Sure, you could be all edified and tote your new copy of Outliers or the Andrew Jackson book down to the shore.  But this Mem-Day weekend, go breezy and escape with one of these fabulous and smart beach-friendly paperbacks.

Love the One You’re With, by Emily Giffin

The fourth novel  from bestselling author and bona fide Go-Getter Girl Emily Giffin tells the page-turning story of happily-married Ellen, whose so-called perfect life is turned upsidedown after a chance encounter with an ex. Bonus delights for Atlanta readers: the book takes place in our town, and is packed with Giffin’s witty observations on the social scene.

Star: A Novel, by Pamela Anderson

Pamela Anderson’s extremely entertaining roman-a-clef follows small town girl Star as she tries to make it big in Hollywood.  A total guilty pleasure,  with lots of thinly-veiled gossipy bits about “Star’s” relationships, plus many-a-juicy sex scene.

The Undomestic Goddess, by Sophie Kinsella

For any Go-Getter Girl out there who’s survived a “billable hours” world, you’ll chuckle through Kinsella’s tale of Samantha Sweeting, a British attorney who thinks her career is ruined after a missed deadline, so she ditches law altogether and, naturally, becomes a housekeeper.

Have a wonderful weekend!

Part of the key to maintaining a healthy lifestyle is figuring out what fitness routine works for you– which we all know can take years of trial and error. Well, if you’ve got 5 minutes today, here’s your GGG cheat-sheet:  Go online at The 8 Colors of Fitness website and take author Suzanne Brue’s “fitness personality” quiz.

Born out of 6 years of research and interviews by Brue– a former college administrator– the quiz is basically a shortened version of the Myers Briggs personality test (which, you may know, is often used to assess a person’s work style/best career paths).  By answering just a dozen or so questions, you’ll learn which one of 8 distinct “colors” fit your exercise preferences.  For example the “Whites” like repetitive motion in clean, orderly environments (think Pilates or cardio machines in swanky gyms); the “Greens” love the outdoors and getting their exercise through daily life (walking the dog in the park; gardening); the “Reds” love spontaneity and adventure (think a spur-of-the-moment mountain bike ride with friends). So, if you’re say, a Green, you can abandon all guilt for failing to hit the gym– so long as you get off your bum and hit the trails!

For more detailed info on The 8 Colors method, you can order Brue’s book.  It’s a great GGG read.

As many of you know, I’m currently in the beautiful, majestic city of Istanbul, Turkey! Here are a few pics from our hotel, which overlooks the glittering Bosphorus Strait. 

So I thought this week I’ll post some travel-related GGG tips.

Today, the best travel guides. Whether you’re traveling for business or pleasure, consulting the following three guides—which overlap a bit but have distinct specialties—will give you a great overview of any major city’s must-visit sites, dining bests, and essential Zeitgeist.

Luxe City Guides: Kind of like Daily Candy for travel, Luxe acts as an uber-hip concierge for in-the-know vacationers and business-travellers alike. You’ll grow to love the “Luxe-isms” and made-up words (e.g., phrases seen in the Istanbul guide: “Ready, jet set, go!” and “Cocktailvenient!”)

• Best for: Perfect neighborhood shopping/dining excursions; swanky nightlife (expect a bunch of unmarked bars); insider spa and salon recommendations
• Drawbacks: Sometimes a tad too hipper-than-thou; particularly in the restaurant recs, “scene” can trump quality/tastiness. Plus, there are limited suggestions for the “budget” traveler in general.

Smart Travelling: The nifty online guides by Smart Travelling (which also has brick-and-mortar travel gear shops in certain cities) provide convenient, well-edited listings of distinctive places to visit.

• Best for: Dining recs. A great mix of upscale, relaxed, and neighborhood gem restaurants (along with savvy observations on the crowd).
• Drawbacks: Membership fees. Unless you’re going to Berlin, Zurich, or Vienna—whose guides you can access for free– you’ll have to sign up for a membership (19 Euros for all cities/one year; or 9 Euros for two cities/one year) .

Fodor’s: These tried-and-true guidebooks offer the most comprehensive information, plus trustworthy “Fodor’s Choice” highlights. Look for the more abridged editions (e.g., “Madrid’s 25 Best”).

• Best for: City and street maps; historical overview and geographic/cultural orientation
• Drawbacks: A bit generic; reviews occasionally seem written from a press release, and can lack need-to-know info (e.g., X place only takes cash, or is really difficult to locate).

These days everyone has networking on the brain, whether it’s to find a new job, or stay on top of your game at your current one. Written by Keith Ferrazzi, the founder and CEO of marketing/sales company Ferrazzi Greenlight, Never Eat Alone offers insights on how to build and maintain your network that will be useful to any GGG.

The tips may seem a bit calculated and overly-contrived at times; for example, Ferrrazzi tracks and ranks his contacts on a scale of 1-3 according to how actively he needs to keep in touch with them, and often calls contacts with the goal of not getting through, essentially just to stay on their radar.  “Calling their office really early or late usually does the trick,” Ferrazzi writes. But among the biggest take-aways of his message is to avoid invisibility at all costs (hence the title, Never Eat Alone).  That means, keep getting out there! In particular Ferrazzi writes that you should always be reaching out to others, and not worry about a meeting being a “failure.” That way, “if one meeting happens to go sour, you have six other engagements lined up just like it the rest of the week.”  

In short, a compelling read for anyone who needs a little extra motivation particularly in this doldrums economy to get out there and expand the circle, as all GGGs know is a key component of success. Three of my favorite tips:

1. Be “audacious” when it comes to making new contacts and asking for help/advice.
2. Reach out to– or “ping,” as Ferrazzi calls it– your contacts on a regular basis.
3. Host dinner parties, even if you think your house or apartment isn’t ‘perfect’ enough.

If you’re looking for a speedy read full of platinum nuggets of GGG wisdom, check out Bonnie Fuller’s new book, The Joys of Much to Much. Fuller is the editorial director of American Media– heading up publications including Star, Shape, and Men’s Fitness. Before that, she basically launched, revamped, or reinvigorated the lot of top women’s magazines as editor-in-chief of YM, Marie Claire, Glamour, and Cosmopolitan, as well as invented the genre we know now as celebrity journalism during her tenure at US Weekly. Along the way, she got married (expedited no doubt by the love-me-in-6-months-or-leave-me ultimatum she issued on date three), had four kids, overcame two serious bouts of depression in her twenties, and now finds time to work out five mornings a week. We actually caught up with Ms. Fuller– after three months of trying to nail down a date in her busy schedule– while she was being driven home from work last Friday night, our conversation peppered by more than one phone call from her hubby asking her to stop by the grocery store to pick up a few things for dinner. We gathered so many brilliant insights from Ms. Fuller that we’re printing the interview in two parts, nearly un-edited. Gotta love the space freedom of the magablog!

The premise of the book, which is groundbreaking in a way, is to embrace the “positive aspects of denial.” If you do this, where does the confidence come from to know you’re on the right path? Or is more of, ‘just take action, and the confidence will follow’?

I feel like you’ve got to take action. Some peole born with natural confidence. They’ve grown up with it. But for a lot of us, confidence doesn’t come naturally– myself included. So you really have to talk yourself into taking a step, convince yourself to take action. How? Pick a [simple] action you can most easily tackle, first off, then build upon it. As you go and succeed each time, that helps you take bigger steps.

This notion that mentoring, particularly women mentoring other women, is a key to success, really wasn’t discussed in your book. Why not?

I’m hoping through the book to mentor. But, at least in my field, I have not found that there’s been a tremendous amount of women mentoring other women. I have worked with fabulous publishers, many of them female, at Cosmo, Glamour, and Star magazine today, and found that [these women] were always really supportive in a way. They were great colleagues– if not necessarily mentors. As for the [absence of] women ‘mentors’ that were farther along in there careers, I find it unfortunate. Too many women look at women at competitors and don’t lend a hand up. I’ve heard other women who have felt the same way. Female mentoring has been more of a myth. I think maybe that’s because the women in the generation before me, it was so hard for them. They fought so many battles to get to the top that once they got there they felt threatened.

You write about staying away from the the office black hole, “the lair of the chief malcontent on staff.” Have you ever had to extract yourself from a black hole situation?

I was always I really avoided the black holes. I felt nervous about them. It never sat well with me. I mean, you’re being paid by somebody to do a job. You have a boss that is there to direct you and sometimes make unpopular decisions. I always felt nervous in participating in office backstabbing. When you come on the othemanagement mangagement side– you are absolutely not blind to the black hole. Bosses are like moms: The have eyes in the back of their head.
So can you ever let your guard down around anyone at work?

No, not to badmouth boss or your company. There’s a line you have to be careful not to cross. Sure, you can vent about sort of generalized things, like a looming deadline that everyone is stressing about. But venting over things like other senior members or your boss? No.

I think it’s gotten so out of control now with the Web. People feel quite comfy blogging away. Others do it anonymously and think they disguise themselves. I just advise don’t do it. You just have to assume that it could be public. Instead, vent to your husband or mother or best friend. It’s okay to vent to those who are nearest and dearest. Keep it in a different kind of black hole.
You write about embracing the fun superficial aspects of looking good, but to what extent does a woman need to downplay her femininity to make it in any corporate business?

I don’t think you have to downplay your femininity at all. Of course, in creative professions you can be a lot looser in how you dress; on Wall Street have to be more conservative. Shouthroughou be wearing see thru tops or pants expose you’re thong? I don’t think so. There’s not too many professions where that would be appropriate!

You describe your sort of transformation that happened during your time at Flair and Marie Claire, “debuting” at fashion week, the physical transformation, it happened when it was ‘supposed’ to. Do you think some young women get too caught up in looking the part instead of being the part?

I think that you can have as much fun as you like in looking the part, but you can’t just dress for the role and not be the role also. But in general, there’s nothing wrong in being concerned looking fabulous.

When you talk about going above and beyond “be willing to work harder than anyone else in the room,” what does that really mean?

It means you volunteer when your boss is looking for someone for a project. You don’t sit back. Volunteer, participate, don’t be late. Sure, everyone’s late once in while. But don’t be late so much that people are constantly looking around for you. Also, don’t run out door at 5 or 6 if there’s work to be done. You can’t be really loving job if you are the one who’s last in and first out. Take on extra projects. Bosses have a million projects. Bosses get overwhelmed, so anything you take off their shoulders will be a huge help. If you do [take on on an extra project] when it’s done, give them a follow up report. It’s huge for a boss t be able to delegate to someone. So many people don’t follow through.

You write, no, one doesn’t have to go to Harvard to be successful, which makes me think of this idea of “self-education” –on each project you’re assigned, having the skills and passion to teach yourself something and have ingenuity and resourcefulness. Would you agree, and how do you suggest people ‘self-educate’ at work?

If you’re new, it does take time to know the ropes. Don’t expect you’ll do it on the first day. Don’t “over expect” from yourself.

I remember when I was at Women’s Wear Daily, I took a while to clue in. For several months, I was just getting done the basic job requirements. But once I clicked in– to what they wanted for the covers or a trend spread in middle of mag, and newsy bits– I saw what they needed, and how I could make a statement. Then I started to focus on oh, I can get better pics, I’ve got to keep my eyes out for hot trend, gather information to present to [the editors]. I just sort of found that out afterantennaee, by osmosis. But you have to have your antennae up. I had my radar up. Once you’ve got your feet under you, understand what is needed in your place of business, you can start to step up and volunteer and take on more.