Publisher's Weekly Review

``All across America we're getting trapped,'' Bloomfield and Cooper announce sinisterly. ``Trapped in a maze of well-intentioned but often unsuccessful `self-help' programs. Hit from all sides by fragmented advice.'' Their book seeks to reverse that trend and rejuvenate us, urging readers to reinvent their lives (mental and physical) with regular, revolutionary attitude adjustments organized around the demands of our increasingly busy lives. Five minutes-or in some cases, five seconds-are all that's required, the authors insist, for losers, dabblers and dreamers who are mired off-track in various sorts of trouble to assess their problems and begin heading back to the main road. Chapters on energy management, dieting, exercise and ``mental cross-training'' share space in the book with others on ``positive posture,'' the uses of optimism and ``everyday spirituality.'' Sidebars and bitty text inserts (e.g., quotes from Goethe) jazz up conversationally high-speed advice throughout. Maybe frenetic self-improvement is the perfect idea right now for survival. Yet the theme, spun out here with a manic esprit, makes life sound like the hobby of an aerobic robot. 175,000 first printing; author tour; serial rights to McCall's, Men's Health and Self magazines. (Jan.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved