Monday, September 22, 2008

Guest review: Drinking Problems at the Fountain of Youth

You may recall I posted that I couldn't finish the book Drinking Problems at the Fountain of Youth by Beth Teitell. I received this book as an Early Reviewer ARC from Library Thing and thought it was a novel - it wasn't. Thus, with my aversion to non-fiction (and fashion!) I couldn't finish it.

My close friend and fellow LOLA (one of my book clubs) member, Amy, offered to read it instead. She claimed she wasn't great at writing a review so we did a little question and answer session.

What did you think of the book?
It was good for that type of book...sometimes I think she was trying too hard to be funny; some of it sounded like how Carrie writes in Sex in the City. It looks like she has a summary - but most of the book has been around - "You're aging and there's nothing you can do about it"...we'll see what the summary says. First chapter was hard but it did get better in the later chapters - would switch it around or something, because some readers wouldn't trudge on through it. (M: Like ME!)

Did you find anything helpful in it?
Something helpful - more expensive doesn't mean it helps better.

Is it good for our age (late 30's) or would it be better for someone a bit older?
No, it's probably good for our age too.

What do you think the purpose of the book was? Just to commiserate on the aging issues in a humorous manner?
It sounded like she jumped from product to product and never gave any of them time to work....so it's more like "light/comical reading" rather than a "self-help" book.

What else do we need to know about the book?
There's a summary at the end that was excellent and maybe should have been at the front of the book. #3 Put on your face. #4 Do something about your hair. #6 Don't leave the house in that. You know Michele, you should read the book so you'd do those things and others. Ah, but Amy, you've been telling me these things for years and I still don't do them. What makes you think reading this book will change that for me???


Thanks Amy for the guest review! It's wonderful to get another viewpoint on a book, especially one that is new. If anyone else reads this book, I'd love to include here. If you blog about it, let me know and I'll link to it. If you don't blog and want to write something up, I'll post it here.

1 comment:

Traci said...

Doesn't sound like my kind of book either (funny, but I think I requested it thinking it was a novel, too - thankfully I didn't get it).