TIME OFF FOR GOOD BEHAVIOR: How Hardworking Women Can Take a Break and Change Their Lives

"Type A good girls" are the intended audience for this energetic but disjointed rumination on the transformative power of time off. Once a CEO of an advertising agency, Quinlan took a life-changing five-week break and then promptly started her own consulting company. Encouraging women not to bury personal happiness under career success, she offers anecdotes from 37 women who had similar time-off epiphanies, worksheets designed to spur readers to action (e.g., "Working Too Hard? Feeling the Burn?") and her own bubbly advice. For readers unable to quit or take long breaks, she suggests angling for flexible hours at work. She also recommends that her readers "develop a financial plan with an advisor and update it every year." Quinlan's cheerleading tone would work brilliantly in an auditorium, and the examples she draws from her own life are enlightening. But a cutesy tone (the term "good girl" appears on nearly every page) and a tendency to gloss over the nitty-gritty of life changes (just how did Isa quit her job to found her own fire dancing studio?) makes this more an inspirational text than a guide. Agent, Wes Neff. (Jan.)

Forecast: While undeniably appealing in concept—who doesn't want time off?—this book will be most useful to readers with the financial resources necessary to take said time.