Stars: ****
Summary: Stop Whining – Start Winning! It’s not just you. Anyone who goes shopping, watches TV, or has children knows there is a world-wide epidemic of whining that is out of control! January Jones surveyed a wide cross-section of people to find out why they whine and what they whine about. Armed with this information, she wrote Thou Shalt Not Whine, a humorous look at why people whine and how to cure it. January reveals the top ten whines from all age groups and shows you how to deal with them using cures that work. Thou Shalt Not Whine is guaranteed to make you laugh at yourself and others. For anyone with family, friends, or foes who complain, this book is a must-read!
This is a hilarous book but it does have some good pointers too. If you’re thinking that you don’t whine, then you better think harder. Was your coffee not hot enough this morning? Did your kids take too long to get ready for school? Did the baby cry just when you were about to…., was the store out of what you went to get? EVERYBODY whines, it’s who we are, but we CAN do something about it!
Thou Shalt Not Whine is part humour book and part advice book. It’s separated into whines heard from the following groups of people: children, teenagers, parents, couples, singles, baby boomers, seniors, women, men, best friends and grandparents. At first I thought that meant that I’d go to the parents, couples and women section and read what I whine about and how to
With the couples one this work both ways because if the other half of your couple is complaining to you, you’re probably complaining about it too. It’s more how to stop others from whining (which I suppose would eventually work with you.)
For example the couple’s qualm about closet space:
Whine A: Your stuffs on my side.
Whine B: How many shoes do you need? br>Cure: The “separate closet” cure is the one and only one that works for most couples.
I didn’t much like the layout of the whines though. Each one is as shown above but there is an explanation after Whine A and none after Whine B, only the cure. It’s a little confusing.
For the most part I found January Jones to be funny but there was a “joke” I took a bit of offense to:
“Like most girls, I was born a natural whiner.” – pg xii
“My second qualification [for writing this book] is that I’m a woman, which
means that i can be anything I want to be – and change my mind about what that
is whenever I feel like it.” – pg xii
“There are all sorts of great cures for turbulence [from an airplane] besides
saying your prayers. I have tried them all and my favorite one is the “pass out”
cure. You can accomplish this most expediently by taking sleeping pills or
getting drunk. I recommend the pills because they are quiet and painless.” – pg 12
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