Customer Rating:  
Summary: One for your library
Comment: Do yourself a favor and read Katalin Conway's book "What really works w/Women". The back cover of Katalin's book shows her to be a Beautiful Woman w/secondary education in Psychology and Computer Science. Any MAN looking for more hints on understanding how and why women think the way they do should hear it from a Beautiful, Intelligent and Logically thinking woman. Most of the information is in all the other books on this subject and much of it is common sense anyway. I'm not meeting any Women like Katalin though. Being the third book authored by a woman I've read it is worth having.
Customer Rating:
Summary: An amazing mix of good advice and junk
Comment: First let me say that this book offers nothing new: most of the stuff about men and women is just clichéd, rehashed stuff that you can find in most any book (or even magazine) about the topic.
I love and respect women, but I've got to be open and forthright about some of the statements that this guide goes into. It's just my take on things, but it's based on lots of experience and observation.
It's just amazing. I've never seen a `dating' book for men written by women, that gave men truly good advice that works - it seems that most female authors, consciously or subconsciously, are trying to get men to do what women want, (ie. become their little `gentleman' puppets) rather than tell them what really makes women turned on.
For instance:
In the opening chapter, she INSISTS so much on trying to get men NOT to understand women, by telling them it's impossible, useless, etc. It seems she deliberately wants men not to even try - it's understandable that women like to be viewed as mysteries, but they can be understood, even if they don't want men to!
Secondly, her understanding of men is nothing short of terrible, and boils down to common stereotypes. She says that all men ever talk about is sex - well I've listened to men of all ages, cultures and in all kinds of places talk, and this is actually one of the RAREST male topics. In fact, women themselves are actually a rare topic among men. (On the other hand, she says women very rarely talk about sex, which is actually untrue - I've listened to many women's conversations, and they talk about it often, and in great detail too. However, she then goes on to contradict herself by saying women often talk about `making love'. So basically, women `don't talk about sex' because they don't say the word `sex', but use a different term? Come on, Katalin, you should know better than that! And no, women don't talk for hours about men's eyes, either. Nice biceps and behinds, although not an absolute necessity, do turn them on though. Don't try to pull a fast one on us, Katalin!) Just listening to women talk while walking down the street will show you about 7 of 10 of their conversations are about men! I kid you not!
She classifies women as emotional and men as logical, which is true to some extent, but is becoming less and less so. It's more of a generalization than anything else. I work with women and they're down-to-earth, logical, normal, lovely, people. Yes, they have their emotional sides too, but they aren't as one-sided and fickle as the author would have you believe.
The book is full of contradictions, which I have found to be the common staple of books written for men by women. Examples are the first chapter, which states women don't scrutinize your body, looks, and so on, but rather, your sensitivity, etc. In a later chapter she goes on to tell men they need to work out, have a nice body image, be good-looking, dress well, smell well.... (Unfortunately, she also gives the typical list of hygiene advice tips that can be found in ten million books on the subject, probably thinking that most men are apelike retards who don't know these basics: shower, cut your nails, brush your teeth... oh man!)
`Men can't follow a female conversation', states Ms. Conway, because at the art of conversation, women `have men beat' - another silly assumption. I've listened to women talk (and talk... and talk...) and it has never been any problem whatsoever to understand their conversation. The real issue (which our worthy author doesn't seem to get) is that men are normally bored to death by female conversation topics, and therefore DON'T WANT to listen to them and just shut down! As for men being poor conversationalists, well obviously they're not good at talking about shoes or make-up, but for some reason, the most engaging speakers you will ever hear, including public speakers, are men - I've yet to remember an interesting or charismatic speech delivered by a woman, except on rare occasion. And men talk about a huge variety of topics, whilst women basically tend to stay on 2 or 3 main ones. (This has been a common complaint among my friends, that their girlfriends only had a couple of shallow topics that interested them.)
Another gem: `Women find it difficult to accept the emphasis that men place on looks', purports the author. Well, if they find it so difficult to accept, why is it that they spend hours in front of the mirror, wear stilettos, tons of makeup, and undergo expensive and risky surgery in order to attract men? Because they don't get that men are attracted to good looks?
Then there are the classical pieces of advice: show interest in her as a person, be sensitive, make her feel special, open doors for her, etc, etc. Yeah, ok. I could've asked grandma and she would've told me the same thing.
The book is chock-full of contradictions and bad advice... I could go on and on but I won't. I'm guessing that this review might not be liked by many people, but I've been out there hundreds of times, in all kinds of places - from discos to churches, and observation has shown me what men and women really are like - yes, SOME stereotypes are partially true, but the classical image given to us by the media is very misleading and false. Real-life experience is what showed me how reality works - whether I liked it or not. And it's not that I know everything, but in reality, there is NO WAY to learn about human beings by reading books - the authors are normally way too biased one way or the other, or too politically correct, or too affected by the age we live in, religions, etc. Men and women, and their behaviour, are, at the same time, far more sophisticated and, at the same time, MUCH simpler than we make them out to be.
Now I mentioned that the book contains some good stuff, and it's true. There are a lot of good insights about women, but the problem is that they're interwoven with the misleading information. It's very difficult for a woman to write a book for men on how to seduce women, simply because she doesn't seduce women! So it's hard for her to put herself in the man's shoes, and she will rarely tell men what REALLY turns women on. Some of the stuff she advocates just plain doesn't work in most situations, but it's what a woman would tell you to do if she wanted you to `be nice' and tend to her.
I'm amazed the book is touted as being `provocative, non-PC'! It's highly unoriginal stuff you could get by assembling bits and pieces of classical dating books and magazines, and as far as non-PC goes, well, it's as PC as they get! (Teaching men to `be a gentleman' is way too PC for a pickup book.) Unfortunately, political correctness doesn't turn women on much, so while a lot of the advice is solid, in other, more practical parts, it falls flat on its face.
I would be VERY surprised to learn that a reader has been able to get a woman into bed just by using the advice in this book.
Suggestion: get a dating book by a man who is an expert at dating and seducing women.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Great Advice!
Comment: Another great new bestseller which I hoghly recommend - The Exclusive Layguide: When Dating and Having Sex with Incredibly Hot Women is No Longer Mirage Even If You Don't Look Like a Model or Don't Make a Fortune
Customer Rating:
Summary: Does the author even know ANY women??
Comment: I don't personally know women like this. Maybe this should be titled "how to get a flighty, fanciful crybaby in bed". The women I know are pretty straightforward, self sufficient and well, pretty logical. I'd like a book on how to appeal to that type of woman - cause this wasn't it. It really didn't give advice. It never really tells you how to get the woman you want but tells the idiotically obvious i.e. don't act like a schmuck, dress well, take a bath. The book is similar to "how to succeed with women" which was a complete farce. The author has a degree in psychology - and we all know what a worthless basket weaving degree that is.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Great tips!
Comment: This book delivers! It tells you all you need to know about how to get a woman from a woman's point of view. It's written clearly and logically with good pointers that are really useful. I found it extremely helpful because she writes about all the stuff that guys just don't think about, but which is really important to women. If you're looking for a book on women, this is definitely the one!
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