How Not to Look Old: Fast and Effortless Ways to Look 10 Years Younger, 10 Pounds Lighter, 10 Times Better

• Dressing Nifty After Fifty
• Staging Your Comeback: A Complete Beauty Revival for Women Over 45
• Style Rx: Dressing the Body You Have to Create the Body You Want
• Eat This, Not That! Thousands of Simple Food Swaps that Can Save You 10, 20, 30 Pounds--or More!
• Simply Irresistible: Unleash Your Inner Siren and Mesmerize Any Man, with Help from the Most Famous--and Infamous--Women in History

Charla Krupp's new book, "How Not to Look Old," purports to show those of us over 40 how to drop 10 years and 10 pounds in 10 minutes just by following her advice.Most of her recommendations are basic fashion and health advice: lose the mommy jeans, get fitted for the right bra, don't show your thong, wear sunscreen, and most surprising for a fashion editor, don't wear heels over 2-1/2 inches. She wants to make you look like her. I would recommend reading this book with a skeptical eye - many of her recommendations are good ones, but anyone with a modicum of common sense and the wisdom we have all gained at our age can separate the good advice from the narcissistic and nonsensical. Style self-help books for aging Boomers and Gen-Xers are conspicuous on every bookstore shelf nowadays - Amazon alone has over 3500. If you're in a fashion and beauty rut, this book can help you break out of it, but if you are relatively Y&H already, there's not much new here.

I've read about 10 myself, from different authors, and gotten some good fashion and style advice. Some are more quixotic (wear only pink lipstick, wear nude fishnets) or financially infeasible (buy $300 sunglasses). Some are clearly off-base for anyone outside the LA-influenced fashion world (as a 43-year-old university professor, nude stockings are a classroom staple - bare legs are not an option in freezing Boston, and her recommended black tights with peep-toe platforms would look ridiculous), but she lost me when she recommends injecting Restylane into your earlobes to correct earring droopage. That's just gross.Tiger Lily is right: Krupp's approach to Y&H (young & hip) is one-size-fits-all, and individuality is out.

I think this book is basically one big magazine. Plus, the products recommended in the magazine are MUCH more affordable.Hope that helps. In fact, if you are interested in finding out what to do/not do with regard to beauty products, grab the January 23, 2009 issue of All You magazine. It literally has pretty much all the recommendations for beauty products to use or avoid -- on pages 30 - 33.

The only reason I didn't give this book 5 stars is that she includes an entire chapter on botox and injectable wrinkle fillers. Charla Krupp does a great job breaking down all of those little details that age women. Yes, some things in this book you probably already know - no "mom jeans", get rid of your gray hair, and don't shop in the junior department. In my world, this isn't something the average woman does and at this point in my life, I would not even consider these types of procedures. However, there are lots of other suggestions for looking younger that you might not know - wearing light pink lipstick, never wearing nude pantyhose, and cream blush instead of powder.

I have recommend this to others and they too have seen results. I was pleasantely suprised that this book delivered what it said it would on the cover. It is about attitude, but also about how you dress, act and what you put on your face. Another good book I'd suggest: Stop the Age Clock: Look 20 Years Younger, 20 Pounds Lighter and 200% Prettier in Only 20 Days Together, both books have worked wonders for my life. The author explains it all.

This book really nails it. Be prepared to be horrified when you see yourself described in the "don't do this" sections. I found several things I needed to change.