Bitch? Please! How Nice Girls Can Succeed in a Bitch's World

Although the finer points of etiquette, such as which fork to use at a dinner party, may today be deemed petty, good manners can make life more pleasant for everyone. This is the "nice girl" philosophy that Munroe supports, and if readers can get past the Cosmo Girl patter and seven "Nice Girl Test Time" quizzes, they will find a surprisingly sophisticated appreciation of the virtues of virtue. The modern nice girl has apparently evolved from someone who doesn't put out to a woman who has healthy eating habits and safe sex, who embraces her wrinkles and spends wisely. Conversely, Munroe attempts to%E2%80%94but never quite succeeds in%E2%80%94defining what exactly a bitch is these days. She tries to convey a significant message with a superficial, sometimes cloying style, at one point quoting Laurel Thatcher Ulrich, a Harvard historian, and the Real Housewives in the same passage. Munroe may believe that her target audience can only be reached through references to celebrity culture, but this seems to contradict her goal of raising her readers above this level of thinking. Ultimately, her appeal for a return of feminine graciousness is a welcome effort, even if it reads like a People magazine version of Miss Manners. (Mar.)