Learning Secrets of Six-Figure Women
 

Reviewed by Carolyn Howard-Johnson, columnist and reviewer for MyShelf.Com and author of This is the Place and Harkening: A Collection of Stories Remembered

Recently I attended a luncheon at the invitation of a new acquaintance. Raana Hasnat is a financial consultant with Smith Barney. I met her at an event sponsored by the Women of Pasadena and talked her into joining. "This is a group of women who know how to network," I told her, exultant that I had finally found one.

So after raving about networking, how could I refuse her generous and polite invitation? Still, I had my reservations. Would it be a situation where I felt pressured to invest at a time when I didn’t feel was right for me? Experience taught me that there are no free lunches.

Well, Smith Barney and Raana got it right. The Four Seasons hotel room was exquisitely appointed, the food was wonderful and Barbara Stanny, author of Secrets of Six-Figure Women, spoke. This author is a fire-cracker. Smith Barney educated what appeared to be way over one hundred women that day without a single sales pitch. That doesn’t mean they didn’t get some very subtle branding in. As a parting gift, SB also gave each attendee Barbara’s book. That means that you get a very special review.

This review is special because it is the most whole hearted endorsement of any non fiction book I have reviewed this year. And that isn’t because of the free lunch. It is because this book is so sorely needed, even by most women who are already doing very well, thank you. It is also because it is well written. Barbara is the bestselling author of Prince Charming Isn’t Coming and she knows what she is talking about. She has been there, done that . All you’ll need to do is read one chapter, "Raising the Bar," and you’ll have enough information (if you choose to listen to the advice) worth a whole lot more than the price of one little book!

This is a book about strategy. How many women do you know who have one? Do you?
Secrets  and this review are about networking. Thank you Smith Barney. For a free lunch. A free book. A free learning experience.

Secrets of Six-Figure Women: Surprising Strategies to Up Your Earnings and Change Your Life
By Barbara Stanny
HarperCollins Publishers
Hardback
ISBN: 0060185481
Excerpt Link:
 http://www.simonsays.com/excerpt.cfm?isbn=0060185481&areaid=33
 

The Princess Principle: Women Helping Women Discover Their Royal Spirit

Reviewed by Carolyn Howard-Johnson, columnist and reviewer for MyShelf.Com and author of This is the Place and Harkening: A Collection of Stories Remembered

Lately we‘ve seen lots of movies that trade on a little girl’s desire to grow up to be cared for by a handsome prince. That includes The Princess Diaries, Maid in Manhattan and other Cinderella stories that pretend to have an up-to-date twist for the modern woman. We have fashion designers exploiting women’s desire for the glass slipper with five inch heels that will trash her posture and disintegrate her spine. Now we have The Princess Principle but it is not part of a trend toward exploitation.

Instead it is full of essays by eighteen women who share their hope, joy and expertise. The title may attract the very woman who needs it. It is an authentic inducement because our culture has made the idea of being a princess a part of our psyches that we might as well turn to our advantage.

The editors, Jana L. High and Marilyn Sprague-Smith, M. Ed., have assembled literate, well educated women with different stories and different angles on how we might improve ourselves and still live with—even accept—what now may appear to be our natural urge to be a princess. For these women, The Princess Principle isn’t about being rescued; they know we are beautiful and important in the ways that count.

As a writer considering my own anthology I must also comment on the format of this book. It is rare among anthologies. It gives each contributor full and complete billing including her name on the front cover, her picture on the back. It is also careful to credential each author so the reader has a sense for who each of them is and how she might best approach that writer’s views.

This book  might even be a resource for readers because some of the authors act as coaches, therapists, or advisors in real life.

In the spirit of this exceptional format here are the contributors:

Lorri Allen
Sue Bergstrom M.Ed.
Julie D. Burch
Jennifer Curtet
Deb Gauldin, RN
Sheryl Rudd Kuhn, MRR
Carolyn L. Larkin
Janet Luongo, M.S.Ed.
Joyce C. Mils, Ph.D.
Rebecca Pace
Lori Palm
Vickie Pokaluk
Valerie A Rawls
Sheryl Roush
Sue Stanek, Ph.D.
Amy S. Tolbert, Ph.D.

My bet is that not one of these women is a princess in the traditional sense and that every one of them is a princess in the sense she is making her own way, happily and with self assurance, in this big, bad but wonderful world.

The Princess Principle: Women Helping Women Discover Their Royal Spirit
Edited by \ Jana L. High and Marilyn Sprague-Smith, M.Ed.
R. & W. Publishers
Hardback, First Edition
ISBN:-0971493316
Excerpt Link:
 www.miraclesmagicinc.com

 (Carolyn Howard-Johnson’s first novel, This is the Place, has won eight awards.
Her newly released Harkening: A Collection of Stories Remember has won three.
Her  new book of poetry, Skyscapes: A Woman's View, is looking for a home.
Learn more at:  http://carolynhowardjohnson.com .
hojoreviews@aol.com