cover image Attitude

Attitude

Lisa Sliwa. Random House Value Publishing, $9.95 (0pp) ISBN 978-0-517-56187-4

Sliwa, a director of the Guardian Angels (best-known for ""patrolling'' New York City subways), a fashion model in such publications as Elle and Vogue, and now a professional wrestler, with coauthor Greenberg here offers a defense manual of value to women. Downplaying the martial arts``your physical skills are worthless if you have the wrong attitude''they emphasize attitude training. This consists in large part of using psychological tricks to avoid harassment and intimidation, to inflict pain quickly in order to make an escape and to deal with rapists wielding weapons. They also include tips for safety in parking lots, transit stations, bank machines, shopping malls, pay phones, and give alternatives to burglar alarms and other home security systems. In an autobiographical section, Sliwa describes her unusual personal history, including study at Lake Forest College in Illinois, where she was an economics major, her modeling career, her involvement with the Angels and her marriage to the group's founder, Curtis Sliwa. Illustrations not seen by PW. Author tour. (November)