Down Came the Rain : My Journey Through Postpartum Depression by Brooke Shields

WARNING! Depression hurts and those who do suffer depression may not enjoy this because the main content is her struggle downward. The majority of this book is on the downward trending patterns. This is not happy reading. Do not read this if you just had a baby; do not gift this book to a person who you think has post partum depression and you just want them to “see” that depression is treatable. This is definitely NON-pregnancy reading.

If you have never been able to explain the magnitude and self loathing of depression, Brooke has done it for you. She spends a lot of time describing the slippery slope of feeling out of sorts and not very excited into feeling your absolute and unexplainable worst. In the audio version she reads the story herself and it really does get across the stymied feelings of those around her who could not understand what was going on. She should be on top of the world. Instead she felt it was on top of her.

She documents her way through the maze of depression and page after page you keep saying to yourself “And the Doctor was not on to this???”. I think that is part of the point of her writing this, normal healthy people can get very serious depression and the people around them do not know how to react and they do not put depression into the mix. They just work around the equation hoping that this will pass. In her case it was never going to pass on its own.

She covers the awful trip back to herself and how as a person she was as perplexed at how to “feel better” as those around her were to have her be better. This is at times a story you want to speed up and skip over more and more of the exhaustive recounting. Again that is the point of the story- depression is an exhaustive journey.

We recommend the audio more that the written word because it has Brook telling her own story and you can feel her emotions as she tells her story. We also recommend that you buy this discounted because it is not a body work that you keep in your collection unless this topic is related to your field. For the average reader: this is a read and pass it along to another book or an ah-ha! reading to explain something that you may have already have gone through. RICH CHICKS specializes in independent reviews to help you invest in the right product for your dollar. We have left many reviews all over this site.

Redbook September 2007 - Brook Shields (Vol 209 No 3) by Stacy Morrison

TV Guide Back Issue 1984 Brook Shields Cover (October 27-November 2, 32) by Staff of TV Guide

Words from the Stars: Quips and Quotes from Mae West to the Backstreer Boys by Trevor Hunt

From poignant to silly, brilliant to ridiculous, here are hundreds of quips and quotes from movie stars, musicians, singers,stage actors, comedians then and now arranged by subject matter including Fame, Success, Family, Sex, Aging, and more.

“… us could have made it -Buddy Holly The Russians love Brook Shields because her eyebrows remind them of Leonid Brezhnev. …”

Biography Magazine (Biography Magazine Brooke Shields, Spring 2005) by various

Playboy December 1986 Brooke Shields Gala Christmas Issue

Rolling Stone Issue #744/ Brooke Shields Cover (Rolling Stone Magazine, 744) by Jann S Wenner

Brooke Shields - Rolling Stone #262 April 1978 by ROLLING STONE

PLAYBOY Magazine March 1978 BOB DYLAN interview, Brooke Shields by Hugh Hefner

Shape Magazine October 2008 Issue Features Brooke Shields Cover by Editors of SHAPE Magazine

Fitness Magazine - October 2007 - Brooke Shields Cover! by Denise Brodey

Reading Brooke Shields: the garden of failure (Native Agents) by Eldon Garnet

Reading the back of this book alone, I would have never purchased it- But in the bookstore I read the first page and the writing style was the thing that sucked me in- A self depricating first person narrative of a very neurotic man– very intriguing- almost page turning– ending a bit disappointing but besides that, i recommend it wholeheartedly– Its an honest narrative with a narrator who makes no apologies for his many shortcomings…

On Your Own by Brooke Shields

Brooke Shields and I are the same age. I read this book when it came out, when Brooke and I were both twenty, but unlike Brooke, I was not studying at Princeton. I was graduating from a secretarial school and getting my first job. Therefore, a lot of the advice about the horrors of dorm life went right over my working-class head.

She does have some good things to say and some good advice to give. It’s just that the idea of a twenty-year-old gracing us with the wisdom of her accumulated years is a bit of a scream.

Vogue Magazine April 2003 - Pregnant Brooke Shields Cover by Anna Wintour

Seventeen Magazine - October 1978: 13 Year-Old Brooke Shields Cover and Photo-Feature! (Single Issue Magazine) by Editors of Seventeen Magazine

Vanity Fair Magazine - November 1984: Brooke Shields Cover, Prince, Nancy Reagan, Diane Sawyer & More! by Tina Brown

The Gift of Fear by Gavin De Becker

This book starts out with a really interesting example of a woman who is accosted by a “kindly” stranger in her apartment complex, who talks his way into her apartment and then rapes her. After he’s done raping her, he leaves her in the bedroom and tells her to stay put, that he won’t hurt her. She realizes that he’s going to kill her (he closes the window and assures her he’s going to get a drink - but why would he close the window if he doesn’t intend to kill her? he has a gun, but he probably doesn’t want to make noise, so he’s going to the kitchen to get a knife). She sneaks out behind him instead of staying put, so even though she’s been raped, she doesn’t get killed. It turns out that they catch the guy and find out that he has raped and killed other women.

The “Gift of Fear” in the title refers to the intuitive ability of human beings that allows them to detect danger quickly, without conscious, logical thought. There’s some good stuff in the book about how to recognize intuition, and also (in the very last chapter) how to distinguish real fear of real dangers from worry about hypothetical dangers.

The rest of the book, the swollen middle, would probably be useful if you are a wealthy, famous person or a large corporation that is in a position to enlist Mr. de Becker’s security firm’s services. There’s a lot of stuff about how a business can detect problem employees, and some other stuff about how movie stars can recognize dangerous fans.

There are a few good tips on how to get a stalker to leave you alone, and how restraining orders might cause more trouble than they solve. But there’s precious little else in the realm of practical measures. In other words, let’s say my intuitive Gift of Fear has told me that the guy following me on the trail I’m hiking is bad news. Now what? What do I do next? This book doesn’t answer that.

“… ACKNOWLEDGMENTS m 331 Brad Cole, Brooke Shields, Dr. Harry Glassman, Jennifer Grey, Michael Fox and Tracy Pollan, …”

How Not to Look Old: Fast and Effortless Ways to Look 10 Years Younger, 10 Pounds Lighter, 10 Times Better by Charla Krupp

I am very happy with this book. There are so many useful, smart and once you consider it, obvious ways to improve and most importantly, update your look. I’m a 39-year old brunette and as much as I am determined to age gracefully and above all with dignity, I would also like to continue to possess some style and a certain current hipness. I have read the reviews for this book and was a little surprised by some of the comments. Krupps’s recommendation to lighten-up your hair shade after a certain ago is actually good advice. I have seen the results on my sister and it was quite dramatic. I believe the choice to lighten your entire hair base shade should be made based on the condition of your skin. My sister has fair skin, blue eyes and far more wrinkles than I so the lighter hair very definitely softened her look. Her dark hair shade looked too harsh next to her aging skin. She didn’t go blond mind you, only lightened her base shade 2 shades to a copper brown and had a few highlights added around her face. For me, as a dark brunette with a pale olive complexion and brown eyes, I can wait a few more years. Once I’m ready, I’ll try some highlighting around the face for softening. Krupp does not advocate everyone going blond as one reviewer remarked.

Off the top of my head, immediately useful tips: getting rid of frumpy shaped tops and blouses, anything not tailored. Some I merely tossed while others I tailored myself or had tailored like one of my suits (I took up the skirt hem to just above the knee and had the suit jacket fitted. I tossed all my long ankle skirts which, although easy to wear, do look frumpy even though I’m barely 15 pounds overweight. I tossed out all apparel with any shoulder pads. I tossed all my dark and medium lipsticks (best choice ever). Once I was able to look at them (on me) objectively, it was obvious they were unflattering and worse, very dated. Changing to the moisture laden pinks she recommended instantly made my lips look plump and ripe and young. It seems so obvious once you do it. It seems as though I had gotten stuck in a rut of clothing, make-up, hair that was no longer current, fashionable and worst yet, flattering. I knew my style wasn’t working but I didn’t know how to fix it and since I tend to be pretty conservative, was a bit tentative about making any changes. After a while, when you put on all the old make-up, hair, clothing, et cetera, you look in the mirror and think you look ok but what’s really going on is that you’ve done it the same way so many times, you just look familiar and you are unable to really discern what looks good and and what does not. Krupp really pushed me to make specific changes that had quite a WOW effect. And then I felt silly because I hadn’t thought of it myself. Switching from a powder to a creme blush and stopping the overuse of my powder compact made an immediate impact, making my skin look dewey and fresh versus matte.

Another immediate improvement for me was a sideswept bang which not only looked better but made my hair more versatile to style. I also made use of some of her many, many “Brilliant Buys” at the end of every chapter which in and of itself makes this book worth the money at twice the price. One reviewer complained that the book was geared toward rich women in large Metapolitan areas. I would disagree. There are many prices ranges among the products to choose from. Alot of the products can be found at mass retailers and mail order is accessible to all of us presumably. I just recently picked-up two of her “Brilliant Buys” at Long’s Drugs: Revlon ColorStay 12-Hour Eye Shadow Quad in Coffee Bean (the perfect neutral browns) and Revlon ColorStay Eyeliner. There were many more, more expensive recommendations as well which I may try in the future but the point is there are choices.

Realizations that struck home while reading this book: flesh toned stockings (pantyhose) are definitely old lady as are outfits that are very matchy-matchy (which I am guilty of often), hair that is too done, too perfect versus movement and flip. The concept is that make-up is softer and hair is looser.

The most amazing chapters are on jeans, make-up and shapewear. Fabulous and immediately useful. I can’t afford to make ‘all’ the changes she advocates in her book but what little I’ve done so far has made a huge positive impact in my appearance. It has also educated me for all future shopping forays so I don’t slip back into purchasing all the same things all over again and getting back into an outdated rut…
“… Brad has lightened up the locks of Natasha Richardson, Brooke Shields, and Christy Turlington, as well as women who don’t face …”

Young Brooke Shields:

Brooke Shields Nude:

Tags: Brook Shields, Brooke Shields