Patronising, self-absorbed, self-obsessed rubbish.
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Though I applaud Wendy Salisbury for coming out and admitting her love for young guys, I cringed at much of what she wrote in this book. There is nothing worse than women desperately trying to look young and being fixated on their appearance and constantly looking around to see if any guy still finds them attractive. And this is how she comes across. The pretensions to 'culture' are laughable, when the women concerned act like slags.
There are much older women out there who naturally look decades younger than their years and have a young mind and enjoy listening to the type of music that most young people also like to listen to, and these women _are_ attractive, even to much younger guys, for one reason that they are not hung up on whether they look young or not and are not going around scrutinising any available male to see what his reaction to them is, but are largely indifferent owing to the fact that they are absorbed in their own interests, and henceforth, being noticed and found attractive by males for that reason alone.
Maggie Russell's contribution to this silly book shows very negative thinking and the most erroneous writing on 'soul mates' I have ever seen. A soul mate most defnitely does not have to be a romantic love interest, as anyone who knows anything about soul mates will tell you, but she holds the common view that a soul mate is solely a romantic partner, and even I, who don't even know if I believe in soul mates anyway, knows is not the belief amongst those who are supposed to know about these matters.
The worst thing about this book, was the fact that it was unutterably BORING. I persevered with it and stuck with it, if only to be fair to the writers and give them a chance, and though some chapters proved to be not quite as bad as most, the bad ones were so appallingly bad that they cancelled out anything of interest in the rest. And as for the silly nonsense one of these women wrote about a 'sisterhood' of best friends: it was utter drivel. Some women prefer male company to the often silly, gossipy nature of female company, especially if it's of the boringly trite sex-in-the-city type of trashy airheaded nonsense that so often gets presumed to be indicative of how all female friendships are.
Which brings me to the second worst thing about this book, how the authors seem to assume that they speak as one voice for all women everywhere. - Well, this may come as something of a surprise to them, but they certainly do not speak for all women!
In fact, reading this drivel, one has visions of a gaggle (or should that be a horde?) of these self-obsessed females all comparing notes and agreeing with one another, all sharing the same viewpoints and atittudes and leading the same type of lives, and all thinking with the same shared mind. They come across as a totally boring, miserable, whining load of people who probably get together to compare menopause symptons and the terrible misfortune of being born female, at the same time as bigging themselves up to be a wonderful gift to the whole of mankind.
One wonders, do they ever meet any females who think differently to them? Would they even notice, in their blinkered, self-absorbed little world, if they did? Would anyone else really care?
If these women ever look beyond their own insular little lives where everyone has family (mothers, kids) and hordes of female friends (all of whom think the same as them), if they actually bothered to find out anything about life outside of their own narrow confines, they'd realise that some of us lead very different lives and have completely different points of view and atittudes and radically different opinions and outlooks on life in general, and just about everything really. They also might realise that their mind-sets keep them stuck in their way of thinking, which will, in turn, continue to bring them the same experiences they are complaining about, so reinforcing their own particular beliefs, convincing them that they were right all along. Maybe one day they'll wake up to how their way of thinking is all wrong.
Whatever, I've wasted enough of my time writing about such people, but maybe they will see this and get a wake-up call, which might help them to see where they have been going wrong. But I doubt it.
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Move Over Mrs Robinson
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Entertaining, feisty and informative
Move Over Mrs Robinson is a first-rate read, full of humour,excoriating wit and downright belly-laughs. It is also perceptive, wise, empathetic and thought-provoking, not just a frivolous romp, as suggested by the cover illustration. Above all, it positively reinforces the image of mature, single women who have for too long been consigned to the land-fill site of a narcissistic youth culture.The book shows us that women of a certain age are not invisible, nor are they to be pitied. Contrary to common perception, they do not live bleak, shadowy, celibate lives; they are sexy, vibrant, autonomous warrior-women, having it large. I was particularly impressed with Maggi Russel's contribution throughout, especially the 'Soulmates' chapter. She writes intelligently, analytically and truthfully, but always with a lightness, humour and fluency which render her acute observations and insights very accessible. She is obviously someone who has never merely skated over the surface of life. For those women who might feel more like Bo-Peep than Boadicea and whose lingerie drawer contains more support hose than thongs, this book will be a positive tonic. It is an antidote for mid-life angst. Male readers may be a little unnerved by some of the revelations but they won't fail to find it very funny and possibly even educational.
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Move Over Mrs Robinson
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Entertaining,feisty and informative.
Move Over Mrs Robinson is a first-rate read, full of humour, excoriating wit and downright belly laughs. It is also perceptive, wise, empathetic and thought-provoking, not just a frivolous romp, as suggested by the cover illustration. Above all, it positively reinforces the image of mature, single women who have for too long been consigned to the land-fill site of a narcissistic youth culture.It shows us that women of a certain age are not invisible, nor are they to be pitied. Contrary to common perception, they are not living bleak, shadowy, celibate lives, they are sexy, vibrant, autonomous warrior-women, having it large. I was particularly impressed with Maggi Russel's contribution throughout - especially the 'Soulmates' chapter. She writes intelligently, analytically and truthfully, but always with a lightness, humour and fluency which render her acute observations and insights very accessible. She is clearly someone who has never merely skated over the surface of life. For those women who might feel more like Bo-Peep than Boadicea and whose lingerie drawer contains more support hose than thongs,this book will be a positive tonic. It is an antidote for mid-life angst. Male readers may be a little unnerved by some of the revelations, but they won't fail to find this book very funny and possibly even educational
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A rollicking read
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Now all we single men of a certain age know what is going on in the heads of all those ladies and some of us may not like what we find. So gentlemen as long as you have a sense of humour you will find yourself laughing out loud and the ladies will love it. Written by two authors with quite differing styles I found I had to make a mood adjustment with alternate chapters. I must admit I found Wendy Salisbury's lighter touch much more amusing with her constant use of funny metaphors and her inability to resist a play on words. Maggi Russell's approach is a little more serious but still written with her tongue firmly lodged in her cheek. Describing as it does the various elements and experiences of single life for the slightly older woman there are many parallels that can be drawn by men in a similar position. The authors have obviously drawn extensively upon their own experiences which have not been inconsiderable and it is refreshing to find them laughing at themselves as well as some of their less successful relationships. Quite apart from being a thoroughly amusing read from start to finish it can certainly act as a most useful guide for ladies who find themselves single again. Gentlemen however should not regard this as a book only for the ladies but should read it as an important guide on what to do and more importantly what NOT to do. Those in stable and happy relationships might also find it cautionary to find out what goes on out there by reading it too. To sum up, if you are over 40 this is a book not to be missed.
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Funny, raunchy and intelligent
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I really loved this book. It's a witty, raunchy, inspiring rant on the heaven and hell of being a woman of a certain age, in an age that clearly doesn't know its posterior from its elbow when it comes to older women. Beware reading it on trains because it can be snort-out-loud funny (a fact confirmed by two male commuter friends who I allowed to read extracts) and if my best friends don't buy it for themselves I'll have to buy it for them for Christmas or birthdays, or some other trumped up reason, because it's the kind of book that makes you want to share the insights and the jokes.
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