On Love, Wisdom, Smart(s), Cool, and … Shmuley
In yesterday’s Montreal Gazette, columnist Monique Polak discussed the dilemmas faced by self-help writers with beautifully appropriate given or married names. What do you do when your real name is so good, it sounds fake? What if your advice isn’t as good as your handle? And how many times can people make the same jokes about your name?
Polak talked to authors Pat Love, Susan Wisdom, Brad Smart, Lisa Collier Cool, and Rhonda Findling, who all swear those are their real names. Their books, respectively, tell people how to reach “love beyond words,” have successful stepfamilies, be smart parents, love and leave “bad boys,” and find the right man.
Unfortunately for Cool, she flubs a key question (in Quillblog’s opinion) and undercuts the power of her name.
But is [Cool] cool – as in someone who knows what’s in? Cool pauses to consider this question. “Well,” she said, “I never miss American Idol.”
Quillblog is mildly disappointed that Polak didn’t talk to our favourite self-help author, Shmuley Boteach. The rabbi is the author of several advisory books – including Shalom in the Home, which (according to BookNet Canada data) was one of the bestselling family and relationships titles in Canada in mid-May – and the host of a show of the same name on TLC. Look, his name has “teach” in it! And Shmuley! You can’t beat Shmuley.
Outside the self-help section, there’s Sonnet L’Abbé, the poet. Her back cover bio often explains that no, her first name is not an affectation, its an amalgam of her parents’ names.
This quillblog reader is willing to bet the author has, in fact, never seen Shalom in the Home and has actually denigrated it. I guess the power of Shmuley wasn’t so strong after all.