Customer Reviews

Swell: A Girl's Guide to the Good Life

5 star:		(34)
4 star:		(18)
3 star:		(9)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(10)

 

 

"Swell" is so much fun! It offers all kinds of tips on how to be fabulous and have fun in any situation. Upbeat and lacking any snob factor, this book will really brighten your day and give you a bunch of new & practical information. Last year I sent "Bridget Jones' Diary" to all my girlfriends for Christmas. This year, I'm sending "Swell"!

SWELL: A GIRL'S GUIDE TO THE GOOD LIFE is one of those attractive books you just have to pick up, which perfectly describes the life of a Swell girl. Rowley and Rosenzweig, divas of Swell, give inside tips enough to fill any girl's four-inch purse.

This book has a lot of common sense a la Vogue's Book of Ettiquette 1948, but dishes tips out like a hopped-up store-bought Sara Lee pound cake: recycled-but-transformed, a little irreverant, smart, and simply brilliant. Of course, any book designed to make you into that person you've always wanted to be is a more than ambitious. I personally feel like a failure whenever I crack the pages of a fashion mag and therefore avoid them at all costs. However, the redeeming mantra of SWELL is that a girl can be herself and still be fabulous.

I'd recommend this book for anyone who digs the glamour of classic movies, envies the life of the party, and is ready to buy into the belief that anyone can be Swell with just a little preparation and a lot of fun.

Don't think of this book as either an etiquette guide or a lifestyle manual. If you aren't wealthy, young, single and living in New York City, don't try this at home. There are very few people who can wear the clothes shown on "Sex in the City" in real life without looking ridiculous, and the same applies to the advice in this book. That doesn't mean it isn't an entertaining read. Think of it as a glimpse of an exotic and fabulous make-believe world. The women of "Swell" don't work in cubicles, don't have kids, can go out on the town every night, have weekend retreats and lots of zany friends. In fact, their lives would make a great sitcom on HBO...sorry, the similarities are just too obvious not to repeat the comparison. Sure, there are some bits and pieces in the book that will come in handy - hang over remedies, how to emerge from a limo at a big Hollywood premiere, how to throw together a last minute New Year's Eve party that culminates at midnight on a trampoline - but let's face it, this is not going to be a daily primer for your life. The authors keep referring to Frank Sinatra and Holly Golightly as models to emulate. It might work for you some of the time, but adopt it as a formula for living at your own risk.

I got this book for my friend for Christmas and now I have to have my own copy. It has some great creative ideas for parties, dates, road trips, etc. along with funny anecdotes from the authors. Their upbeat attitudes and desire to please themselves and be happy shine through the entire book. Young modern women of the '90s need more books like this which encourage us to be innovative, active, independent, and most of all, just have fun. One last note - I think it has a fairly wide age appeal - I bought it for my 22 year old friend and I'm going to buy it for my 31 year old sister as a birthday gift. I think even my mom would appreciate a lot of the tips in it! Get it for all of the wonderful women in your life!

I thought this was a great book: Lots of funny and useful ideas--on tipping, being the best hostess you can be (in your budget), the "purse essentials", remembering all the great scenes in your life, and eating oysters on a date. I loved how even though you look great in heels, you better be able to run in them, just in case you need to catch a bus. Their ideas on being a "swell" is the both realistic and glamorous! I can sum it up in their words: "Just because a girls's got a big caboose doesn't mean she can't be a looker. I highly recommend to your women friends. And although I wouldn't dare eat oysters on a date, if I were to, at least I'd know how to look good doing it!

Here I was, under the impression that being chic, refinedly fun, and, well, swell could only be accomplished with an army of caterers and years of contrived practice. Cynthia and Ilene share their "swell" advice and anecdotes about everything from tipping to running in high heels to morning-after etiquette. It's sort of like reading a book written by that one friend (and we all have one) who seems to know just what to do and how to do it with style.

I definitely hope to see more from these gals!

I truely think this is a terrific book, there are so many great ideas, like that there shouldn't have to be a reason to have a party, just get everyone together and PARTY FOR NO PARTICULAR REASON. The section on Happy Wallow Days in the Love chapter hit very close to home - being receintly dumped after 7 years, it helped to get me to laugh for a little while, which I haven't done too much of lately - THANKS:) A girlfriend of mine had me borrow it and I am ordering it for all my girlfriends for the Holidays. Thanks for all the SWELL ideas, gifts, neat dressing tips and mostly for being real and two swell gals!

I bought this book when it first came out 4 years ago and just re-read the thing cover-to-cover, thinking that maybe it would have lost its charm as I've moved closer to 30 and changed jobs and apartments and men--but no! I still think it's the perfect mix of "my life" plus "what I WISH my life were like," and it still makes me smile all the way through. There are definitely some practical tips here--I've continued to refer to it when in a tipping quandry or faced with unfamiliar flowers to arrange & keep alive--but don't buy it if you're looking for specific advice on how to put your apartment together or throw a party or look terrific: it's much more about imparting the authors' own goofy, confident, and enthusiastic attitude toward life, and it happens to be an attitude that's right up my own alley. Nevertheless, I can see that it might not be everyone's thing (and I've felt from the beginning that the midcentury slanginess is sometimes a little strained).

I also really like the fact that the authors don't waste their time (or mine) issuing prescriptives on dating or dressing, or trying too hard to reassure anxious twentysomething women about how fabulous or Breakfast-at-Tiffanys they are, which is a perpetual danger with this kind of book. I haven't read the other "Swell" books, and I have reservations about the whole idea of a Swell franchise--but having read quite a few OTHER books in the fab-urban-chick genre, I think this the best of the lot.

(Incidentally--I also have serious reservations about the whole "Swell" home-products line, which I'm not endorsing in endorsing this book. The stuff is cute enough, but I really dislike the implied relationship between it and the book: buy these sheets and you WILL be swell! You'll be just like us! This seems to run counter to the book's non-prescriptive attitude, which encourages an outlook, not an aesthetic, and which tells its readers to follow their own instincts, be creative, and not worry too much about what tastemakers or public opinion says. So, don't judge the book by its tie-ins.)

I was happily reading this book and being amused by the little stories. Not really sure if any of it is applicable but I thought it was an entertaining read when I was stopped dead in my tracks with their promotion of shatoosh. Not only is this illegal (which they recognize with a 'shhh...it is available on the black market') but ignorant. The Chiru is going to be extinct because of the fashion demands for shatoosh which is made from the 'beard' hairs of this antelope. The Chiru are defined as being a 'very high risk of extinction in the wild in the near future." So for that - I cannot recommend this book. Driving an animal to extinction isn't 'swell' with me.

I'd share this book with all my friends, if I didn't want to dazzle them by using the tips inside. It's a fun read that inspired me, helped me develop some confidence (or at least some bravado!), reinforced some of my quirks, and taught me new tricks. The women who contributed to the book are classy, courageous, happy dames -- ones I'd welcome into my circle of friends. And reading the book, I felt like part of theirs. Pretty darn swell.