Women Who Run With the Poodles: Myths and Tips for Honoring Your Mood Swings

by Barbara Graham

A guidebook for women who realize that poodles are superior to wolves--they know the importance of a good haircut--offers a program for finding your Inner Poodle that involves no goddess ceremonies, drumming, or screeching at the moon. Original. 100,000 first printing. $75,000 ad/promo.

Genres: Humor, Nonfiction

149 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1994

About the author

WHAT JONAH KNEW is Barbara’s debut novel, Her essays and articles have appeared in magazines, such as Glamour, More, Mindful, National Geographic Traveler, O the Oprah Magazine, Food & Wine, Psychotherapy Networker, Redbook, Self, Shambhala Sun, Sunset, Time, Tricycle, Utne Reader, and Vogue, in addition to being collected in many anthologies.

She is the author/editor of the New York Times bestselling Eye of My Heart: 27 Women Writers Reveal the Hidden Pleasures and Perils of Being a Grandmother, her non-Hallmark take on the complexities of being a grandparent in the 21st century. She’s also the author of Women Who Run with the Poodles: Myths and Tips for Honoring Your Mood Swings, a national bestseller that offers a satirical look at the dark side of the self-help movement.

Her book, Camp Paradox, is a haunting yet wry coming-of-age memoir set at an all-girls summer camp which fast-forwards decades into the future when Barbara realizes that the “love affair” she believed she’d shared with her camp counselor fits every definition of sexual abuse.

Barbara’s plays have been produced Off-Broadway and at theaters around the country.

She lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with her husband, Hugh Delehanty.

Reviews

[Susannah · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a reasonably funny book that takes the piss out of the whole self-help, getting in touch with your inner-child, higher self, movement of the 90s (it was published in 1994). I think it would have come across as a lot funnier, and a lot more relevant, if I had read it closer to that time. But it is still amusing, with chapters titled: "Reclaiming Your Sacred Inner Bitch," and "What Women Really Want (And Why Men Don't Really Want to Know.) It also carries the message that no matter how much self improvement you do, you cannot change your basic self. So it is better to accept yourself as you are and do the best with what you have.

[Sharon Huether · Rating 2 out of 5]

A funny book with even funnier Illustrations. It basically says that you are ok with who you are.

[Karen-Leigh · Rating 3 out of 5]

Humorous feminism and self help.

[Cassandra Carico · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book was terribly serious. I understand the various points that the author was trying to make, but it was way too goofy for me. Admittedly, there were a few "giggles" in the book, but in all it felt far too silly.

[Shamana Ali · Rating 2 out of 5]

Really, the title is the best part.

[Mark Dunn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fond memories of a time when political correctness and the worst of feminist ideology was mostly unknown to your average sane American.