Amy Alkon

I have mixed feelings about this book. On the one hand, I love the tools and advice she offers. I enjoyed some of her anecdotes about fighting back against those who choose to disrespect in a myriad of ways. I admire her resistance to bullying of all types and her willingness to fight back and stand up for herself. I personally found some elements of her approach abrasive, but I can't determine whether it's solely because it steps WAY out of my comfort zone. I also felt like the pace of the book was a bit jerky and inconsistent. Ms. Alkon does truly have a gift for writing though, and I hope that at least some of the people reading this book are able to gain some valuable insight into modern society and the limits of socially acceptable behavior.

x-posted to Amazon.com… (more)

There is a long subtitle to this one, which pretty much says it all: “One woman’s battle to beat some manners into impolite society”. The author is a blogger and has an advice column. She is quite outspoken when it comes to people being rude. There are chapters on people talking loudly on their cell phones (one of my pet peeves!), parents who don’t parent, telemarketers, and more.

I really enjoyed this. There was plenty of humour and I applaud her for standing up to some of these people! She goes to extremes in some cases (like with the telemarketers… or hunting down the guy who stole her car, and trying to hunt down whoever stole her identity), but good for her!… (more)