When a publicist asked if I wanted to review Dating Up: Dump the Schlump and Find a Quality Man, my first thought was why would I want to do that? But then I remembered that Valentine's Day was coming up and, like millions of others, I'm single and would like a relationship. (I still believe those not dating in February should join together for a class action suit against Hallmark cards but that's an issue for another day.) I was curious, though: What exactly is a "Quality Man?" Am I one? And what advice is this author giving to other women?

This might work, too, I thought, as a companion piece to my interview about a new book on online dating. I decided it would be fun to read this female author's advice to women about "dating up," sort of like reading Cosmo articles for the sex tips but without all the shots of models.

Perhaps that's why my biggest bone to pick was with something which is not the fault of the author but rather the publisher: The author's photo is smaller than a stamp. Each time she would write about the importance of good appearance or having the right makeup I'd turn to look at the author's photo and squint to try to see if I could tell how she looked.

That's not her fault, though. While the book had more sweeping generalizations than I would like — I highlight one, men liking sports, below — that's to be expected in this type of book.

Since this is such an important topic I'm splitting this into a two-part interview.

Part 1

Scott: What prompted this book project?

Courtney: My best friend and I were in the dressing room at Banana Republic, trying on summer dresses and talking about my non-relationship with a 29-year-old  aspiring rock star, and the equally pathetic relationships that all of our close friends were in. That's when it dawned on me that so many of the brilliant, ambitious, funny, beautiful women we knew were dating absolute schlumps - men with no ambition, no manners, no money, or no clue (and in some cases, all of the above). My friend and I started talking about how we needed a guidebook for breaking the loser-cycle and meeting quality men. That's when I decided to write Dating Up.