Customer Reviews

The Tall Book: A Celebration of Life from on High

5 star:		(35)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This book is fabulous. I am a 6'4" female, age 36. I have hated every inch of my height, until I read this book. WOW, amazing what a little bit of well written reseach can do to flip my world upside down. I couldn't be happier. THANK YOU for writing this. Words cannot describe the positive perspective you have given me. What a gift. This book is well written, well organized, and has great information. LOVE IT! I am the lucky one!

Extremely well-researched with eye-opening analysis ranging from the economics, evolutionary psychology, and anthropology of being tall; then goes on to detail Cohen's gallivants around the globe chronicling tall issues and tipping the iceberg of what it means to see over crowds and be an instant attention-grabber...Cohen has written a first for tall body-image, and has imbued a sense of pride in me that, even after 22 years of emotional support from my own over 6-feet-tall parents and extended family, has not been validated until this, The Tall Book.

Ari- Thank you for starting, what I believe, will be a fabulous revolution of tall pride, confidence and celebration.

-Alexandra, 6'0"

Thank you, thank you for this book - I am a 6'2" 48 year old with two older sisters just as towering tall. Their birthdays are in July, and before I had the pleasure of reading this wonderful book, ordered three books - one for each of us! And I have no regrets, as I devoured this book in no time at all - sure my sisters will feel the same way - I think I have found their best birthday present ever.

This was such a self-esteem booster - growing up I had many of the same experiences as Ms. Cohen, and it was refreshing to feel not so "alone" in the feelings, situations and awkwardness that can come along with tallness.

A great read, to go back to again and again to pick you up and make you smile.

The Tall Book is absolutely amazing, and Ms. Cohen's humor pulls you through the book; it was so great, that I just couldn't put it down and read it in one night!!

From height statistics to shopping to sports to sitting on an airplane, you totally get the point that being tall is not all that it's cracked up to be (pun intended)!! The lighthearted anecdotes mix in well with immense amount of research that was done for this book. Being someone who is of "average height" (I'm only 5'4") I can sympathize with many of the scenarios given... especially the shopping!! Every woman knows that sizes aren't the same from store to store.

For a great read with lots of fun information, get this book. It'll keep you laughing from start to finish!!

This book was very well researched and well written by an author that clearly had a lot at stake on the topic. Being tall is not easy, and being way above average tall is even harder. What some people that have written poor reviews saw as problem of this book I saw as its greatest strength: the combination of statics and personal experience.

I thought that the author did a great job at combining the information she went looking for and her own personal experience on growing up (and being) tall. I know I could identify with a lot of her sentiments. I commend her for the effort of collecting enough interesting and relevant information about tall people and making it much more readable that academic journals.

I think a lot of the criticism that I read in the reviews on this site has to do more with people that do not clearly understand what she was trying to do and was looking for a self help book for the tall.Combining the experiences of every woman above 5'10" and every man above 6'2" is impossible, so if you do not feel that what she was talking about fits your experience, rest assured that it fits some tall person's experience and that in itself makes this a great book, since we tall people have been largely ignored by the mainstream in many aspects. Just by trying to make these experiences be known will help not only tall teenagers that may think that they are the only ones going through "being tall" but also the average person, the not so tall individual that may never understand what it means to walk in the shoes of a tall person.

This book was one the books that impacted me personally the most and I would argue that it is a must read for any tall person out there. But if you are not tall, you should read it to, because as other people have mentioned, Arianne Cohen is witty, smart, and funny!

There are so many things I could say about this book, but I'll just say one thing.

Before reading it, I was a tall woman who would have given anything (except my children) to be able to be shorter.

After reading it, I am a tall person who is happy to be tall.

I literally couldn't stop grinning the whole time I read this book. Everyone who is tall knows what it's like to be there, but reading this book you realize that there are others who do as well. Actually, as a male somewhere in the 6' 2-3" range I began to feel quite short the more I read. It's a huge confidence builder; after you read this book you stand a little taller, spread out a little more, and you stop being apologetic for needing the front seat; I don't care if you called shotgun, I don't fit in the back of compact cars. I do feel that, intentionally or not, it has more on being a tall woman then man, but I don't begrudge it that. Overall, tall people, meet your new favorite book.

Arianne Cohen's book should be required reading for tall girls. Growing up I was very self conscious about being tall and this book would have really helped my self esteem if it had existed. I can completely relate to her comments about trying to find properly fitting clothes and scrunching into airline seats. But on the other hand, I can always see above the crowd and take what I need from the top shelf without needing help. The info about giving hormones to girls to stop their growth was startling and eye-opening. Maybe there needs to be a "tall power" movement!

Height can be a very misleading quality, like many others, and so varied in shaping human experiences. So I try not to take it very seriously. As a scholar who writes essays and books, I find that I also tirelessly research and examine the range of topics relevant to life, and so was already well-read and schooled on a lot of the basic issues about height that the book examines. It is fantastic, and illuminating! And so cross-cultural in its examination. It is a book that helped me to expand my world view in important ways, and it even has implications for policy-making at national and global levels. It is most compelling and provocative for me in the honest look that it takes at aspects of Western culture, even showing that a lot of the choices that men make are counter-intuitive ones in the schema of human biology. I am a university professor and also think that the book is teachable and may use it if I ever teach the course again that I developed on the body and gender.

There are just a couple of things that I would have appreciated having elaborated a bit more. In the chapter on dating it would have been helpful to see an acknowledgment of what some researchers have discovered-that though taller men and shorter women are favored in the dating marketplace and taller women often marry and have children later, it is also true that taller women can be more fertile in the long run (i.e. beginning in their 30s) in the sense that they are more likely to have twins due to the presence of more growth hormones in their bodies. The book puts all the reproductive apples in the tall man's barrel but does not mention facts like this. It's also true that tall men who marry tall women are MORE likely to have tall sons like themselves, since the son and mother, and daughter and father, are typically correlatives in height from a scientific perspective. This means that the genes of that dashing tall guy could be lost in the next generation if he does not marry smart. Indeed, I've known tall men who have also liked and sought tall women in part b/c they are tall, because they have a basic biological attraction to them from this standpoint. Indeed, I'm intrigued that the main sentiment that I've ever felt from tall men I've dated-quite handsome tall men-can be summed up in one word: "relief." I've had this response in public, too; guys immediately pour their heart out and confess how they've always wanted to meet a tall woman with whom they could comfortably dance and embrace without hurting their neck, who could kiss them on the cheek, and I have to almost run to avoid being twirled around on the street or something! It's just too much!!! There's also little or nothing said about modeling and taller women, for how it shapes their outlook and experiences in some cases is important and useful to mention. As someone who was 5' 11 3/4" through most of high school, this culture was a valuable resource and inspiration; I had another growth spurt at 17 and am now 6'2".

The book reminded me, too, that the experience of height, while having some common denominators, can be very diverse from person to person. For example, I attended historic all-black Catholic schools in the South with people who were generally refined (i.e. it was actually a fad at my elementary school when I was 10 for us to carry briefcases or leather attache' cases and to use fancy accessories like Cross pens). I was NEVER teased by my classmates about my height growing up (many of whom I'd known since first grade), or called the names that the book mentions, and was always someone to whom people showed lots of respect (especially as a student leader, from a club in 4th grade I started for girls called the "Dollys", eighth grade class president, student council president in 12th grade, student council vice-president in 11th, and a widely admired debutante wearing a stunning dress who got lots of presents from my chosen "Little Sisters" the night of the ball, as well as from those who were not). I was not the kind of person with whom people would ever feel compelled to joke like that. By 7th and 8th grades, whenever guy classmates used profanity, they even said "Excuse me, Riche," even with other girls around, as if such words were too harsh for my ears. My boyfriend in high school at 16, the first ever, was a cute football player at a public school and my height, a big deal in our territory, for it also made a difference that guys enthusiastically sought to date girls from my school, as if it were an honor, and that while I was tall, I had longer hair and was attractive, qualities that gave me an advantage. Indeed, his even taller and handsome best friend, the day after I met him and he brought him over to see me, also tried to intercept me on the sly, by sending me a message an hour after they left asking me to be his girlfriend, and to just pretend that I'd already known him and he would take care of the rest; I would not consent to such a scheme. I have no sob stories on dating in high school to report in the sense that this book portrays. However, of course, all the irritating questions about height are very familiar, especially the ones in public (are you a model, do you play basketball?) I would have been more likely to be kidnapped by aliens than to ever play basketball growing up, and my grandmother would not have ever allowed it, so this question is always weird and naive to me when posed by strangers. Indeed, I was sent by my grandparents to the University for Youth at Alabama State University from ages 12 to 15 and taught courses in math, writing and English by professors every summer for six weeks, and to poise-charm classes at ages 11 and 14! Otherwise, I spent my time on crafts and poetry or playing with friends and am now also an artist. Sports were ENTIRELY outside my cosmology, and all the moreso given that I am a Southerner and it was not as popular among some of us girls there to play sports, especially basketball. I find it funny and ironic, and in some ways humbling, that though I am now a professor in the Ivy League, some people on the street and working in cafes presume I'm a model and I've been stopped and asked if I am multiple times or questioned as to why I'm not doing that. I first found the book through a feature in People and ordered it right away; I also saw the piece on the author in Vogue, which I came across a few months after buying that issue of the magazine. I learned a lot from this book and there was nothing like reading a comprehesive study on height cover to cover. It is excellent.

I experienced several "Ah ha!" moments while reading this book. I truly felt my experiences as a tall woman were ones that only I went through; it was refreshing to read about common experiences. Any time I've tried to talk about what it is like to be a tall woman (especially surrounded by little Napoleons in DC) it was like my stories were discounted, something akin to a skinny woman who complains about not being able to gain weight; it might seem like a good problem to have but in reality that isn't necessarily the case. People always tell me, "I wish I had your height" (I'm 6' 1") and while I know that I'm lucky to be tall, it still is frustrating to live surrounded by little people.

I especially loved the notion of talls living a "public life"... I could never quite articulate that concept when talking about all of the attention that I get. I suppose it's because I live in an area where people do anything to get attention (politically) so it seems like I'm complaining, especially when you factor in my ethnic and facial features (I'm told daily I look like Kimora Lee). But dammit if I can't get a simple cup of coffee or shop for tampons (an experience I would like to keep as private as possible) w/o a complete stranger approaching me to inquire about my height and ethnic mix...

I walked even taller after reading this book and will pass it along to my tall friends! This book is truly a must-read for anyone, tall or short.