Swell: A Girl's Guide to the Good Life (Hardcover)

by Cynthia Rowley (Author), Ilene Rosenzweig (Author) "There's a reason they call it throwing a party..." (more)
Key Phrases: Frank Sinatra, New York

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review
Sure, a swell girl can bring home the bacon and fry it up in a pan, but that's just the beginning. She can also turn a last-minute dinner party into a cabaret, create a push-up bra out of electrical tape, and fix a flat in pumps and a pencil skirt. Move over, Miss Manners, this is advice for the girl on the go.

Billed as a "Girl's Guide to the Good Life," Swell is a lively reference that is both practical and a gas to read. Entries range from hangover cures to transforming junk mail into party invitations to snagging a prime table in a packed restaurant. Need tips on tipping? This book will help you score points with everyone from the shampoo girl to the valet. It will also outline how to hail a cab with a four-finger whistle and gracefully take a seat--in a micromini, no less--without showing more than gams. If that's not enough, the authors even detail how to pack your entire life (or at least the important stuff) into a four-inch lipstick tote.

Cynthia Rowley, a fashion designer, and Ilene Rosenzweig, a style editor for The New York Times, blend imaginative advice with humor and grace without sounding like self-conscious hipsters or society snobs. They couldn't care less where a soup spoon should be placed, but they share exactly what you need to know about wine, gifts, clothing, gambling, and even cigars. They also devote an entire hilarious chapter to the topic of love and its various side effects. Ideal for those on a tight schedule and a shoestring budget, Swell offers proof that living the good life depends more on creativity and attitude than a hefty bankroll. After all, "there are two words that a swell should never utter: 'I'm bored.'" --Shawn Carkonen

Product Description
"WARNING: This ingenious (very funny) manifesto is extremely dangerous! Women who heed just half of the wisdom revealed in these pages will be forced to beat away truckloads of men hopelessly enslaved by their every breath and gesture. Swell, hell-this stuff is devastating!" -Bill Zehma, author of The Way You Wear Your Hat: Frank Sinatra and the Lost Art of Livin'

Who is the Swell girl? She's the one who can throw an emergency dinner party, then clear the table at her neighborhood pool hall after dessert. She can take the dress the tailor ruined and turn it into a groovy conversation piece. She makes it all look easy, which isn't as easy as it looks! That's why she needs SWELL, the ultimate guide to navigating life's curves with a little swagger and a whole lotta grace. It's a style manual filled with smooth moves, and plenty of joie de vivre, baby.

These tips and secrets aren't easy to come by, but fashion designer Rowley and style editor Rosenzweig are longtime friends who share their flair for Swell living in swinging prose. Some of the action ahead includes ways to: duke the frowning maitre d' to score the bistro's best table look slimmer in photos without dropping a pound turn a corny souvenir into a cheap but charming hostess gift live like a pathological optimist chase down a bus in skyscraper heels.

It's a little bit Audrey, a little Lucy and Ethel, and everything your mother would have taught you-if she'd gone to charm school in Vegas! So let the SWELL times roll!

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 144 pages
• Publisher: Grand Central Publishing (October 1, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0446524565
• ISBN-13: 978-0446524568
• Product Dimensions: 9.6 x 7.3 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars See all reviews (75 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #593,662 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

36 of 37 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Lots of fun, November 19, 1999

By A Customer

"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"!

44 of 48 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Classic cool with a 90s twist, June 15, 2000

By	yarden "yarden" (portland, or) - See all my reviews

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.

38 of 41 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Fun and funny, but don't take it too seriously, February 1, 2002

By	mirope "mirope" (Seattle, Washington) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)

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.