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The Fabulous Girl's Guide to Decorum

The Fabulous Girl's Guide to Decorum

List Price: $14.95
Your Price: $10.17
Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Light Hearted and Fun
Review: "The Fabulous Girl's Guide to Decorum" by Kim Izzo and Ceri Marsh shouldn't be taken too seriously. It shouldn't be compared to historical etiquette such as "Miss Manners" and "Emily Post". This helpful user's guide is meant for a younger age range and with a lot more fun. The concept has been done before and done well (IE. The "Swell" series by Cynthia Rowley and "The Go-Girl Guide : Surviving Your 20s with Savvy, Soul, and Style" by Julia Bourland) but this new addition adds something new. It's got some fiction thrown in for fun. It's broken up with mini chapters around the usual "tips".

Sections such as :
The Workplace
Society
Friendship
Sex and Courtship
Couples
Weddings and Divorce
Home
Entertaining

It's a cute book that shouldn't be considered a bible - more like a helpful tool. I thought it was fun and heartwarming.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: fantastic Fun
Review: Fantasticly fun book to read. I have lent it to each of my girlfriends and have read it several times over. Perfect for a Saturday afternoon or a bubble bath book!!!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: A Must-Have, More than Fabulous
Review: I don't know where everyone is getting their negative views on this book. I read it, and I have read just about every other popular self-help book out there, and I must say this is absolutely fantastic. I love this book! It definitely teaches one manners and decorum in a nice, lighthearted voice that stays true to fabulous women. You can definitely learn something from this book, or at the very least, should.

To the person who was concerned about the "10 Commandments of Infidelity": I respect marriage myself, and believe you should only be married once, blah, blah, blah. But this is a book about manners, not morals. People are going to sleep with married people no matter what you do - all this book is doing is making decorum more accessible to people of all sorts! As they said, they don't advocate it, but if you must do it, do it "properly".

I also love the stories in-between chapters. And I love the kooky illustrations, and by the way, despite what one reviewer said, the writers do not swear. In fact, they insist one reserves swearing for especially horrific occasions, and only for those VERY close to you.

I can't see how any other book could be better. Nothing could teach decorum in a more funny, convincing way. Holly Golightly would have patronized this book - and everyone LOVES Holly Golightly! Who doesn't want to be Holly Golightly? This book teaches you how.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Very impressed
Review: I have to say I am very impressed with this book -- in fact, I will be purchasing it as gifts for all my girlfriends. It contains the basic (and the more complicated) aspects of acting appropriately and handling yourself correctly in almost any given situation a fabulous girl might find herself in. Quite frankly, you might find yourself getting more popular as you start to incorporate many of the things covered in "The Fabulous Girl's Guide to Decorum." It is definitely the best book I have yet read on decorum, and it is by no means boring. I read it straight through and laughed my way to better manners.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: This book is a mockery of decorum!!
Review: I thought this book was atrocious. The catchy cover lured me, like many others,into thinking it really would be a book about elegance, class, and style. Instead, it was merely a book teaching one to say "please" and "thank you" before and after a one-night stand. The "advice" that these women (I refuse to say ladies) gives is to have casual sex with married men: "If, for example, she does not wish for commitment, but only for sex, then the married man is perfect," and that divorce is good "There is something infinitely sexy about a divorcee." Granted, things happen, but divorce when between people who actually take marriage seriously, is certainly not sexy and usually devestating. They also tell you of ways to behave in bed, which is none of their business and should not be spoken of by decourous ladies. If you want to read a real guide on decorum or etiquette, I would suggest Emily Post or Miss Manners. For a more modern etiquette book, the Etiquette Grrls. Although one reviewer remarked that the "Fabulous Girl's" had refinement without the Etiquette Grrl's snobbishness, perhaps one could say the EG's have all the refinement, elegance, grace, and wit without the promiscuity, immorality, and crassness so consistent with the FG's. One should always try to err on the conservative side rather than risk looking like a prostitute or call-girl, even at the risk of seeming to be "stuck-up". And yes, you are loose if you have sex with the boss. If one won't avoid this practice for moral reasons then one should at least for practicality. Don't waste your money on this book, or support the authors.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Fabulous Girl?
Review: I understand that some reviewers were less than pleased with some aspects of the book, namely the ones that seemed to encourage promiscuity. In my opinion, I think that everyone is different and there are bound to be some people who are offended. While it is true that some people are more than happy to have many sex partners, the same cannot be said for the rest of the populace. Everyone is entitled to their own opinion.

That aside, I thought this book was great. It had humor and was, for lack of a better word, very cute. The advice is sound, ranging from workplace etiquette (as a fellow receptionist, I was raising my fist in agreement) to friendship etiquette, to, yes, sex and courtship etiquette. Whether it's being friendly with couriers or how to tell your best friend you hate her boyfriend, this book was a fun read. Whenever I read a chapter, I always felt like lounging in a warm bubble-filled bathtub surrounded by candles and with the obligatory glass of wine, all while saying "I'm FABULOUS, dahling!"

Don't see it as the end-all-be-all of how-to manuals, but rather, as a way to enhance the fabulous-ness that was always there to begin with!

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Helpful
Review: It was a good book. I enjoyed reading the stories about the three friends. Some of the advice is very helpful. It was mostly centered around finding a man and pursuing a relationship and then going into how to have good dinner party and how to be a good office worker. I can't give it 5 starts because it wasn't so great that I could use it daily, but it is better than most other books out there. Highly recommended for young professionals.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Decorum for Sex?
Review: My sister sent me this book, and maybe it's written cutesy, and looks cutesy, but as a college student, there's not a lot I can use. I agree with the reviewer who said it was crass. There was too much about sex etiquette, and a real classy woman would be more concerned with everything in a relationship that comes before the sex. I'd rather be a classy woman, an etiquette chick, a belle, a lady, whatever than be a so-called fabulous girl.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Low ediquette for loose women
Review: Please review the male relationship section before buying this book for any person you respect. The title implies something that is not captured in this book.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: This is not your mother's manners book
Review: What is a Fabulous Girl? She's Holly Golightly without the baggage and the hick ex-husband -- smart, funny, sexy and sympathetic. She's also the subject of "The Fabulous Girl's Guide to Decorum," an amusing but unbalanced mix of tongue-in-cheek goofing and etiquette lessons.

Kim Izzo and Ceri Marsh take a look at the life of the Fabulous Girl (hereafter called "FG"): Her career (how to dress for job interviews, how to deal with low-dignity "Jill Jobs"), society (the noveau riche, when to applaud), friendship, sex and dating (why you should not date a rocker), couplehood, weddings and divorce (on eloping: "Remember, there's nothing more chic than running away and coming back married"), and how to entertain.

If chick-lit came in nonfiction form, this would be it. Lots of stuff about love lives, pals (male and female) and jobs, with cutesy codewords ("Jill Job" is a I-do-it-just-for-the-money job). And it's definitely not Miss Manners. There's less focus on which fork to use than there is on proper workplace manners, or how to support your buddies.

Hidden under the froth are some genuinely good tips. Izzo and Marsh give plenty of pointers about how to conduct yourself with sophistication and style, even in an embarrassing situation. They also draw out the lines when it comes to chivalry (how should a guy help a woman into a cab?) and little details for the 21st century like when it's rude to talk on a cell phone.

That isn't to say that "Guide" has its Manolo-shod feet on the ground. The chapter on sleeping with one's boss made me squirm, as did anything having to do with flings and the obnoxious "Bingo." What's more, the description of FGs as being "smart" didn't quite fit in, since the sort of chic urban life they talk about seems to require "savvy" rather than "smarts."

"The Fabulous Girl's Guide To Decorum" is a bit confused as to whether it's an etiquette guide or a tongue-in-cheek nonfiction chick-lit. But this amusing book may offer some pointers to women seeking to be "Fabulous Girls" on all walks of life.


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