While I was reading Khloé Kardashian’s book Strong Looks Better Naked in a Brooklyn café, the person sitting across from me gingerly asked, “What genre is that?” I had no answer.
“Hmmm...” said the man behind the counter at McNally Jackson as he looked at the book I was buying while he rang up my purchase. There was the cover, loud and proud: I Suck at Relationships So You Don’t Have To: 10 Rules for Not Screwing Up Your Happily Ever After. “It’s for work,” I responded, with a high laugh I…
When we decried self-help books, many of you protested that the genre wasn't all bad. Writer Liesl Schillinger agrees — she and Christina Nehring, author of A Vindication of Love, believe you can get better at romance by reading.
As The New Yorker Book Bench wryly points out, Kiri Blakeley's Forbes article on why women buy self-help books contains some annoying stereotypes. But it also offers depressing insight into why so many women think they need help.
