[.ca] Wendy's Got the Heat (ISBN 0743470222)

OVERCOMING PERSONAL PROBLEMS TO SUCCEED:
I have seen Wendy on VH1, and I did not know that she had overcome so many personal problems--drug addiction, miscarriages, etc. etc. She is interesting to me because she is a mixture of upper class and street. She will say "to whom" and "not this nor that" and then she will also use language such as the B word and the N word. If you like Joan Rivers, you will like Wendy's In Your Face style. I was touched by her tales of being a Big Body Girl and her miscarriages. And what she has had to do to make it (stuck in traffic--park her car and WALK thru the Lincoln Tunnel.) Buy this book and enjoy it for what it is -- real life soap-opera fun.

Not worth the money:
I read this book because I thought Wendy would be more candid in her biography than she is on her show. Not true. She dishes more dirt on the airwaves than she does in this book. On her show, she drop names like hot oil from a skillet, but now that she has the forum to talk about herself, she clams up on the definite details about most of her relationships, even her former husband's name (like this isn't something that's printed in a court record somewhere). Everything is someone else's fault (like her weight problems were because of her perfect parents, and her first husband was jealous of her, and her leaving NYC for Philly was the fault of high-powered record company executive). The only thing she owns up to was her cocaine habit, and the way she talks about that is as if it was a reasonable ordinary thing to do - no thought of rehab?? All that being said, this book was semi-entertaining and could be a valuable learning tool in the right hands. Ladies, give this book to your teen daughters and teach them a case study in how ugly it looks to be completely self-centered, spoiled, selfish, addictive, vain (plastic surgery vs. healthy exercise), potty-mouthed, rich, indecent, and unrestrained. In other words, this is the textbook on how to be an upper-class chickenhead. The only saving grace (and the reason for the one star) is her touching description of experiencing an affair and sticking with her marriage in spite of the infidelity.

Don't Bother... !('Just Us Girls' Book Club):
The ladies of 'Just Us Girls' Book Club reviewed Wendy's book in October '03. At times, Wendy was too in-depth but left the most important parts out (two sides to a story but we only read Wendy's side). The group also felt Wendy came across as a shallow person. Her story was repetitive as it related to her drug abuse. The story also lacked specific details and actual names.

Could Have Been Better:
This book would have been a lot better if the author didn't repeat herself so often. After awhile you get tired of reading the same drug stories over and over. I also didn't appreciate her comments about single mothers, it was inappropiate and unnecessary.

A Junkyard on Paper!:
Her miscarriage aside, it's hard to have any sympathy for Wendy Williams after reading this book. It essentially tells the story of a spoiled middle-class brat whose parents bail her out of (almost) all of her self-inflicted problems. The only thing positive that anyone can get from reading this book would be if they changed the title to a more suitable, "BOYS AND GIRLS-DO NOT FOLLOW ME!"