First Wives' Tool Kit [Paperback]

Carol Kreit (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 1, 2001

A Survival Manual

Tools that help you get up dust off and start over after divorce, separation or widowhood

Editorial Reviews

Review

Carol Kreit equips the reader with a tool kit that is nourishing, transforming and spiritually renewing. -- Sister Francis Raftery, S.C. President, College of St. Elizabeth

Carol Kreit presents clear, specific stragegies. The ideas are highly practical. This book is helpful to women undergoing dificult changes. -- Muriel T. Reid, MSW, LCSW, Family Therapist

This book should be required reading for any woman facing change in her financial, social and/or emotional life. -- Alice Hecht Giedekier, CFP & 1st VP, Prudential Securities, Inc.

About the Author

I've-been-there-too writer, CAROL KREIT, has written numerous trade articles and press realeases during her 30-year corporate career, which included 20 years as VP of a jewelry manufacturing firm and 14 years as Executive Director of an event-planning corporation which she helped establish.

Product Details

• Paperback: 147 pages
• Publisher: Advocate House (August 1, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0970657617
• ISBN-13: 978-0970657619
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.8 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,535,986 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An essential tool for healing after divorce or loss, August 30, 2001

By 

Lorrie Hecker (Maplewood, NJ United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: First Wives' Tool Kit (Paperback)

This book is billed as a survival manual, with "tools that help you get up, dust yourself off, and start over after divorce, separation or widowhood." Believe me, it delivers all that and more! Carol Kreit offers practical advice and inspiring insights without sounding preachy or Pollyanna-ish. She writes with a warm, engaging style that makes you feel like she is a friend sitting next to you, sharing her experiences. At a painful time in my life, her stories and advice gave me a sense of possibility and optimism, a belief that I could find love again, and a feeling that my life would go on with happier days ahead. The book is filled with useful information and great advice in the areas that can be the most frightening after a divorce or other loss -- everything from living alone to taking control of your finances. It is a book that's all about healing every aspect of your life. It's amazing that one book can address both the emotional side and the practical issues so effectively, but it does.
As a person who went through a painful separation and divorce and had to rebuild my life from the ground up, I highly recommend this book - Carol Kreit is a lifesaver!

5.0 out of 5 stars Breaking free into Beauty, July 29, 2003

By 

Rebecca Johnson "The Rebecca Review" (Washington State) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: First Wives' Tool Kit (Paperback)

"I am sore wounded, but not slain.
I will lay me down and bleed awhile,
And then arise to fight again." ~Ancient Poem

If you have lost a partner, friend or even just feel a little lost in the big bad world, this book can help you find your life's path again.

Are you in a situation where you feel your life has gotten a bit out of control?
Do you want to regain control of your life, finances?
Are you going through a divorce, separation or have recently lost the one you love most?

Carol Kreit is like a kind friend who rushes to your side with the box of tissues and a plan for making your life beautiful again.

When you are in pain, perhaps the last thing you want to do is to "dust yourself off." I know I'd rather stay down there in the dust crying my eyes out. But people need us. We have gifts to give the world. We have to go on when the only thing we want to do is dissolve into the earth, away from the pain. I know this feeling. What you are going through right now is perhaps your most challenging life test.

At times we women rely on our best friends to get us through the bad times with our marriage partners. At times when we lose a partner, we are losing our best friend. Where do we turn?

My thought was not to review this book today, but to rather read it from cover to cover and find some answers. Then I realized how much it might mean to other women out there if I shared my thoughts on this book.

The author experienced a divorce and has written the book from that perspective. She knows what it feels like to be in shock, to work with lawyers and how it felt to go home to an empty house. The beauty is that she takes this experience and gives a gift of herself to the reader.

The Topics Include:

Reality Check: Seeing where you have been and where you want to go.

Why Do Bad Things Happen?
Will I Ever Recover?
What If I?m Over 50?
How Can I Go Forward?
How Can I get Over the Pain?

Your Attitude: The tool to help you recover from pain.

Why You Feel Abandoned
The Road to Healing
What You Were Never Taught
The Self Worth/Abandonment Connection
Eliminate the Negatives

Do it: Tools that move you forward

Don't Remain a Victim
Getting Started
Examine Your Beliefs
Making Changes
Living Alone with Style

Control It: Understanding control and suggestions to give you control of your financial situation

It is difficult to believe that 60% of all marriages end in divorce, but those are the statistics. It is difficult to think about throwing away things the person you loved gave you, but the authors suggests that "some cleaning" is an essential part. This helps you forget and not be reminded of the nightmare. The author also gives a list of actions you can take to make yourself feel better. How about taking some time to spoil yourself?

My father always suggested to me that I should save up my own money in a secret bank account just in case my marriage didn?t last. I thought it was silly at the time, but the longer I'm married, the more I realize that the women of the world should unite in this idea. Protecting yourself is so essential in this changing world. Eventually I got my own bank account and said: "hands off honey."

It would be nice to think that every woman has a plan for "getting out fast" if she needs to. I'm not even 'there' yet. If you have been in a situation where your husband took care of the finances, Carol gives some creative suggestions to get you back on track fast.

There are people out there who love and need you. I hope this book will help you start the healing process so you can return to a beautiful life you deserve.

~The Rebecca Review

5.0 out of 5 stars A newly- alone person's BEST FRIEND!, November 27, 2001

By 

A. Cappela Publishing (Sarasota, FL) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: First Wives' Tool Kit (Paperback)

Author Carol Kreit provides good news and a crucial helping hand to women everywhere who suddenly find themselves alone in midlife as a result of divorce or death of a spouse. Kreit's book, First Wives' Tool Kit: A Survival Manual is a how-to-survival godsend written by a real survivor.
Today, Carol Kreit is a published author, successful entrepreneur and a happily married woman. It was a long hard road for her to recovery after her first husband ended their 28-year marriage with few parting words as he sped out of her life in his Jaquar. In the aftermath, she was confused, alone and seemingly at wit's end grappling with the reality of her new life.
Yet this is a success story and one from which all can learn. Carol Kreit pieced together strands of wisdom and common sense as she rebuilt her own life. Now she generously shares this wealth in a book full of practical guidance, sisterly advice and inspiring words of encouragement.
"I think it's important that loss of this magnitude in one's life has a ripple effect on everyone around you, including adult children," says Kreit. First Wives' Tool Kit outlines ways to accept the new reality, change basic attitudes, take action, and gain control of life both emotionally and financially. "Life is not lived in a vacuum. You must learn how to live again on your own as well as relate to your loved ones and friends on a whole new level."
It is easy to understand how First Wives' Tool Kit will be a comforting supportive book for the person facing dramatic life changes. Family therapists and financial advisors will quickly see the value of this book for their clients.