How to Remodel a Man
By W. Bruce Cameron
Reviewed by Jackie Houchin

How to Remodel a Man is a humorous book about a touchy subject; touchy for men that is.  Women love the idea and will eagerly follow this step-by-step guide to alter the behavior of the men in their lives.  Impossible, you may say, but not so, as witnessed by the remodeling of the author himself.  (Yes, look again, the book is written by a man!)

After realizing he needed a new strategy to attract the opposite sex, Bruce Cameron turned himself over to the women in his life (sisters, daughters, cousin, mother, and co-worker) and asked them to “remodel” him.  It started with a list of his flaws - he came up with four; they came up with 178 - and ended with the writing of this book.

The author admits that men naturally resist change.  They want women to love them just the way they are.  “And when I say that men want women to love them,” he explains candidly, “I mean of course, to have sex with them.”  (By the way ladies, many of the tactics the author suggests don’t include nudity.)

Women will see why sports and competition are so important to men, and why communication and romance are so difficult.  They will learn how to lovingly “trick” their men into changing, while making them believe it was THEIR idea.  Example: if a man is struggling to assemble something but refuses to look at the instruction manual, a woman is to approach him with the open booklet and say, “Honey, can you explain this part to me?  I just don’t understand…”  He’ll feel the need to explain it to her and thus discover his problem.

Sprinkled throughout the chapters are helpful tips, such as: “If your man snores so loudly you’re having trouble sleeping, the best thing to do is to teach yourself to snore back.  If this doesn’t work, there’s another way.”  And he goes on to explain the “scream” method.

Bruce Cameron dispenses good, solid truth and understanding beneath all the tongue-in-cheek humor.  One of those “great truths” is, “The most effective way to remodel a man is to motivate him through love…though it’s probably more fun to use trickery and manipulation.

How to Remodel a Man is a fun book to read.  You’ll laugh, but you will also take notes.

Jackie Houchin is a freelance reporter for The Foothills Paper in San Fernando Valley, California.  She belongs to Sisters In Crime and Mystery Writers of America and the California Writers Club.  Jackie reviews for Mystery Scene Magazine, Crime Spree Magazine and The Strand magazine.  She is a regular contributor to Valleynews.com as a book, theater and film reviewer.  Jackie  contributes to The Valley Scribe and have a few things in the CWC 2005-2006 anthology.  She is a photographer, and have "shot" countless plays and musicals in community theaters for 18 years.