Cohen pulls no punches with his advice. When things will be fine, he tells you they’ll be fine. When things are going to suck, he tells you they’re going to suck but that eventually they will be fine again. His advice is honest and unprejudiced, delivered in a way that many students cannot get from other sources such as family and friends. Cohen tells it like it is and his readers will benefit from this.

Although many advice books can be drier than firewood, Cohen keeps The Naked Roommate fresh through tongue-in-cheek humor and true-to-life anecdotes. Each tip begins with a student’s story of how the tip applied to their experience, and is followed by a more in-depth analysis of each tip. His humor prevents the book from coming across as too preachy. His teasing is light and open, and leavens the tone of his advice from bossy know-it-all to friendly suggestion.

The best part of this book is how relatable the advice is. When something has gone wrong in your life, it can mean the world just to know you’re not the only one that feels the way you do. Being able to read this book and see how universal college issues are can make them seem so much easier to surmount. As a college junior myself, I’m sorry no one turned me on to this book when I first graduated high school. Over the past two years, I’ve dealt with many of the issues Cohen discusses, and in every instance his advice would have helped me get through some tough times with a lot less trouble.

Cohen runs a website which offers expanded information on his tips as well as forums where visitors can discuss their college issues in a larger spectrum. There is also a page discussing Cohen’s lecture series and information about how to hire him to give a Naked Roommate lecture at your local college or university.

With a wealth of college knowledge not available in the textbooks, The Naked Roommate: and 107 Other Issues You Might Run Into in College is a clever and easy read for anyone who is, was, or someday will be a college student.