How to Hepburn: Lessons on Living from Kate the Great

Like Karbo's other books, this is funny and perceptive. There's a lot of style here, as is fitting for the subject, but I don't want to make the book sound too light: it's genuinely thought-provoking. As another reader points out, the book has the feel of a manifesto, and here that's a good thing. It moves along with the purpose, energy, and wink-as-you-go humor of, well, Hepburn.

I'm a woman who loves movies, loves Katharine Hepburn, and loves self-help wisdom. So when I picked up How to Hepburn, all 3 of these antennae were waving. I was taken by the Dick Cavett epigram on the very first page hinting at "some secret" of Hepburn's that made her so successful and content, and found myself in that greedy, plundering mode of reading where you look for something that can benefit YOU. I kept finding absolute gems. The first chapter, for example, is called The Importance of Being Brash, and right away you get what Karbo's doing: entertaining us with inside stories about and insights into Hepburn but also genuinely extracting important ideas for all of us. Hepburn started wearing pants and outraging people in grade school when girls and women in pants were unheard-of, and never stopped; she was the first girl to wear pants to class at Bryn Mawr, and in fact "they became her trademark... her baggies were so raggedy she held them up with safety pins, a style that, when combined with Hepburn's devotion to the pursuit of fun (smoking; skinny-dipping in the library fountain; breaking and entering), could best be described as Hobo Flapper." This really makes me want to cut loose. Maybe I will get some black jeans and wear kohl on my eyes like that boy I saw the other day in the museum. One of my favorite chapters is Fear Management, the Hepburn Way, mainly because it reveals that Hepburn's seeming fearlessness masked horrible stage fright. This is great news. Katherine Hepburn had stage fright? And went and did all that theater acting anyway? What Karbo says is "The flinty truth is that mostly things get worse, including our fears. Solace is found in acclimation: we may not overcome our terror, but we get used to the sensation of being terrified." This is a wonderful nugget that is not unfamiliar to those of us familiar with cognitive-behavioral therapy. Like Hepburn herself, this book defies categorization. It is bracing and thoughtful and a lot of fun. It's... well, it's inspiring. It would make a great birthday present for a woman of any age.

As someone who wrote a well-received book about Audrey Hepburn ( the much imitated "Audrey Style") a few years ago, I LOVED this book! Ms. Karbo has written a rowdy, glittering, witty peaen to the other Hepburn. I was not previously familiar with Ms. Karbo's work, but she is a heck of a writer, and really brought the Great Kate back to life for me. By rescuing her from the shrouds of history, she brought her into our current lives and culture. Really, I loved this book -- fast and moving -- a heck of a read. I am giving it to all my friends the Spring. Thank you -- I really think Katherine Houghton Hepburn would have gotten a huge kick out of this book. And who knows? Maybe Audrey would have too.

Karen Karbo has done it again! Kathrine Hepburn is an icon captured beautifully in Karen Karbo's, "How to Hepburn: Lessons in Living from Kate the Great". Less a "self help" book than the name suggests, this incredible page-turner is more a look at the career of the cultural icon that was Kathrine Hepburn and what we can infer from her life and behaviors in these modern times. The layout of the book both embraces and pokes fun at the modern "self help" book by being broken into lessons, each preceded by a bit of wisdom from Kathrine Hepburn's many, and not shyly given, opinions on how to behave. That Hepburn was impossible on most fronts is a point that Karbo was able to bring home with both her characteristic good humor and elegant style. If you want to pickup another wonderfully funny read by Karen Karbo, you can not go wrong with this book. Learn how to incorporate such useful tools as denial and self aggrandizement into your everyday self. Learn the value of having an aviator in your life. Find out that, to tie yourself to a married alcoholic and do everything for him is actually liberating! Thank you for another great read Ms. Karbo.

I find this book absolutely fascinating! Karen Karbo has taken the power and wisdom of a legendary woman and created an enchanting manual for us to be `Hepburnized.' Kate has always been an inspiration for me in everyday life, and just the other day I thought someone should write a book about Kate's wit and wisdom. Ta da!! Here it is.....this lovely work I recommend to anyone ready to feel the fear and do it anyway and not to mention learning to find yourself absolutely fascinating! I want to also say bravo to Karen for calling out William J. Mann and his preposterous "bio" on Kate. Read 'How to Hepburn' and find out what I'm talking about. Karen you are also a woman of substance. Kate would be proud.