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“Beyond the Good-Girl Jail, When You Dare to Live from Your True Self”

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Published by Health Communications, Inc.

Review by Claudia Young

“Beyond the Good-Girl Jail” by Sandra Felt, LCSW, first caught my eye because it is written by a Colorado author and has a catchy title that seemed to offer some self help with perhaps a bit of light heartedness.

This is refreshingly not a “burn-your-bra” women’s lib kind of book. However, when pressed, I can’t quite pin down the genre that exactly fits this book.

Yes, there are self-help ideas and some ideas about how to apply them to your own life, but the ideas seem too nebulous to be effectively applied to the reader’s life with much precision.

In the chapter titled “Claiming What Fits Me,” we are asked, “Can we claim our differences? … Can we honor our own uniqueness?” This is followed by five “clues that we may have more claiming work to do regarding family.”

Unfortunately, while several clues such as “feeling afraid or protective in anticipation of contact with family,” may apply to the reader, there isn’t much actual help that follows.

This book is not an easy read as there is an abundance of interesting and applicable information for many of us that requires many rereads for clarification. This was especially true for me because much of my past resembles the author’s past and some of the passages brought up painful feelings that I had either buried or never acknowledged. However, I felt that while the author’s understanding was there, real and actual help was missing.

The final chapter, “Letting Go Again and Again,” seems to be the most relevant without the extra personal details with questions of “What am I afraid might happen if I come fully alive?” or “What do I really believe about myself?”

I am still inclined to encourage women to pick up this book even though the real work of reaching answers to those and other questions will have to be sought by the reader outside this book’s pages.

Upon reflection, I would recommend this book more as an autobiography of an interesting and talented Colorado author. The book includes some of the author’s original poetry and relates many of her personal experiences. While I find some of those experiences interesting and mildly enlightening, I believe that this book would best fit on my bookshelf in the autobiography section.