Book Review: 'Oprah Winfrey's 'Dream Big! O's Guide to Discovering Your Best Life' Explores Womanhood

I have the utmost respect for talk show host and multi-millionaire Oprah Winfrey, but to be honest, I have only watched a handful of episodes of her talk show in full and only read her magazine, "O! The Oprah Magazine" when First Lady Michelle Obama was on the cover. Something about a magazine that only has the creator of it on the front cover doesn't sit right with me.

One of my cousins worshipped the ground that Oprah walked on and talked about her constantly, which may have contributed to my disinterest, but talk shows have never been my cup of tea. I'm not married, don't have children or low self-esteem, and I was never all that concerned about weight because I've always been comfortable at whatever size I am. And that's what I thought Oprah Winfrey's talk show and her "O! The Oprah Magazine" were known for, so when I received a copy of "Dream Big: O's Guide to Discovering Your Best Life," I wasn't that interested. I have nothing against these topics, but it's difficult to be interested in topics like motherhood when you've never desired to be a parent. However, after flipping through the book and seeing articles about some of my favorite actors and actresses like Angela Bassett, Hill Harper and Denzel Washington, I decided to give the book a chance.

"Dream Big: O's Guide to Discovering Your Best Life" is broken up into three sections: "Your Mind/Your Body"; "Dating, Mating, Relating" and "Do Something!" The articles inside this 313-page book are collections of "best-of" work from a variety of different columnists, authors and interviewers. The topics inside the sections include diet, exercise, health, beauty/style, balance, happiness, confidence, spirituality, couples, communication, family, friendship, giving back to society, money-making tips and experiences from national news.

Because I'm a vegetarian who enjoys health living and eating, the articles on diet, exercise and health were the ones I immediately gravitated to. This section proved me wrong about thinking Winfrey only concentrated on weight issues as opposed to healthy eating. And because of my irresponsible spending habits and student loan amount being higher than my car loan, I studied the articles on money-making, saving and spending like they were my college finals. Anne Kadet's "31 Solid-Gold Ways to Save-Without Giving Up Your Latte" was the most useful article in the entire book for me, and I wish there were more of those.

I loved reading Hill Harper's "I Believe in You" article in the "Make a Connection" section and what BeBe Winans did for Oprah Winfrey after the sexual and physical abuse accusations at her Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy for Girls school in South Africa in the "What I Know For Sure: Oprah" article.

While most articles were useful and interesting, some of the sections were a little slow or uninteresting to me (ex. "Happiness," "Confidence" and "Spirituality"). Nothing was wrong with these sections, but again, I've never been unconfident or unhappy for more than a little while, and I'm not religious, so they just weren't for me. However, I think these will be some of the most intriguing topics for those readers who need enlightenment.

Friendship is important no matter the age, marital status or how many kids a woman has, and I could relate to Amanda Robb's "A Little Empathy, Please" and "The Friendship Test" immediately. The "Good Friend, Bad Friend" quiz went so far as to calculate how good of friends the reader has. I enjoyed that section quite a bit because it made me more confident in friends I currently have as well as those who can kick rocks.

Another enjoyable section I read word for word was the one on "Couples." I thought it was going to be a bunch of complaining women talking about their husbands, but I was dead wrong. While "Would You Marry Him Again?" was about as expected and made me feel sorry for Rita Wilson's father, Lisa Kogan's "Tells All" was amusing. "Love Among the Ruins" explored how wives dealt with husbands who were sexually abused as children, and those experiences were eye-opening. But I've always found that the most beneficial information I can get from relationships is reading from the guy's perspective. It's not that women can't give me excellent advice, but I can almost tell you what single women will say before their mouths start moving. Why? Because I'm a single woman. It's interesting that there was no article on single women in here, only the divorced or married ones, which was a little bit of a let-down.

However, because I'm fascinated by men (some anyway), I need to know what they think too, so my favorite articles were David Granger's "Frequently Asked Questions," Chris Abani's "What Men Aren't Telling Us" and George Saunders "Men and Women...How to Tell Them Apart." I think it helps when women can read men's perspectives to fully understand what they're thinking because when we sit around co-signing on each other's views, it's hard to look from an outside perspective so I'm glad "O! The Oprah Magazine" took advantage of men's views too. And speaking of men, I agreed with all of Dr. Phil's Q&A advice.

And while I may enjoy reading about men's views on relationships, the strength of women was what stood out most about "Dream Big: O's Guide to Discovering Your Best Life." Articles like "A Most Amazing Village" by Liz Brody was a topic I was already aware of, and although it was heart-breaking to read all over again how much these women have been through, I admire their strength.

By the end of this book, I came away with a different perspective on Oprah Winfrey. I've now watched a new episode, and it just so happened to be with my favorite comedian Chris Rock talking about "Good Hair." Although I didn't read about this lesson in her book, what I took from the read was that Oprah Winfrey's magazine writers are far more diverse than I expected them to be and the talk show is not nearly as man-hating as the few episodes I'd seen. I understand my cousin's committed admiration for Oprah Winfrey moreso now than before. And Oprah's "What I Know for Sure: Oprah" top 20 lessons in life on the last page wrapped the book up quite nicely.

On a scale of 1-10, I'd give "Dream Big: O's Guide to Discovering Your Best Life" an 8 out of 10. This title released on Oct. 13, 2009, hardcover ISBN 10-0-8487-3283-9, price $29.95.

Additional Notes: This review was originally published by the Chicago Relationships Examiner.