The Fabulous Girl's Guide to Grace Under Pressure: Extreme Etiquette for the Stickiest, Trickiest, Most Outrageous Situations of Your Life (Kindle Edition)

by Kim Izzo (Author), Ceri Marsh (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Think of it as an owner’s manual for those Sex in the City DVDs: this book allows "Fabulous Girls" to get under the hood of do-me feminism and fine-tune their own engines with an emphasis on how the FG "rallies to the cause of decorum." A follow-up to the popular Fabulous Girl’s Guide to Decorum, the volume continues the first person urban exploits of a young female associate editor at "Smack!" magazine, which yield charming object lessons in style and manners. What to say after a particularly bad work gaffe, how to communicate clearly with a boyfriend or a booty call, how to let an on-again, off-again paramour (here named "Nice") down easily about not being ready to live together-these are just a few of the situations that Izzo (features editor at Canada’s Flare magazine) and Marsh (editor-in-chief at Fashion) handle with aplomb. The book exudes a kind of scrappy elegance and ease in its writing and in its advice, allowing the inner Carrie and Samantha in the souls of "cubicle dwellers" to emerge with dignity and joy even when money and time are in short supply. As tough and realistic as it is encouraging and supportive, this is a self-help guide for the club-hopper who does not want to forgo a rewarding emotional life.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

Heads up, fabulous girls! This ain't your mother's etiquette book. Amy Vanderbilt never had to deal with issues like phone sex, bill collectors, and backstabbing colleagues, but these are just the kind of dilemmas modern women must contend with every day. Hey, it's a jungle out there, and who better to guide today's hip young chicks through the maze of social conundrums than Izzo and Marsh? First parlaying their weekly newspaper etiquette column into The Fabulous Girl's Guide to Decorum (2001), the authors now tackle both the annoying little problems and overwhelming life crises that can crop up in even the most fabulous lives. From the boardroom to the bedroom, the authors cover virtually every conceivable embarrassing, awkward, or downright dangerous situation confronting any woman just trying to get through daily existence with her dignity, sanity, and credit rating intact. Part tongue-in-cheek humor, part deadly serious advice, this is one etiquette guide that's not afraid to take off the white gloves and tell it like it is. Carol Haggas
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Format: Kindle Edition
• File Size: 773 KB
• Print Length: 400 pages
• Publisher: Broadway (December 24, 2008)
• Sold by: Amazon Digital Services
• Language: English
• ASIN: B001ODEPV2
• Average Customer Review: 1.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #185,453 in Kindle Store (See Bestsellers in Kindle Store)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

19 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Not too different...., August 20, 2004

By	E. A Solinas "ea_solinas" (MD USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 10 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)    (VINE VOICE)

This review is from: The Fabulous Girl's Guide to Grace Under Pressure: Extreme Etiquette for the Stickiest, Trickiest, Most Outrageous Situations of Your Life (Paperback)

The concept of the Fabulous Girl (FG) first came up in Kim Izzo and Ceri Marsh's first book, "The Fabulous Girl's Guide to Decorum." But they belly-flop in their second book, "The Fabulous Girl's Guide To Grace Under Pressure," primarily because it comes across as a retread of the first book.

What do you do if you have a crush on a coworker -- and you already have a guy? How do you deal with a scandal? Being caught in flagrante by your boss? (Hint: Say it will never happen again!) And what about blind date etiquette? Izzo and Marsh cover these problems and many more, covering friends, sex, dating, work and longtime relationships.

For a modern woman, the field of etiquette can be a tricky one. How can you be courteous at your work and everyday life, without losing the necessary toughness? Izzo and Marsh have a fair number of tips for where the lines should be drawn. Good tips, bad tips, and really ugly tips ("He proposes, but you're not ready").

The biggest problem with "Guide to Grace" is that it treads very little new turf. Like its predecessor, it's mostly about manners. Not serious pressure. And when reading tips on relationships and workplace problems, there's a certain feeling of deja vu. It's like Izzo and Marsh had to write another book, but couldn't quite think of enough original material, so they retread old ground.

What's more, it doesn't really handle situations that are "under pressure." Okay, you have a friend who is a wolf in sheep's clothing. How is that "pressure"? It's a mildly sticky situation, but certainly not anything to get too worked up about. There are a handful of situations that are genuinely tense -- such as advice on stalker ex-boyfriends -- but there's a lot more on how to avoid embarrassment. Not sticky, not tricky, not outrageous -- just moderately embarrassing.

Kim Izzo and Ceri Marsh boldly go where they've already gone in "The Fabulous Girl's Guide to Grace Under Pressure." While it has some fairly interesting tips -- but nothing too "pressured" -- this book ends up feeling stale and thin as a month-old Saltine.

15 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars yuk, December 10, 2004

By	Mickey - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Fabulous Girl's Guide to Grace Under Pressure: Extreme Etiquette for the Stickiest, Trickiest, Most Outrageous Situations of Your Life (Paperback)

The advice was ho hum, but the disturbing undercurrent about the book was the basic definition of a "fabulous girl"--the world these authors describe is a world in which the FG is one who may have sex with anyone, anywhere, any time, etc. Example, on sex in public: "sometimes she just can't help herself." On having VD: "You realize that it could have been one of five men who gave it to you and that means you may have given it to any and all of the others. Ugh." Ugh indeed.

13 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Crass, shallow, and anything but elegant, December 29, 2004

By	Leexie (MI) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Fabulous Girl's Guide to Grace Under Pressure: Extreme Etiquette for the Stickiest, Trickiest, Most Outrageous Situations of Your Life (Paperback)

How about calling it "The Call-Girl's guide to f*** etiquette?" As a fabulous girl, I was appalled. Bought it, read it, returned it. Is that a faux-pas?? Apologies to social dilettantes Kim Izzo and Ceri Marsh.