The Naked Face: the Essential Guide to Reading Faces

Argues that one can read a person's character in his or her face, tells how to interpret facial details, and analyzes six celebrity faces

Just as you've gotten to where you no longer associate close-set, beady eyes with criminals, along comes this book purporting to tell how to read faces. Young goes into great detail about attributes like eye color (intense blue or green means a "frantic, creative sexual appetite"), ears (long = shrewdness), and noses (an "absolutely straight ridge" means a "tidy mind"). As much fun as face-reading is for people-watching and acquaintance-analyzing, Young suggests its techniques be used for evaluating prospective employees and determining the existence of true love in a significant other. A check of local rights laws might be in order before overtly incorporating face-reading in your employee-screening process, but Young certainly provides the background and plenty of illustrations for learning the techniques. Based on "all the latest psychological and physiological information," his book promises to give you a "hidden edge in human relationships." The first 12 chapters explain methodology, while the last examines six famous faces: Princess Di, Gerard Depardieu, the Mona Lisa, Luciano Pavarotti, Marilyn Monroe, and Bill Clinton. (Guess who has the most intense green or blue eyes?) Mike Tribby