Carrie L. Lukas is no Kate O'Beirne. Lukas's Politically Incorrect Guide to Women, Sex and Feminism failed in its aims to reach out to the moderate feminist and persuade her that not all traditional values are part of the "patriarchy". Compared to Kate O'Beirne's Women Who Make the World Worse(which was excellent), Lukas shouldn't have bothered at all.

We'll start with the obvious annoying fact this this book was not professionally edited. Lukas attributes the editing to her brother Dan and her husband Aaron ("the best editor and friend I could hope for"). I hope for her sake he's a better friend than an editor. There are spelling and grammatical mistakes throughout (I suppose those in glass houses shouldn't throw stones, but I at least don't pretend this blog has an editor). I am currently reading Oriana Fallaci's direct translation of her book The Force of Reason. I know that english is not Fallaci's first language, and I am willing to accept a certain amount of errors in her work. But Lukas does not have this excuse. She holds a bachelor's from Princeton and a master's from Harvard's Kennedy School of Business. I'm willing to bet that her bachelor's degree wasn't in English. On of the first rules of writing is "If you can't spell, it won't sell." Looks like Ms. Lukas needs to go back to the basics. And as for Regnery Publishing, they should know better, as well.

Now let's move on to the ever important chapter on abortion. I admit that I am quite middle-of-the-road when it comes to abortion (I used to call myself pro-choice, but that term has such negative connotations thanks to the feminazis, that now I just deem myself "unconvinced"). Virtually any book like this one is meant to persuade women one way or another about whether or not a fetus is a person, whether or not abortion is safe, and whether or not it should be lauded as the number one option for unplanned pregnancies. Since Lukas's book is written from a more traditional perspective, it's obvious that she wishes to persuade women that abortion is not the best option. She fails miserably. Remember, I am one of the unconvinced she should be appealing to, and I remain less convinced of abortion's wrongness than I was going into the book. In fact, I now think it is probably the option I would most likely choose for myself.

If she's trying to convince me that I shouldn't have an abortion, she should really think about the way she uses her statistics. On page 130, she points out that (using CDC stats) giving birth is 10 times more likely to kill me than having an abortion is. Ten times!! Why would anyone every give birth??

On page 127, she has a stats box about how reversing Roe v. Wade would affect abortion in the 50 states. It shows that in 21 states, access would be restricted. In 9 states the outlook is uncertain. Wow. Perhaps had these stats been written out in paragraph form, it might not have been so striking. But to see them all lined up like that, it would make almost any unconvinced woman nervous. Tip to Carrie: The box probably shouldn't have gone in.

She dedicates about a page to Health of the Mother, but it's hard to pay much attention when you've already read the statistic that you're ten times more likely to die in childbirth. Without using a mental health issue as a get out of jail free card, I would simply point out that stat to my doctor. Any pregnancy risks the mother's health. Let's just end the species now.

For the most part, I agree with much of what Lukas writes. It's the standard "don't-rush-into-sex-too-quickly-there-is-nothing-wrong-with-staying-home-and-looking-after-the-kids" that I would expect from any such book. But all in all, the above complaints served to leave such a bad taste in my mouth that the book was unenjoyable. Not to mention a bit on the dull side. She wasn't telling me anything I didn't already know (except that death in childbirth thing), and she wasn't particularly witty or original in her delivery.

I wouldn't even rate this book worthy of being borrowed from a friend or the library, despite the cover model wearing pearls.