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THE SIDETRACKED SISTERS' HAPPINESS FILE by Pam & Peggy Jones Young

THE SIDETRACKED SISTERS' HAPPINESS FILE

By

Pub Date: April 10th, 1985
Publisher: Warner

With two popular paperbacks and lots of TV exposure behind them, the ""Sidetracked Sisters""--Vancouver siblings Young and Jones--come into hardcover as exemplars of self-help success. And while some folks will gag at the title, flinch at the sisterly repartee, and laugh at the thought of posting mottoes around the house, these two have a common touch that'S not to be scoffed at--whether for organizing daily life to get more out of it (the focus of the present volume), or for looking at things from the bright side. Their attachment to 3 x 5 cards and 3 x 5 scratch pads starts with the ready availability of both--and the fact that the former come in colors, the latter always ""go on sale."" There's sense in keeping a file, for each child, of medical exams, friends' names and addresses, gift ideas and special requests; there's something to be said for getting up early and having time alone, for scheduling chores and setting priorities, even for putting personal concerns into writing. (The idea is also to foster interconnections: is ""our fictitious Kate"" suspicious that husband Robert ""is fooling around"" because of her own insecurities, her dissatisfactions with herself?) The positive-thinking is built in: from a reminder that the local librarian won't notice if you borrow a marital-guidance book, to pointers on remembering parents and upgrading family occasions (having both sets of parents saves work and can be convivial), to a dialogue with the garbage man (""I'm really sorry about the horrible smell""; ""Oh, heck, lady"") who enjoys his work, sees it as a contribution to the public welfare and a measure of the economy. Along with the gimmicky devices, there's real-life and a good deal of plain niceness.