110 reviews
Sales Rank: 39572

Format: Kindle Book
Media: Kindle Edition
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 336

Dewey Decimal Number: 818.602
ASIN: B001BNDVLU

Publication Date: July 1, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours

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Editorial Reviews:

Product Description
By age thirty-seven, Cathy Alter had made a mess of her life. With a failed marriage already under her belt, she was continuing down the path of poor decisions, one paved with a steady stream of junk food, unpaid bills, questionable friends, and highly inappropriate men. So she sat down and asked herself what she truly wanted. A decent guy. A nicer home. More protein. When she took a closer look at her wants, she noticed something that seemed very familiar with the addition of exclamation points, her list could easily be transformed into the cover lines on every women's magazine: Find the love you deserve! Paint to the rescue! Eggs-actly perfect meals!So Cathy gave over her life to the glossies for the next twelve months, resolving to follow their advice without question. By the end of her subscriptions, she would get rid of upper-arm jiggle, crawl out of debt, host the perfect dinner party, run a mile without puking, engage in better bathtub booty, ask for a raise, and rehaul her apartment.Well, at least that was the premise of her social experiment. What actually happened was much less about cosmetic change and much more about internal transformation. Singular in its voice and yet completely universal, Up for Renewal will appeal to all who have ever wondered if they could actually make their life over.

Customer Reviews: Read 105 more reviews...

4 out of 5 stars

Reads like an addictive article! November 20, 2008
I love reading magazines, LOVE them. I'm crazy about the advice columns, the helpful tid bits, the articles on how to live my life to the fullest. However, I've never been crazy enough to try them.
So of course I was really excited to read this book, and you know, I really did enjoyed it.
For me the fun was really living vicariously through all the amusing magazine driven advice.
However, it was a little over the top, and she was a REALLY whiney.
So, while being fun and fairly breezy, if the author ever decided to 'renew' this character, I'd probably cancel and not subscribe.

4 out of 5 stars

Too Funny and Real... November 18, 2008
Up For Renewal by Cathy Alter is a must read for voyeurs. This book delves into what happens when a smart, though lazy, both sexually and nutritionally, young woman, decides to change. And oh what change, she is going to use magazines as guidelines. One of the funniest phrases was right up front, 'I immediately decided not to use Essence or Parent's Magazine, because I am a single honky.' Maybe I am weird but that was stand up comedy funny.

Ms. Alter's book would be an awesome, chick bookclub read. A bunch of women could get together, with wine and food, agreeing to disagree about the antics in the book. Though, I read it alone, I loved every moment. Often I caught my husband looking at me as I laughed aloud. Wonderful. I recommend this book to all female readers and any readers looking for a belly laugh.

Angelia Vernon Menchan, author of,
Schae's Story: A Woman's Transformation

3 out of 5 stars

A fun book -- great "beach" read material November 13, 2008
I picked this book because I am a "closet reader" of the typical glossy mags. By a closet reader I mean that I get subscriptions to learning magazines at home -- such as Smithsonian. But my secret pleasure is to read the glossy magazines at the hair salon or while I'm waiting in line at the grocery store. My family and friends would probably think it's a big waste of time to look through magazines promoting the latest diet fad or what a particular celebrity is wearing this week, but I just eat that stuff up like candy. And it is candy. Empty calories, but boy it's fun to enjoy at the moment -- just like this book.

This book delivered what I hoped it would -- a light and entertaining read. It's a very funny. How fun look at this social experiment and imagine where it would bring you. A great premise of following recommendations/advice in magazines. What a hilarious idea! And the writer delivers fun descriptions of her experience and takes you through it with her. It turns into a voyage of self discovery that goes beyond the whole magazine thing. I think it's worth a summer "beach" read or if you're looking for light entertainment. It's bound to make you laugh in any case which is not always an easy thing for an author to achieve. Enjoy this reading candy -- and without any calories who can complain?! :)

5 out of 5 stars

Up for Renewal November 12, 2008
This book is amusing, sometimes raunchy, sometimes makes you feel sorry for the writer but leaves you cheering her on. It is a solution most people would never think of trying, but it really worked for her when she realized that her goal list read like a lot of magazine articles! It's inspiring to realize her stick-to-it-ive-ness actually helped her achieve her goals. It's a 'make you feel good' book.

4 out of 5 stars

Are You Opening a Nail Salon? November 4, 2008
While Cathy Alter's memoir "Up For Renewal" seems like an unlikely read for this 51 year old male, I felt I had a lot in common with the author and this deserved a look. I too have felt the urgency of time lost and the rueful aftertaste of less-than-perfect life choices; I too long for answers to perpetual vexations in a "lite nugget" form that provides quick gratification and at least some measure of resolution, however superficial it may ultimately prove to be. And, as a die-hard reading junkie who simply has GOT to have something new to read every day, I relate totally to the easy and obvious choice of turning to women's mags as a guide to living.

Well, of course, I concede that few men would attempt such a thing--our mens' mags clearly inhabit a different psychological and sociological geography than the ladies' publications do. Besides very few men will publicly admit they need any help; that would be like asking for directions, wouldn't it? Let's just say we XY's are substantially less preoccupied with holiday decorating and throwing a perfect dinner party. Even so, apart from the universal male fixation on attaining six-pack abs there's still plenty of factionalism between the rival camps of men's periodicals; for example, as far as I'm concerned, any GQ or Esquire reader who is prepared to lay out $400 for a shirt is just plain nuts. But I digress;

"Up for Renewal" is a charming and unflinchingly honest account of how the author pulled her life together, using women's magazines as her guideposts in her quest for love, extended youth, personal and professional fulfillment, etc. I found many, MANY laugh-out-loud passages here, beginning with Cathy's purchase of her start-up ration of periodicals; the bookstore clerk eyed her stack of mags and asked, "Are you opening a nail salon?"

Author Cathy Alter is a talented writer with a quick wit and a sharp sense of her own imperfections that really make "Up for Renewal" resonate powerfully for readers, even if we're not all part of the "target demographic". I found it easy to relate and identify with all her personal and professional travails, even though they hardly match the contours of my own prairie-bound life far from the urban hothouse she strives for a patch of sunlight in. I would hope that readers wouldn't get all snarky and judgmental about her sex and relationship confessions; I know I would never cast the first stone. Even readers who disapprove or take offense at some of the true confessions offered here can still be won over by Cathy's light, conversational style of writing and by her wry, self-deprecating sense of humor.

Needless to say, "Up For Renewal" is chick lit in a BIG way, but I found it insightful and entertaining without lapsing into aren't-men-pigs stridency. I admire Cathy's adventurous spirit in conceiving and executing such a confessional, funny, and offbeat take on her own life, and I bet many readers can get at least as much insight and enjoyment as I did. Cathy dedicates the book "for my parents--who hopefully won't disown me". Why would any parents want to disown such a talented, creative, loving & sharp daughter? None in any world any of us would hope to inhabit!

Finally-I admit to a bit of rating inflation here. If "Tale of Two Cities" and "Madame Bovary" get 5 stars, "Up For Renewal" probably should get three. What the hell, this is a live author we're dealing with here; give her four stars and encourage people to buy the book. Enjoy and my thanks to the author; well done and I hope to see you in print again.