Rating: 
Summary: Hilarious & helpful, but sometimes clueless
Review: After seeing Emily Toth speak at a conference, I couldn't wait to read Ms. Mentor: Toth is extremely witty and entertaining. I found the book to be helpful in many ways, in particular the sections on job hunting and graduate work. However, I found her advice on professional dress a bit too conservative. Her answers to issues involving being gay or lesbian in academia resorted to attempts at glib humor rather than confronting the issue seriously; for example, when asked "Should I come out at work?" Ms. Mentor's reply recommends keeping your sex life to yourself, because "doing it in the street will frighten the horses." Reducing someone's individual identity to such an image is insulting, not to mention an obvious dodging of the issue for want of an straight (pardon the pun) answer. I also found Ms. Mentor's comments on sexual harrassment problematic -- to one question in which a graduate student asks what to do about a professor who sexually harrasses her, Ms. Mentor responds that the student should write a crush letter to him, posing as a gay man, in order to frighten him. Also, the repeated insistence that shutting up until you have tenure is considerably less than encouraging for women who want an academic career. Despite these failings, I would recommend the book for its frank and pragmatic approach to graduate school and the job market, though it should be taken with a block of salt.
Rating: 
Summary: Required reading! Do not miss!
Review: As a beginning grad student who has been away from academia for several years, I found this book not only a kick to read but full of refreshingly straightforward information. I plan to follow Ms. Mentor's advice to the letter. But this isn't just a guidebook for academia. Any woman (or man!) who wants succeed -- and survive -- as a professional should read this book.
Rating: 
Summary: Ouch-total dissapointment
Review: As I read this book, the mental star rating I had pictured went lower and lower. As a PhD student, this book is not useful. Mostly, because, for me...I know the difference between sexual harrasment and normal male and female interaction and do not need to read 400 letters addressing what to do if someone makes me star at their crotch or drops olives down my shirt at a holiday party. Another problem with this book is that the author flat out insults midwesterners AND people in the dept of education....so there you go....pretty hard for a gal from Chicago studying chemistry education to respect her opinions very much. According to Ms. Mentor I am boring and stupid. Thanks. I think Ms. Mentor needs to climb out of her ivory tower for 1 second and realize that the gen xers currently making their way out of grad school and academia are NOT introverted former NHS nerds who are interested in male-bashing she seems to be writing for. She presents a narrow sliver of academic life that may have been relevant in the 1970's but comes across as totally alien today.
Rating:
Summary: Required Reading!
Review: Emily Toth's book is hilarious and witty, while at the same time offering practical, sensible advice for women in academia--whether they are in graduate school (like I), on the market (this phrase always strikes me as funny--and after reading this book, I find it even more amusing), or already working at a university. Definitely a book worth every cent. I've already purchased two more books for friends who've found it just as useful as I have. The third-person Miss Manners imitation works especially well for this subject, without being irritatingly derivative (as an ardent Judith Martin fan, I was prepared to feel a bit affronted). I wonder what Miss Manners would think?I highly recommend this book, and am already finding myself anxious for a sequel. Ms. Mentor--are you listening out there? Get busy on a sequel!
Rating:
Summary: Dead-on advice...and pithy, to boot!
Review: Honest? Yes. Establishment-oriented? Well, yes. (This is what makes her advice useful to those on the outside trying to get in.) But, clueless? Never.
Rating:
Summary: Funny, well-intentioned, but not so useful...
Review: I am gearing up to start in a Ph.D. program in the Fall, so I picked up this book hoping for some of the "practical stuff nobody wants you to know about" regarding grad school, publishing, and conferences. The thing about this book, though, is that the title is misleading. It's "advice for women in academia", but most of the advice (with a few exceptions) has nothing to do with being a woman. It's useful advice (usually) for important problems, but mostly stuff I had heard from many other sources, not really "issues that women daren't discuss openly", as advertised. People mostly ask questions like "Should I publish before looking for a job?" and "People say cover letters should have a 'WOW' factor to attract attention. How do I do that?". Standard fare questions about academia. For example... out of 16 questions in the chapters on job searching, grad school, and conferences, I found three that had anything to do with being a woman. The three questions were (paraphrased): 1) "What should I wear to work/class/conferences?" 2) "The director of grad studies puts the course catalogue on his lap during course scheduling meetings, which makes it so students have to stare at his crotch. I don't WANT to stare at his crotch. What can I do about it?" and 3) "I am genetically obese, I have tried every get-thin-strategy including surgery, diets, insane exercise, etc. but nothing works. I am used to unpleasant comments from people who don't understand about weight setpoints and genetic predispositions to obesity, but I am worried about my academic career. My graduate advisor recently told me that if I can't suck it up and lose weight that I might as well drop out of grad school because it will be wasted on me. Is she right?" These three questions were the kind of topics I expected the book to be comprised of, as they are at least applicable to issues of being a woman in academia. Unfortunately, questions of this type (that is, directly relevant to the title of the book) were a rarity, I found. I was disappointed, however, to find that her responses, while for the most part useful and comforting, was speckled with off-color jokes. One choice excerpt in response to the third question I described: "Claim you're on a slow, medically approved diet. They don't have to know that your four food groups are whatever you like best -- such as chili corn dogs, sour cream and onion potato chips, Godiva Chocolates, and Budweiser." Ok look, sister. Not everyone is fat because they eat like a hog. That really made me mad. It turns out the book is sort of speckled with jokes like that throughout, though they are usually at the expense of out-groups (men, men, and more men) so I didn't notice it at first. So in summary, I think this book had a few tidbits of important information but I would not suggest buying it. I checked it out from the library yesterday and will probably return it tomorrow. It was funny, but a lot of the time I was laughing because I couldn't figure out why this question was in a book about academia and women. Example: "When I get nervous, I get gassy. I don't have tenure yet. What if I fart at a bad moment?" I don't know... you might like it, it was entertaining, but I don't feel like I learned anything new or useful.
Rating: 
Summary: Take it with a grain of salt
Review: I came across this book while looking for something else and picked it up because it looked interesting. It is not only interesting but very readable. It is full of excellent insight into topics from Graduate School and the job hunt to "Slouching toward Tenure," etc. As a graduate student in a technical area I was totally clueless about the politics of academia. I wish I had run across this book then. As I read through it, I had many "aha!" moments: "Aha! so _that_ is what was going on in such-and-such a situation!" Even men in academia could profit from much of the insight in this book, which is funny and well-written. Much of the advice about finding one's way through the tenure maze, for example, applies to anyone in that situation. The book contains some left-wing politics and some fairly extreme feminism. Those who enjoy that sort of thing will find it here. Those who don't will not find enough to obviate the other excellent features of this book. If you are in that political jungle called academia, and particularly if you're just starting out in it, you will find it worthwhile to read this book.
Rating:
Summary: This is one of those "I wish I had known that" books
Review: I came across this book while looking for something else and picked it up because it looked interesting. It is not only interesting but very readable. It is full of excellent insight into topics from Graduate School and the job hunt to "Slouching toward Tenure," etc. As a graduate student in a technical area I was totally clueless about the politics of academia. I wish I had run across this book then. As I read through it, I had many "aha!" moments: "Aha! so _that_ is what was going on in such-and-such a situation!" Even men in academia could profit from much of the insight in this book, which is funny and well-written. Much of the advice about finding one's way through the tenure maze, for example, applies to anyone in that situation. The book contains some left-wing politics and some fairly extreme feminism. Those who enjoy that sort of thing will find it here. Those who don't will not find enough to obviate the other excellent features of this book. If you are in that political jungle called academia, and particularly if you're just starting out in it, you will find it worthwhile to read this book.
Rating:
Summary: It's bad out there!
Review: Reading this book makes me realize how incredibly lucky I am in my current position as a tenured faculty member of a very progressive small liberal arts college. In recalling the many "incidents" from my previous institutions, however, I'm impressed that so many of us get out of graduate school alive and go into teaching positions. Nearly every section of the book rang true for me, and I have recommended it to all the young women with whom I work. Only a lucky few of us work in an oasis of enlightenment...I can't wait for the sequel!
Rating:
Summary: You are what you read?
Review: This book is a fantastic collection of scenarios and questions from the world of academia. The writer does an excellent job of bringing humor and advice to some "true to life" and some "not so true to life" stories. For those that take the book too seriously... I don't think it was intended to be the fourth source in your dissertation, but rather an extremely entertaining book to read to relieve some stress between chapters (smile)... I highly reccomend this book to anyone that works in academia.
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