How to Say YES to Life: A Woman’s Guide to Beating the Blahs
Miller
1971
Where do I begin? This book is deliciously awful! First, the condition of this book is a crime. There is an unidentified substance (I don’t want it identified either) and the binding is broken. I am sure there is some kind of meaningful symbolism given the condition of the book.
So, evidently the “blahs” is a recognized medical condition for 1971. Checking the DSM IV (or maybe II) right now! Joking aside, this is a perfect example of why we weed. Imagine handing this book for a woman in crisis or battling depression. Some of the excellent advice in this book includes:
Adopting a child
Adopting/becoming friends with a returning Viet Nam Vet
Plastic surgery
Getting a paying job
New wardrobe
New makeup
An affair
A divorce
Ladies, see how easy it is to be happy?
Deliriously happy,
Mary
Good lord, she looks like she’s beat a few too many blahs!
“A look at the Extramarital affair”–I am dying. She makes it sound as easy and about as important as committing to a weekly manicure.
This looks like a dreadful book, but in fairness, it seems more like the author intended it as advice for someone having a midlife crisis or figuring out what to do when the kids leave for college, not full-blown depression. Although even by that standard yeah, not much to recommend here.
So after adopting a child, and feeling better; do you send the little one back until you need him/her again?
Wow…dare I ask what kind of research she wanted to conduct on her own for that extramarital affair chapter?
Well, I *wasn’t* dreading my 41st birthday…till I read this.
Should I figure out how to apply lipstick, or just jump straight to the affair?
I think these are good ideas. If you don’t do them, you’ll find them so outrageous, maybe you’ll think of your own way out of the blahs. Also, it is actually pretty honest: people do do these things to beat the blahs (or whatever you may call them).
“Look — we both know you’re married. You’re not just using me to get rid of the blahs, are you?”
Oh, how could you show us page 178 and not 179? I’m dying to know what “doing her own research” consisted of.
Am always interested in books that promise to ‘beat the blues’.
All such awesome ideas!! Is this how Mrs. Miller beat her blahs? I am also glad this book tells me that I
need a paying job too. The woman on the cover looks medicated. This was the best post of the week : )
Yes, I’d perk up if my driver would drop me off at the library (in the pouring rain–my umbrella would be from Hermes). Then I’d casually toss my mink aside for a rewarding day of repairing bindings and teaching adults how to double-click. I’ll leave my pearls at home–you know how they catch on the corners of book carts. Then there’s you-know-who down in archives…grrrr!
“I’d like to do my own research…” So she adopted a child, had an affair, got divorced, got a paying job, got plastic surgery and made friends with a Viet Nam vet? In what order?
Angel, I am dying laughing reading your comments!
FWIW, our volunteers are about 75 (the average age) and have THEIR driver (a family member or the bus from their retirement community) drop them off!
As for you-know-who down in archives? We have NO “you-know-who” anywhere. I must be working in the WRONG library! ROFLLLL
I would LOVE to read this ludicrous book. It’s advice stank even for the time!
Is anyone else fascinated by women who ‘don’t have to work’? I was born in 1978, so whilst there were a reasonable number of homemakers among my friend’s parents (including my own mother, though that was more because she was disabled) there were plenty of women with full time jobs.
loribl–no, I don’t work at a library with a hot archivist either, but our local university has an archives dept. in the basement!. It seemed all rarified and catacomb-y down there…the perfect setting for a beating the blahs!