Echoing many of the retro values expressed in 1999's The Rules, Jaffe dishes out tips for working wives on how "to lessen your husband's grumpiness and fear, so that you don't have to sacrifice your career for your marriage." The author, a married mother of three, is a motivational speaker and former columnist for Fortune Small Business. She dedicates this book to her husband, a man who she says has enabled her to work with his blessings. How can other career women so inclined get their husbands to do the same? For one thing, there's Jaffe's dress code. At the office, women "should not dress in an overly provocative way." But once home, they should never "kick off the heels and throw on the old... rag that they've been wearing since college before they start cooking dinner." Jaffe's more up-to-date in the "Household Responsibilities and Stress" chapter, in which she cites studies indicating that when it comes to two-career couples, wives usually do more household chores and child rearing than their husbands. She offers commonsense advice on how to motivate unproductive husbands, suggesting, for example, that wives resist the temptation to micromanage their husbands through domestic tasks. Frustrated middle- to upper-middle-class working wives who have the money and the time to buy and read this book may benefit from it. But hardworking couples struggling to make ends meet may find it difficult to relate this advice to their own lives. (On sale Nov. 26)
