The Mona Lisa Stratagem: The Art of Women, Age, and Power

By Harriet Rubin

Book Overview

Around the time a woman reaches 45, there is one enemy with the power to threaten her confidence, steal her beauty, make her feel invisible, and turn even the pleasures of life against her. That enemy is Time. Most women feel that an essential part of them dies when their youth is gone, yet the reality is women can grow more beautiful, experience new pleasures, and accomplish their best work later in life. Now, taking inspiration from a masterpiece of female beauty, mystery, and immortality, Leonardo Da Vinci's Mona Lisa, Harriet Rubin reveals a powerful stratagem for finding happiness and fulfillment in midlife and beyond. Interweaving stories of iconic women throughout history, Rubin codifies ten tactics--including how to be noticed, how to create circles of influence with you at the center, and how to express talents that have been ripening over decades. In the process, she uncovers the key to mature power, the highest art of leadership.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0446577650
• ISBN13: 9780446577656
• Release Date: May 2007
• Publisher: Warner Books (NY)
• Length: 242 Pages
• Weight: 0.65 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 6.5" x 7.8"

Customer Reviews

Wisdom is the gift of acceptance

Harriet Rubin empowers the woman within. Who we are on the outside doesn't always reflect who we are on the inside. Harriet gives us many role models who have achieved inner richness. Jackie Kennedy Onassis, Georgia O'Keefe come to the forefront. When one reaches this moment in her life, one doesn't look for acceptance from others because one has already accepted oneself with all one's blemishes and all of one's beauty. One doesn't look at the wrinkles on her face but looks within the beauty of her soul. One doesn't look at her uneven breasts or not so perfect body but one looks at the wisdom of newly found knowledge. By accepting oneself, one can better accept circumstances that might not be what one would want to choose. Physical deformities, slower mobility, slower thinking etc. One begins to realize that a person can develop other qualities that are sometimes more meaningful than 100% physical health and/or 100% mental health. Thank you Harriet for empowering us to become and evolve. Other books for your consideration: Firstlight: The Early Inspirational Writings by Sue Monk Kidd Illuminations of Hildegard of Bingen by Matthew Fox Sacred Contracts: Awakening Your Divine Potential by Caroline Myss

For Remarkable Women (and those who love them)

If you've known or loved remarkable women, or if you are a remarkable woman grappling with the march of time, I believe you'll enjoy this book. What reading "The Mona Lisa Stratagem" did for me was it unpacked the code behind what I found so attractive in certain older women who I love, admire, or whose lead I find myself anxious to follow. In "The Mona Lisa Stratagem" glass ceilings are turned to ice and melted by an inner radiance. A warning - don't expect the typical business "how to" book. Harriet Rubin may be advising women, but she is also helping men to understand the force of attraction they feel from these women by illustrating the book with a series of mini-portraits of great women throughout history - from Eleanor of Aquitaine to Eleanor Roosevelt - from Ayn Rand to Jackie Kennedy. Of course there is also Harriet Rubin herself, I've also read and enjoyed some of her other books... The Princessa: Machiavelli for Women - Soloing: Realizing Your Life's Ambition - Dante in Love: The World's Greatest Poem and How It Made History