Hannah Seligson is every girl’s BFF in New Girl on the Job: Advice from the Trenches. Aimed at the 20-something female entering the strange subuniverse of work, the book defuses emotional undercurrents in business settings while presenting ideas for turning internships and entry-level jobs into real opportunities. Making a Graceful Entrance: How to Find a Job You Don’t Want to Quit, X + Y: Navigating Female-Male Dynamics at the Office, Bad Bosses, Why Is She Being Such a Bitch and other chapters cover everything from finding to keeping a job. Strong anecdotes from the trenches support the female-tailored techniques like changing the channel after a goof-up, using CYT (cover yourself tactics) to help avert office disasters, and the real take on crying (consider it a tic, and not a huge deal as long as you quickly compose yourself in the bathroom). Slanted to those raised on self-esteem and teamwork buzzwords ( I felt hurt, violated and embarrassed when I heard you talked about me . . . would it be more productive if we both spent less time focusing on interpersonal issues and more time designing Web pages? ) Seligson’s advice is still valuable to any worker bee trying to adjust to life in the hive.
Valiant Women is a vital and engrossing attempt to correct the record and rightfully celebrate the achievements of female veterans of World War II.
