It is not surprising that "Alice May," described as a "successful romantic fiction writer," has chosen to write "Surviving Betrayal" under a pseudonym. The book is gimmicky, offering advice to women whose husbands have gone astray in a format perfected for those stand-up calendars from which you rip a page every day; and these "meditations" have all the wisdom of Jerry Springer's Final Thought. Perhaps May wishes to protect her family, since, as she writes in the introduction, her husband was "obsessed with affairs and pornography" and compulsively cheated on her.

But May's chief crime is her sniveling solipsism: "Today I will journal," she writes with animosity toward proper English. "I will open my heart on a blank page and learn something about my emotions, my circumstances, my progress." Or maybe it's cryptic mysticism: "Today I will hear the message of hope." Or pathetic resignation: "Today I can weather a humiliating situation without humiliating myself."

Even if such advice strikes you as helpful, no need to buy "Surviving Betrayal"; it doesn't get better than what you just read above.