All You Need to Be Impossibly French: A Witty Investigation into the Lives, Lusts, and Little Secrets of French Women
A fascinating—and illuminating—read. --Daily MailBritish expatriate Powell, a regular contributor to theSunday Timesand other newspapers, explores the allure of French women, including their sense of style and their feelings about relationships, diet, exercise, work, and family. In witty prose, she interviews politicians, former models, beauty pageant queens, and others to get the scoop on how French women stay thin, attractive, sexy, and chic no matter their age. Shopping is a form of exercise, but going to a gym is unheard of, just as wearing tennis shoes or exercise clothes when not exercising is unthinkable. This book is similar toEntre Nous: A Woman's Guide to Finding Her Inner French Girlby American writer Debra Ollivier, except the comparisons are between British and French women. At the conclusion of the work, one is left wondering whether any woman would want to emulate the style of Frenchwomen, as sensible as many of their ideas are, because they come off like chain-smoking perfectionists who obsess over themselves to the detriment of having close female friendships. Recommended for large public libraries. --Christine Holmes,Library JournalWitty, and very elegantly written... verbal Viagra. --Sunday Times