This book should be read while you’re drunk with a lot of close girlfriends (not that kind of girlfriend!) – I imagine it would be a lot funnier under those circumstances. I started reading this on the road alone, with my Christian workmate – he opened it up and read a random paragraph – and I quote:

The Farewell Handshake
Relax – this isn’t as insanely boring as it sounds. If executed properly, it’s actually one of the flirtiest goodbyes you can use. Leave him with a slight, lingering handshake. Slide your fingers through his, gently grasping his fingertips at the last second. This is a very personal touch. To be blunt, it’s a lot like the first long caress a woman might give to a man’s penis. Depending on how you use it, it’s the kind of farewell handshake that could very well give him a hard-on. Talk about a sexy exit! (p.223)

The book started out well enough, giving me reasons to flirt, but as I kept reading, I kept cringing, thinking, please, don’t let people really believe that acting like this will attract a boy/girl. I don’t like this book. While I agree with some of what it’s saying, it comes across as being really condescending. I know it says at the beginning that you can flirt for a number of reasons – not just to attract a guy, but while reading it, it seems to place an extraordinary amount of emphasis on attracting guys.

Ok, so it comes across as being really condescending. Primarily because it’s aimed at straight woman and it seems to be telling me that all single straight woman are in need of a man!

After reading the chapter on double-entendres – everything sounds dodgy – following the section on handshakes, we picked up the phone book and read the section on what to do in an earthquake (to try and get the handshake out of our heads) – does “drop, cover, and hold on” sound dodgy to anyone else?

Makeup – I have it on good authority that some men/woman don’t like it when woman wear too much makeup! Or not even don’t like it, but it doesn’t do anything for them. I’m one of them – who someone is turns me on a lot more than what they look like. For example, I’m a sucker for a beautiful smile – it tells me so much more about what a person is like than their makeup!

The really ridiculous thing about this book is that I actually agree with bits of it – what it says about makeup is that it isn’t so much about attracting the opposite sex, but more about feeling sexy yourself – and this will help you be a confident flirter. Which I understand – but I think that if you are confident in who you are, then you’ll also be a confident flirter.

Handtouch by Penny Mathews

This book is aimed more at people who aren’t natural flirters. But when you get advice like the tips in the ‘Even More Advanced Flirt Tips’ section, I’m not sure it’s going to help! With advice like “Pose, pose, pose. Pretend you are a model and the paparazzi are just lovin’ you!”, “Wear very high heels. Mince, don’t walk”, and “If your high heels are stilettos, hop in them like a bunny. Use your imagination to pretend you’ve got a pom-pom on your ass. That’ll help remind you to shake it, baby when you’re not posing it.” Has the author ever talked to any real men, or if she’s been too busy just looking like she’s listening intently to them?

The author comes across as not having had much to do with men – she seems to assume that all men are the same! I know for a fact that this isn’t true – I would never say that any two people are exactly the same – what turns one person on might be a complete turn off for another.

To be fair, Marx does hint at this a little – she suggests that depending on what kind of man you’re trying to flirt with you should try different tactics. But this relies on you knowing the person or picking up on some of their body language – which I guess isn’t completely untoward, but even trying to tell what kind of person someone is by their body language isn’t completely fair I don’t think. And this book kind of proves it – not everyone is a natural flirter (or there wouldn’t be any need for a book like this right? Anyone following?) – so to judge someone on how they’re acting, while it can be fairly accurate, isn’t always.

Yes, there are some things I like about this book, for example, if you do want to act like this, it does have useful tips for you to follow. With step by step guides to acts of flirting, you can’t fail.

I honestly can’t believe I kept reading this! Especially after the following sentence. “All these moves [such as twitching your hips or shaking your booty] tell a guy that he’s dealing with a real woman…” How do these tell a man he’s dealing with a real woman! What is a real woman! Can I get an ‘argh’!

So, to conclude, this book was worth what I paid for it – nothing. (Big thanks to Guy for sending it to me!)
— Grl Sez

Guy Sez: I likewise expect a full review of the Ghirardelli bar that I gave you at the same time! Every sweet, lingering, melting mouthful caressed by your tongue.

This book reminded me of The Rules from a few years back. In each case, an artificial, forced relationship. Flirting should be fun, off the cuff, teasing and tingling. Not the Broadway production Eve Marx makes it into.

I did like the section on rules for flirting in the hot tub, though. As I read it, memories of an evening we spent in a hot tub came bubbling up!
— Guy Sez

Sister Hazel's latest

Why Sister Hazel rocks!

Everyone knows I’m a huge Hazelnut (well everyone who’s read my Hot Seat!), but I’m quite serious when say they are one of the greatest bands around. And why, you might ask, dear reader. Because they have a song for almost any occasion (well for love anyway, which let’s be honest, is what life is about!). Every time something’s happened in my love life (so not very often :p), I’ve found a Sister Hazel song that speaks to me about where I am.

Songs for hooking up:

• Hello, It’s Me (Absolutely)
• Everything Else Disappears (Absolutely)

Absolutely

Songs for being madly in love:

• Beautiful Thing (Fortress)
• Everybody (Chasing Daylight)
• In The Moment (Lift)
• Let Your Love Flow
• Mandolin Moon (Absolutely)
• One Love (Chasing Daylight)
• See Me Beautiful (Release)
• This Kind Of Love (Absolutely)
• Vacation Rain (Release)

Songs about love:

• See Me Beautiful (Release)


Fortress

• Hopeless (Chasing Daylight)
• Strange Cup Of Tea (Fortress)

Songs for breaking up:

• Tear By Tear (Absolutely) (not really about breaking up, but if I need a good cry its a good one to get me going)
• Best I’ll Ever Be (Chasing Daylight)
• Take A Bow (Release)
• Take It Back (Release)
• Shame (Absolutely)
• Where Do You Go (Absolutely)
• Truth Is (Absolutely)
• Killing Me Too (Chasing Daylight)

Chasing Daylight

Songs for when you’re starting to get over them:

• Life Got In The Way (Chasing Daylight)
• Meet Me In The Memory (Absolutely)
• Wanted It To Be (…Somewhere More Familiar)

Personal favorites of mine:
Everything Else Disappears – I love the shyness of this song, the unsureness of the singer, the potential of something amazing happening, the romance, “and we sat on your car while the light from the stars poked holes in the sky.” And the happy ending!

Let Your Love Flow – (Written by the Bellamy Brothers) What I
love about this song is that it makes love seem so natural – which it is – by likening it to natural things “Just let your love fly, like a bird on a wing, and let your love bind you, to all living things.” I also love this line “must be that season when that love light shines all around us” – I know when I’m in love it feels exactly like there’s light shining out of me, all around me, surrounding everything.

Lift

This Kind Of Love – I mostly love this one for its slow, methodic beat, making the song sound extremely simple, just like love… And the lyrics just ignite something in me – they get the feeling so right!

Best I’ll Ever Be – Oozes disappointment that it didn’t work out. I just love the bit at the end of the song, just random household noises, but they sound so poignant, still oozing disappointment…
– Grl Sez

Guy Sez: Grl put me onto Sister Hazel, and since then I’ve become nutty as well. Not sure that I’d say they were one of the best bands in the world, but yes, they rock! My own few personal favorites:

...Somewhere More Familiar

One Love – This is just a fantastic song for being in love. It sums up what it’s like to have a lover who is the real thing.

This Kind Of Love – More of the same – it’s a great song to play at a wedding.

Run for the Hills – I love this song. It’s got spinning wheels and people grabbing their lover and running for the hills as the tide rises, hard rain comes down and fire and brimstone bubbles up. We’ve all had days like that.

See Me Beautiful – I’d like to be the person others see me as, without my private doubts or vices. It’s something I strive towards, and this work is its own reward.

My personal ambition – one of many – is to find the time to attend a Sister Hazel concert with Grl, and rock along in the audience. We’ve come close a few times, missed out by a day or so in Orlando and St Louis. We’ll get there one day.
– Guy Sez