The Mona Lisa Stratagem: The Art of Women, Age, and Power (ISBN 0446577650)

About a strong midlife for women:
Author Harriet Rubin follows up her first leadership book for women, the bestselling The Princessa: Machiavelli for Women, with The Mona Lisa Stratagem: The Art of Women, Age, and Power. Taking cues from Da Vinci's piece-de-resistance, Rubin's book plots out how a strong midlife presence can yield happiness, strength, accomplishment and fulfillment. Time and mortality are the last big enemies at the midpoint in a woman's life, according to the book. Using the mystery, beauty and strong femininity from the Mona Lisa, Rubin outlines 10 tactics to actually achieve fulfillment--sexually, emotionally, and internally--from age 45 and beyond. Her tactics are interspersed with iconic women who emanated a commanding presence later in life--everyone from Catherine de Medici, Emily Dickson and Queen Elizabeth to Georgia O'Keefe and Martha Stewart. While the historical and mythological references were intriguing, Rubin's 10 tactics are convoluted and disjointed, making it difficult to discern one tactic from the other. After a while, the meat of the book gets lost in a sea of prose, broad personality generalizations and little-known historical references. Her writing style, seemingly articulate use of words and soothing but commanding voice, show that Rubin herself is a powerful woman enjoying her midlife, but her efforts into unlocking the secrets of older women remain as cryptic as the Mona Lisa's smile. Armchair Interviews says: Rubin has help others get published and now has written her second book.

For Remarkable Women (and those who love them):
If you've known or loved remarkable women, or if you are a remarkable woman grappling with the march of time, I believe you'll enjoy this book. What reading "The Mona Lisa Stratagem" did for me was it unpacked the code behind what I found so attractive in certain older women who I love, admire, or whose lead I find myself anxious to follow. In "The Mona Lisa Stratagem" glass ceilings are turned to ice and melted by an inner radiance. A warning - don't expect the typical business "how to" book. Harriet Rubin may be advising women, but she is also helping men to understand the force of attraction they feel from these women by illustrating the book with a series of mini-portraits of great women throughout history - from Eleanor of Aquitaine to Eleanor Roosevelt - from Ayn Rand to Jackie Kennedy. Of course there is also Harriet Rubin herself, I've also read and enjoyed some of her other books... The Princessa: Machiavelli for Women - Soloing: Realizing Your Life's Ambition - Dante in Love: The World's Greatest Poem and How It Made History

Womanly tactics?:
I don't approach living & being who I am via strategy so it felt weird to be advised in the form of "tactics." That said, there were approaches she articulated that affirmed how I live & the woman I want to mature into. I appreciated the examples she gave of women from history and culture, such as Gertrude Stein, Eleanor of Aquitaine, Georgia O'Keefe, Jackie Kennedy, Barbara Jordan... I have a new list of models to pursue.