality than do men, no matter how much a man thinks of himself as an objective and informed observer. Men can only witness women's lives, critically if they are prone to disliking women or too compassionately if they tend to belittle and infantilize women (the author tends to both of these extremes but is either in the more compassionate category...). Men cannot live our lives and therefore cannot comprehend what happens biologically, socially, or personally. Haven't men always claimed to be confounded by women? Isn't this confusion on the man's part often turned into the age-old female-bashing? No, men don't understand. Gurian needed to be more humble in taking on this subject for his book, and I just feel that he is not. I was actually quite interested in the idea of reading an informed man's viewpoint. In the end, I was disappointed and at times even shocked. Gurian wants to go the current mainstream, claiming that women can be traditional while being respected as being men's equals. Well, that didn't happen in the past, so why should it happen after we read his book? Too, traditional women are fading away -- traditional womanhood now comprises possibilities and not just stereotypes and domesticity, at least here in the USA. I was very shocked and insulted by Gurian's primary premise, stated boldly by the author in the first few pages. His conviction is that girls and women NEED to be dependent upon men. It's not social pressure that determines this nor the economic slavery women were subjected to -- it is an essential biological need like needing to breathe air. We women NEED dependence. Gurian cites scientific evidence to back up his claim. His evidence is straightforward, but then he does the sloppy science that has always been popular in male scientific circles -- he concludes what he wants to conclude, using science to back up his assumptions and opinions on feminine inferiority rather than letting truth fall out of the science. Girls aren't passive or dependent. We are calmer and more aware of consequences. We think, assess and judge before taking action. Boys are the opposite, taking action immediately and suffering the consequences later on. Somehow, I don't think this makes the boys dependable and the girls dependent. Quite the contrary, really, but Gurian doesn't go in this direction. He doesn't, really, sufficiently explore gender interdependencies even though they are quite obvious in his ancedotes. He misses truth, being content to still propagate the male standards that have inhibited women's lives for far too long. Plainly, girls and boys, men and women, have a need and a right to enjoy their lives as they choose, based on their preferences, their dreams, and their personalities. Enjoyment comes from many sources, but one great pleasure is in finding an individual who becomes a partner, who delights in a loving, interdependent relationship with you as you delight in one with him/her. This isn't a NEED for dependence on the part of woman or man. The need is for sharing of your life with someone who finds you important and who cares about your happiness. Healthy grownups are capable of equality in social, work and romantic situations. Girls don't need to be dependent -- girls are instructed to believe that their roles are dependent and inferior, and so in their adolescent years, they practice this dependence until it becomes a form of deference, weakness, vulnerability, incompetence and focus on body image as the reason why they are meaningless failures rather than focus on education and accomplishment in order to become meaningful to themselves. An unwritten message in this book is that if girls aren't dependent on men, if they don't buy-in to Gurian's natural need for dependence theory, then men will not want them as mates. Horrors! A good man, a man worth loving, will want a woman who has fulfilled herself. Only men who are afraid of women's abilities and intellect will want the dependent sort of woman. I wouldn't recommend giving this book to a girl to read. It will present some unsatisfactory messages, preventing the girl from figuring things out for herself or from making her own choices. The stress on motherhood annoyed me. Not all women can or will become mothers. Women also deserve to lead balanced lives where marriage and mothering obligations are only one part of the total picture. The book itself, while interesting in parts and rather kindly in others, is still too biased towards a man's views and expectations, for all that the man tends to try to convey that he is a feminist too.
Rating:
Summary: Save time, read the manual
Review: Have you ever tried to operate a complex computer program without the instruction manual? Sure, you can get the basic functions to work, but it takes days of frustrated poking around, you invariably lose data, and you end up doing inefficient work arounds to solve simple problems. And then you read the manual, and have a head-slapping realization that there's so much more you can do, and that you could have saved yourself a lot of heartache. There is no substitute for understanding the underlying principles that make things work. This book is like the instruction manual. It is essential reading for men: young or old, married or single, parents or not. I wish I'd read it when I was 16. We read and discussed this book in an all-male book club. Each of us was left with valuable insights about our daughters and wives (and even our sons). We all agreed it was one of the best parenting books we'd ever read. It is impossible to write about gender and parenting without taking a stand on political and social issues. And on these, we all have an opinion and we know that we're right. The author is brave to criticize the short comings of feminism. Toes are stepped on, sacred cows are devoured. But that's the job of good writers and social critics. This book is more than a good instruction manual. Read it and take your own stand.
Rating:
Summary: What a Fascinating Book!
Review: I happened to pick this book up when I was browsing at the bookstore recently, and I couldn't put it down. I bought it, took it home and read it in one day. It is a wonderful book with new and fresh ideas. It is well researched and thoughtfully written. What a great help in raising girls.
Rating:
Summary: He;s desperately afraid of females
Review: I see little difference between this book and
"Boys And Girls Learn Differently" It's the same bunk minus
the boys.Gurian makes it sound like it's a waste of time to
nuture your girl's math and science ability because in the
future it might cause her to be overwhelmed and burn out
mentally.He also believes boys are more focused and problem
oriented than girls,while girls are more able to multi task.
This is a load for a female who is poor at multi tasking and
a load for boys who are good at it but poor at focusing.His
expectations for girls are not much more than to be pretty,
multi task and make babies early in life before your hormones
go through the change.What he's saying is,if you are a girl
you shouldn't excell or be adventurous in your life because
it might take away from your already limited mental resourses as a female.
Conclusion is,he's afraid of females and does not want them to
excell in life,he's afraid maybe they will excell him to the
extent that his huge ego will be crushed.
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