Someone always has to ruin it :p

Leave it to Tracy, the nose-whore ;) to find a pic showing this difference

ROFL!!! Guilty as charged, Dani! :D

I just saw that fantastic picture on the book jacket and I thought to myself, "Hmmm, if she really looked that good she wouldn't have been so intimidated by all the beautiful sorority women when she started her research." And darn if I wasn't right!

She reminds me of that Seinfeld episode where Jerry's dating a woman who looks "beautiful" only in some lighted areas (that one back booth at Monk's). Everywhere else she looked hideous and he couldn't stand being out with her and looking at her.

I'm #11 on the hold list as of last week, so hopefully I'll be doing the same thing soon. I think the threads will end up being much more interesting than the book could ever be, but I still want to read it for some reason.

Didn't you guys see her on the Today show? She had a creepy lazy eye thing going on then -- I was like WTF mates?

It's actually at my school library, which is where I read it.

It's not entirely facetious -- the author was a former Texas ZTA rush chair and she does offer a lot of good advice for rushees and pledges. But it's all interspersed with what are obvious jokes playing off the stereotypes of sorority girls, stuff like:

What a sorority girl does during summer break: Takes trips to Europe. Summers on Cape Cod. Works as an au pair. Works on her tan.

What a sorority girl doesn't do during summer break: Works at McDonald's.

etc.

Most (maybe all? I can't remember) of the quotes Robbins chose were from the tongue-in-cheek sidebars, out of context.

It sounds like it would be hilarious to read though! Do you know if it's still in print or if I can only find it at a library/used bookstore?

http://shopworld.us/shop/detpage.asp?asin=0394741323

s and s, it somewhat frightens me that this book is in your school library. ;)

When I checked this morning I was #16 on the waiting list at my library. I guess I'll just have to wait though because there is no way this woman is getting my $.
If someone who has read it has a free moment could you please PM me and tell me if there is anything about my org's ritual in the book?

IIRC, "she who must not be named" (Kristin Voldemort? :) ) and her former sorority were mentioned and she may have included some of the stuff from the infamous website. (This has actually been taken down recently - was she forced to, or did they just get tired of it?) This individual does not come across as the most credible source. I think that if the book was striving for serious journalism, this would be a problem.

I skimmed it in B&N this eve (mainly out of curiousity but I have no desire to see the author earn $$ for this piece of fiction) I will admit I did not read it word for word but it seems to be more on the genre of a romance novel than a serious academic book. Then again they had "Sex and the City" filed in the same section so maybe this store has a strange sense of humor.

The "secrets" that she reports are mostly 'closed' mottos, or grips. I was looking specifically since a previous poster had stated that some Pi Phi secrets were revealed... but it was not as bad as I'd imagined (i.e, inaccurate). The chapter that discusses 'secrets' clearly shows her bias that she has no respect for ritual or secrecy but since someone obviously told her the snippets she's included (yes, she could have gotten the Chi O material from that website but that doesn't explain where she got the other things), they most likely didn't respect it either.

I read it and I'm not even Greek (yet!). I think, like many girls, robbins is a bit insane and goes through crazy and non-crazy phases. This comes out in the book where she'll tell the stories fairly unbiased and then write about both the good and bad things...and then suddenly she'll go off on a tangent about the whole university-supported cliques and the like. She does bring up good points though--when she talks about the old Little Sisters groups--we actually quoted a bit of that and inserted it into our bylaws regarding what not to do with the sweethearts. And yes--more community service and less competition would probably be good.
I have seen more drinking and drug use in residence halls than in anything mentioned in this book. She doesn't even really bring up cocaine use and I know of a few houses at other universities known as the "coke sorority." She also doesn't seem to like Chi Omega much--but a lot does seem to be taken from the now-defunct Chi Omega Secrets website (which still has a few pages and it's original directory up--maybe someone hacked it?). Most girls laugh at the 'secrets' she wrote about.

Everyone please do me a favor and edit your post to not mention my org or what is said about it. I asked for PMs and now I'm starting to regret even doing that. I know anyone can read the book and find out what she says, but I'd rather it not be discussed here. Thanks for the info but I'll just read it myself.

my wait ended yesterday when i picked it up at the library. i'm in the middle of another book at the moment and once i finish it i'll finally be able to enjoy it as well.