cover image The Ropes: Girls Have the Rules, Women Know the Ropes

The Ropes: Girls Have the Rules, Women Know the Ropes

Judy Steinberg, Raechel Donahue. Dutton Books, $17.95 (207pp) ISBN 978-0-525-94885-8

""You don't need a rocking chair. You just need to rock!"" proclaim the authors of this frothy guide for older women who are stepping back into singledom. For Steinberg, the ex-wife of comedian/filmmaker David Steinberg, age has less to do with years or wrinkles than with projecting the right attitude. And, as she proclaims, older women are wiser, wealthier and have better senses of humor than their younger female counterparts. Throughout the book, she refers often to her difficult but ultimately liberating divorce, and her newfound confidence shines through in these pages as she instructs seniors on dating ""tadpoles"" (men who are at least 10 years their junior), looking sexy (""the dead giveaway for the older babe is the butt"") and even fighting off loneliness by enjoying solitude. Though her advice is a mixed bag (how many 60-year-olds would be willing to take up pole-dancing?) and her tone can be off-putting (she boasts frequently about how she's mistaken for a younger woman and speaks disdainfully of Internet dating and the ""short little troll"" she barely avoided meeting via the Net), her book is, on the whole, breezily written and empowering.