Dr. Dale Atkins is described as a psychologist, frequent guest on the Today show, and saver of women's sanity everywhere. If her book Sanity Savers is any indication, more women need a lot more help than Dr. Atkins can provide.
In Sanity Savers, Dr. Dale begins in the intro with her "Five S's" that help a woman become centered in the world: Self, Support, Surroundings, Stimulation, and Savor. She suggests that when life is challenging you, you encorporate more of her "Five S's" into your life to find sanity.
She explains that applying her "Five S's" to specific situations is what the rest of the book is about. One can approached the several ways:
- read one passage a day and contemplate on it throughout the day. It might not apply you your own life, but don't let that deter you, as you could use it helping a friend or family member, now or in the future.
- check through the index and find passages that apply to what you are feeling that day.
- randomly open the book, and choose a passage.
I had problems with this book from the beginning, but decided to give it a fair try before I completely dismissed it as "not useful for me."
What problems?
The second "S" is Support. Getting support from your friends and family. My major problem is not feeling that I have this support in my life. Checked through her index, searching under : building support, finding community, making new friends, what the F to do when you have no family, how about those of us without a church community...found all those categories missing. Thank Dr. Dale.
Most of the "ideas" listed make assumptions about the reader that exclude me. OK. So I can be really helpful to that support system that I don't have, but I'm on my own for my own problems.
The things I could identify with? Her suggestions were vague enough that they provided no real guidance to help me save my sanity. It was like reading your daily horoscope in the newspaper. Thin, non-specific, vague.
Maybe this book will be helpful for some women. I really hope so. But it's not for me. It left me feeling frustrated and more isolated than before I picked it up. I hated this book with a passion that surprised me.
This book was sent to me from a representative of HarperCollins and is part of the BlogHer Virtual Book Tour. No payment was received in exchange for this review. The suggested retail price of this book is less than US$ 45, and therefore, in accordance with BlogHer Editorial Guidelines, it will be passed on to another blogger or donated to my local library.
Ya know, I feel so negatively about this book that I'm donating it to my library immediately. No commentor gets a chance at it. Sorry. Or not.
Currently I'm reading Lunchtime Enlightenment by Pragito Dove and The 3rd edition of The Writer's Presence plus I recently finished Building Harlequin's Moon by Larry Niven and Brenda Cooper. Look for a Booker Tuesday next week about one of these.
Check out my other blog: Deb's Daily Distractions
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