The girls' guide to plumbing and fixing: why the latest women's lit will also appeal to men.

• Author: Mencimer, Stephanie
• Position: Book Review

DARE TO REPAIR: A Do-It-Herself Guide to Fixing (Almost) Anything in the Home by Julie Sussman & Stephanie Glakas-Tenet HarperCollins $14.95

LAST FALL, THE WIFE OF CIA DIRECTOR George Tenet made a splash in Washington with the debut of her new book. The book wasn't the usual tell-all about life inside "the Agency," or a gossipy guide to Washington insiders, or even the increasingly common Washington wives' book on the miracles of pets. No, Stephanie Glakas-Tenet and her co-author Julie Sussman, also a CIA spouse, turned to a far more proletarian subject: the art of fixing toilets, unclogging garbage disposals, and vacuuming refrigerator coils. Dare to Repair: A Do-It-Herself Guide to Fixing (Almost) Anything in the Home has since become such a sleeper hit that the pair has been commissioned to write a follow-up, this time a girls' guide to car repair.

Dare to Repair promises to school readers in do-it-yourself projects manageable by even the most carpentry-challenged sorority gift. Instructions are helpfully arrayed around drawings of wheelchair-bound seniors replacing doorknobs and pregnant gals installing foot locks. The illustrations give the book a distinctly PC flavor, but it's hardly the product of raging feminists. The acknowledgments are filled with religious references, suggesting a distinctly Christian can-do spirit that seems in keeping with the Rosie the Riveter cover. Dare to Repair is filled with cheerleading: "This isn't rocket science. And if this is the hardest thing you've ever done in your life, then sister, you haven't lived ... Dare to raise the bar for what you can accomplish. Dare to pick up a wrench and tighten the toilet handle that's about to fall off. Dare to level the washing machine that's been rockin' and rollin' for months. Grab a screwdriver and dare to install a new smoke detector. Dare to Repair!"

The book might have been subtitled, "How to become the repair man you've always dreamed of." Glakas-Tenet and Sussman, for instance, recommend putting masking tape along the edge of the bathtub to protect it from scratches while you chisel out the old rotted seal. Men never do these things. But for the most part, their advice is practical and relies on tools you're likely to have around the house--like a raw potato, which they suggest using to dislodge a broken light bulb from its socket.

In this day of dummies' guides to just about everything--not to mention 40 years after the debut of second-wave feminism--it's...