Book Review: Dating, Mating and Manhandling

Book review - Dating, Mating and Manhandling

Dating, Mating and Manhandling: The Ornithological Guide to Men
By Lauren Frances, Konstantin Kakanias

Lauren Frances, a well-known columnist for Flaunt magazine, tends to describe herself as a dating expert with a Ph. Double-D, which essentially means that she’s not literally a dating expert. But then, who really is?

So Lauren Frances decided to throw together a bunch of her tongue-in-cheek articles and create her first book on how to land a man. This dating and sex guide contains a whole lot of information that you likely wouldn’t take very seriously, but Lauren Frances manages to use a pretty clever classification system that essentially equates men with, of all things, birds.

From the “Clay Pigeons” who can’t take the hint to the “Baldheaded Eagle” who is bossy and controlling, Lauren Frances lists off dozens of types of bird-men and you will likely be able to put every man you know into one of these myriad categories.

Nevertheless, Lauren Frances also furnishes cliché advice, like women always have to wait for the man to call – they should never call first. And it’s never alright for a man to show up late, but women get some leeway when it comes to tardiness.

So perhaps this book is best served to a younger generation who is looking to land a boy/girlfriend and not a lifelong partner. It’s a humorous guide that will make you smile, but it is in no way a practical guide to finding true love.

When one of the sexes starts getting compared to birds, you know that the book involved really can’t be taken too seriously. It is a great read, though, it just doesn’t contain the type of practical advice that people who want to find love are looking for.

Rating: 2.5 out of 5