Jill Zarin's "Secrets of a Jewish Mother" Book Review

I recently had the great pleasure of receiving a copy of Jill Zarin's upcoming book to review. I am a fan of the Real Housewives of NYC and knew that I would be interested in reading her book, and giving my thoughts on it. The book is written by Jill, her sister Lisa Wexler, and her mother Gloria Kamen. The book is basically a guide to life with thoughts on categories such as marriage, education, beauty, parenting, careers, and much more.


A synopsis of the book:
"Secrets of a Jewish Mother shows readers that being clear about what you want is the best policy, and standing up for yourself and your family is always the right way to go. Usng real life examples-stories from Jill, Lisa, and Gloria-to illustrate their wise and witty tips on all respects of life, from dating to marriage, to money and more. Secrets of a Jewish Mother is all the advice you didn't know you needed but will truly value."

I felt this book was incredibly smart. It shows the ups and downs of these three women's lives. Like the book title says "Real Advice, Real Stories, Real Love." Nothing is sugarcoated and artificial. I really like how each chapter of the book has stories from each person's life. How Jill dealt with divorce, Gloria's struggle with her friendships at certain points in her life, and Lisa's view on money. All of these issues are what people face everyday. The insight into their lives that they share with you makes you feel connected to them. At the end of each chapter, there are open-ended questions designed to make you think. For example, at the end of the Beauty and Health chapter, one of the questions is "is your confidence affected by what other people think of you and not by what you think of yourself?" The questions aren't there to make you feel badly about yourself, they are there to reasses yourself if needed. In conclusion, I really feel this book is a wonderful read. It makes you think differently about life in certain ways that you normally don't.

Secrets of a Jewish Mother is available in stores on April 15th. It is available for pre-order through Amazon.com for just $17.13. It is normally $25.99, so this is a great deal!
http://www.amazon.com/Secrets-Jewish-Mother-Advice-Stories/dp/0525951792/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1270444348&sr=8-1