The Naked Roommate: And 107 Other Issues You Might Run Into in College

Naperville, Ill: Sourcebooks, Inc, 2005. Near Fine. A syndicated columnist for teens and young adults and the author of Campus Life Exposed, Cohen dishes commonsensical wisdom in "the first of what will be many editions of this book." Presumably, forthcoming editions will addr ess the ever-evolving challenges of campus life (cyber-classrooms, perhaps? ), but what's in this one will feel pretty familiar to anyone who attended college within the last 25 years. Tips include: be yourself, lock your door , set boundaries with your roommate, don't drink too much and be sensitive to others' differences. Cohen tackles the ins and outs of residence halls, student organizations, friendships, dating, drugs and money-oh, and he cons iders classes, too, though with perhaps with less enthusiasm (and certainly fewer pages) than he devotes to sex. Though he lists interesting statistic s, additional resources and plenty of first-person letters from students se eking his advice, Cohen doesn't offer much that a reasonably intelligent co llege kid couldn't figure out on his or her own-but that may not be a weakn ess: "everything's going to be okay" could be just what a nervous first-yea r student needs to hear most.