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Queer Eye For the Straight Guy : The Fab 5's Guide to Looking Better, Cooking Better, Dressing Better, Behaving Better, and Living Better
Random House Audio Product Details - Ratings and reviews for queer eye for the straight guy : the fab 5's guide to looking better, cooking better, dressing better, behaving better, and living better. |
Product Description
Imagine this: Five eminently stylish and hilariously witty gay men—authoritative experts in food and wine, grooming, decorating, fashion, and culture—invade your life, assess your strengths and weaknesses, and, in the course of a day, make you better dressed, better groomed, better mannered, and a better cook, living in a better home. All of this is painless (unless you have a really egregious body-hair situation), liberating, and downright fun.
This is what Queer Eye for the Straight Guy does each week on one of the hottest TV shows in memory, as the Fab 5—Ted Allen, Kyan Douglas, Thom Filicia, Carson Kressley, and Jai Rodriguez—turn an everyman frog into an every-girl's-dream prince. And this is what the book offers: the essential "make better" advice from each of the Fab 5. Just like the show, the book focuses on easy but lasting lifestyle transformation—the tasks, the projects, the modest purchases, and, most important, the new attitudes that immediately make a noticeable difference.
From Kyan's instructions on how often to wash your hair to Carson's explanation of why shirts are the new ties, from Ted's strategies for ordering wine and Thom's suggestions on a better bathroom to Jai's hints on shaking hands, Queer Eye for the Straight Guy is filled with clear, direct advice on the issues that confront every man. But Queer Eye doesn't try to make you dress like Carson or dance like Jai; it's about teaching you how to refine your own personal style, without throwing away your entire closet and buying a whole new everything. It's about helping you realize the best expression of yourself—the real you.
Queer Eye introduces men to the rewards that women—and a lot of gay men—have long reaped by thinking about the day-to-day details that make them look better, feel better, and get more out of life. Many straight men have long felt that these subjects are not for them. Nothing could be sillier. In this book, the Fab 5 sets them straight (so to speak).
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Queer Eye For the Straight Guy : The Fab 5's Guide to Looking Better, Cooking Better, Dressing Better, Behaving Better, and Living Better
- Audio Cassette: 0 pages (2004-02-10)
- Publisher: Random House Audio; 2004-02-10
- Label: Random House Audio
- Format: Abridged, Audiobook
- Studio: Random House Audio
- ISBN: 0739313142
- Average Customer Review:
 based on 37 reviews
- Sales Rank in Books: #2606240
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Avg. Customer Review:
5 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
Customer Rating: 
Summary: Quite useful for the straight (or gay) man 2006-01-01
Comment: Now first off, I have to get something off my chest. I am not a homophobe - I had a homosexual roommate sophomore year of college and we got along fine - but I get tired of people (most commonly women) who either drool at anything or anyone homosexual or having this belief that homosexuals are inherently good at anything involving home decor or style. I hate to break it to you, but homosexuals are like you and me, and not all are like the Fab Five. Remember my homosexual roommate? His side of the room was the messiest I have ever seen a human being make. The Fab Five would have had collective heart attacks upon seeing the state of it. By the logic of the homofangirls, I was the homosexual. Not to mention that half the things said in this book I have also read in "straight" men's magazines including "Men's Health" or the alternate "Men's Fitness." I'm sorry folks, but there's no Cult of Gays out there in brown robes meeting in caves and passing down tablets written by God that tell you what brand of shaving cream to use. The reason the Fab Five are so good at what they do is because they have had the training or education and DO know what they are talking about. For example, Thom Filicia founded an interior design company, and Kyan Douglas has had experience in professional and commercial salons.
Now that I've gotten that off my chest, let me talk about the book itself. Like the show, it offers some great insight into better living and hygiene. A lot of it is just resourceful, showing you different types of styles or ideas to open up what you might be comfortable with. There's also some pretty decent advice here, from what grooming products to use and not use, how to treat your hosts at a party, (and more importantly, what to bring as a gift) some all-important social tips, (and boy do I know a few people who need some of those) right down to what to think about arranging your furniture and eating out. It's entertaining and well written, making it at easy read that's good if you want something to just sit down with and glance through for a few minutes or so.
Well worth the money. I wish I could have given it to my sophomore roommate, maybe then I could have gotten from my bed to the door.
3 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
Customer Rating:
Summary: Excellent 2005-09-26
Comment: Fun format, visually appealing (of course!), useful information in all subjects, even some really delicious, simple-to-cook but impressive-to-serve recipes, and take it from a girl: what these guys say about what appeals to women (or turns us off) is absolutely true. Best of all, it's never about changing who or what the reader is, but about bringing out the best that's already in him.
9 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
Customer Rating:
Summary: Plenty of useful advise here! 2004-11-29
Comment: Heard the taped version of QUEER EYE FOR THE STRAIGHT GUY by Ted Allen et al. . . . I must admit to not being a big favorite of the TV show (of the same name); however, that said,
this was an engaging program with lots of useful advice about food and wine, grooming, decorating, fashion, and culture.
For example, I liked the suggestion to have two bottle openers in case one disappears at a party--as it usually does.
Also, I took note of such other ideas as:
* On how to button jackets, remember: sometimes, always, never. If a three button jacket, that's how to button it; if a two button jacket, skip the first word (sometimes).
* Jeans should fit you as you leave the store. Don't buy them too short or long, as they are now most often preshrunk.
* Give more compliments. They strengthen relationships and show you care.
* At a party, hire somebody to help.
* If you get a cellphone call, say, "Hi, I'm with someone. Can I call you back later?"
* Don't take a call while dining!
* Read COSMOPOLITAN to learn about relationships.
9 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
Customer Rating:
Summary: Family of Fab Five Fans 2004-09-30
Comment: Having become a Fab Five Family Fan Club, we had to have this book. I'm a wife and mother living in an otherwise male household. These fantastic guys offer advice for the betterment of all of us..from the inside-out. The truly wonderful thing about this book, and about these men, is that they are just that, men..who happen to 'get it.' They aren't afraid to pass along hints which simply elude many people. They gently encourage us to make the attempts to broaden and enrich our lives. This isn't just about men, either. Face it, girls, we don't understand men any better than they understand us. This book has cleared up many a confusion for me. In fact, I've learned a little more about all five areas these charming men discuss. This book is on our family reference shelf, and has served us all well. Thanks, Fab Five, for putting into the simplest terms, and with the most well-placed humor, all the little things we need to know to raise the bar. Hats off to the boys! Cheers!
7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
Customer Rating:
Summary: Turning yourself up two notches 2004-07-23
Comment: I bought this book having seen only 20 minutes of one episode -- you don't need to be a fan of the TV show. It helped that I have a few gay male friends who have taste, so it was not a tremendous step to take advice from five gay men. The easiset chapters to put into practice are on grooming, clothes, and culture. Who knew that plucking eyebrows (gently) and caring for one's face twice a day would have people notice? The chapter on clothes is helping to get me out of a predictable clothing rut, and the chapter on culture has some really action-provoking suggestions on going out, even if it's just you by yourself. The point of the book is to gently nudge you into a different direction. The first step is being open to new things. You'll find your confidence increasing and that you secretly covet other men's clothing and hair styles. Check out the music CD, also -- you can dance around while you get ready to go out.
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Queer Eye For the Straight Guy : The Fab 5's Guide to Looking Better, Cooking Better, Dressing Better, Behaving Better, and Living Better
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