Relationships / Sex

For twenty years, Sharyn Wolf, a practicing psychotherapist and "relationship expert," has helped revitalize the marriages of countless couples. But while she was being interviewed on "Oprah" and "48 hours" to talk about her nationally bestselling books that instructed millions on how to flirt, find mates, and "stay lovers for life," she was going home every night to a dark secret: a totally failed marriage of her own to a good man she just couldn't leave.
In "Love Shrinks," Sharyn tells the mindbending--and yet deeply relatable--story of her (third!) marriage. In anecdotes that range from poignant to horrifying to side-splittingly funny to heart-rending, she explains how it is possible for two good people to make each other totally miserable and yet still be unable to leave. In fifteen years of marriage, she and her husband had sex twice. Despite the fact that Sharyn was a national bestselling self-help author, her husband couldn't bring himself to read a single one of her books. Communication between them had failed so utterly that the simple domestic activity of buying a couch together escalated to disastrous proportions. Yet through it all, they stay together--even though neither one knows why. Sharyn ends each chapter with a touching story of why she could never bear to leave this man who made her so unhappy.
Painted against the backdrop of her psycotherapy practice, real-life illustrative cases of her patients, and the wacky story of career trajectory, Sharyn turns her analytical eye on herself and her husband and deftly depicts a marriage on its long last legs. The result is this beautiful and sad tapestry of a hidden and omnipresent human condition. You will not be able to put her book down.

Laura Mucha has found the proof that love actually is all around.--Richard Curtis, writer and director of Love, Actually and Notting Hill

For Love Understood, Laura Mucha has interviewed hundreds of strangers, from the ages of 8 to 95 in more than 40 countries, asking them to share their most personal stories, feelings, and insights about love and relationships. These intimate and illuminating conversations raised important questions, such as:

- How does your upbringing influence your relationships?
- Does love at first sight exist? Should you just know?
- What should you look for in a partner?
- Is monogamy natural?
- Why do people cheat?
- How do you know when it's time to walk away?

Drawing on psychology, philosophy, anthropology and statistics, Love Understood combines evidence, theory and everyday experience and is the perfect read for anyone who is curious about how we thing, feel and behave when it comes to love.

Mom, I'm gay. With three little words, gay sons and daughters can change their parents' lives forever. Twenty years ago, during a walk on a Mississippi beach, Ellen DeGeneres spoke those simple, powerful words to her mother. That emotional moment eventually brought mother and daughter closer than ever, but it was not without a struggle. In Love, Ellen, Betty DeGeneres tells her story: the complicated path to acceptance and the deepening of her friendship with her daughter, the media's scrutiny of their family life, and the painful and often inspiring stories she's heard on the road as the first nongay spokesperson for the Human Rights Campaign's National Coming Out Project.

Insightful, universally touching, and uncommonly wise, Love, Ellen is a story of friendship between mother and daughter and a lesson in understanding for all parents and their children.

Mom, I'm gay. With three little words, gay children can change their parents' lives forever. Yet at the same times it's a chance for those parents to realize nothing, really, has changed at all; same kid, same life, same bond of enduring love.

Twenty years ago, during a walk on a Mississippi beach, Ellen DeGeneres spoke those simple, powerful words to her mother. That emotional moment eventually brought mother and daughter closer than ever, but not without a struggle. Coming from a republican family with conservative values, Betty needed time and education to understand her daughter's homosexuality -- but her ultimate acceptance would set the stage for a far more public coming out, one that would change history.

In Love, Ellen, Betty DeGeneres tells her story; the complicated path to acceptance and the deepening of her friendship with her daughter; the media's scrutiny of their family life; the painful and often inspiring stories she's heard on the road as the first non-gay spokesperson for the Human Rights Campaigns National Coming Out Project.

With a mother's love, clear minded common sense, and hard won wisdom, Betty DeGeneres offers up her own very personal memoir to help parents understand their gay children, and to help sons and daughters who have been rejected by their families feel less alone.Mom, I'm gay. With three little words, gay children can change their parents' lives forever. Yet at the same times it's a chance for those parents to realize nothing, really, has changed at all; same kid, same life, same bond of enduring love.

Twenty years ago, during a walk on a Mississippi beach, Ellen DeGeneres spoke those simple, powerful words to her mother. That emotional moment eventually brought mother and daughter closer than ever, but not without a struggle. Coming from a republican family with conservative values, Betty needed time and education to understand her daughter's homosexuality -- but her ultimate acceptance would set the stage for a far more public coming out, one that would change history.

In Love, Ellen, Betty DeGeneres tells her story; the complicated path to acceptance and the deepening of her friendship with her daughter; the media's scrutiny of their family life; the painful and often inspiring stories she's heard on the road as the first non-gay spokesperson for the Human Rights Campaigns National Coming Out Project.

With a mother's love, clear minded common sense, and hard won wisdom, Betty DeGeneres offers up her own very personal memoir to help parents understand their gay children, and to help sons and daughters who have been rejected by their families feel less alo

Change the relationship you have into the one you want.
Welcome to the Relationship Revolution! "Making Marriage Simple "is the accessible, essential road map to building a strong marriage in the modern world. Bestselling authors Harville Hendrix and Helen LaKelly Hunt distill into ten essential truths what they've learned about how to create a successful and satisfying relationship--both from their decades of "R&D" in the marriage lab of their workshops, and from their own relationship journey. In each chapter, Harville and Helen introduce a simple truth--such as "a frustration is a wish in disguise," "incompatibility is grounds for marriage," or "conflict is growth trying to happen"--and then walk couples through easy yet effective exercises to help them apply each truth in real life, every day.
Harville and Helen have spent their careers helping couples transform their marriages through research, workshops, and counseling. But marriage--even for marriage experts--is never easy, and a number of years ago they found themselves on the brink of divorce. Harville and Helen put themselves back through the exercises they'd coached so many other couples through, saving their marriage and helping them achieve a true partnership.
This book is for all couples. It offers the practical tools needed to transform one's relationship into a rewarding and joyous marriage. Written with humor, compassion, and honesty, and illustrated throughout with engaging line drawings, "Making Marriage Simple "is a strategic blueprint for creating a stronger, more satisfying partnership in today's world.

How many times have you and your friends asked one another these questions without ever coming up with any good answers? Your girlfriends just tell you what you want to hear. At the end of the day, the only person who can give you insight into man problems is--that's right--a man! But guys have hidden agendas. What guy would give up all his dating advantages by spilling the goods?

Steve Santagati would. A self-confessed serial dater and Bad Boy, Steve is telling all for the benefit of womankind. Every guy is at least part Bad Boy, and in The Manual, this prime specimen reveals what every woman needs to know to counter Bad Boy tactics, both amateur and professional. Steve is never condescending or callous, but honest, perceptive, and street-smart. His guidance is straightforward and his insights are dead-on, giving women tools they can immediately put to work.

Discover what you may not want to know but need to know about:

-The Heart of the Bad Boy (i.e., the nature of the beast)

-The Male Mind: how he sees you and how you can make this work to your advantage

-Guys on the Hunt: the male modus operandi, from the grocery store to Home Depot

-When Boy Meets Girl: how to handle dating, from flirting to "sext" messaging to learning his weaknesses

-Mating: so you've got him . . . should you keep him?

Why learn from a Bad Boy instead of, say, a psychologist? Because there's no replacement for "in the field" experience. You'll benefit from (and laugh at) stories of real things Steve has done in relationships with women as well as of women turning the tables on him when he least expected it. The book also includes a question-and-answer section, in which Steve explores some of the toughest dating issues.

To understand Steve is to understand the Bad Boy, and that will take you a long way in understanding all men. Find out how much more fun dating can be when you get the upper hand on Bad Boys . . .

for good.

"This is the marriage book we've been waiting for!"
--Brené Brown, Ph.D., LMSW, bestselling author of Daring Greatly

Coupling up is complicated--Dr. Harriet Lerner's marriage rules are not.

This marriage book provides couple's therapy in a unique format perfect for today's world. The renowned author of The Dance of Anger gives readers more than one hundred rules that cover all the hot spots in long-term relationships.

Marriage Rules offers new relationship advice to age-old problems ("He won't talk"/"She doesn't want sex") as well as modern ones (your partner's relationship to technology). If one person in a couple follows ten rules of his or her choice, it will generate a major, positive change. All that's required is a genuine wish for a better relationship and a willingness to practice.

Marriage Rules is a treasure chest of lively, practical advice to help you navigate your relationships issues with clarity, courage, and joyous conviction.

An eye-opening, funny, painful, and always truthful in-depth examination of modern relationships and a wake-up call for single women about getting real about Mr. Right.

You have a fulfilling job, great friends, and the perfect apartment. So what if you haven't found "The One" just yet. He'll come along someday, right?

But what if he doesn't? Or what if Mr. Right had been, well, Mr. Right in Front of You--but you passed him by? Nearing forty and still single, journalist Lori Gottlieb started to wonder: What makes for lasting romantic fulfillment, and are we looking for those qualities when we're dating? Are we too picky about trivial things that don't matter, and not picky enough about the often overlooked things that do?

In Marry Him, Gottlieb explores an all-too-common dilemma--how to reconcile the desire for a happy marriage with a list of must-haves and deal-breakers so long and complicated that many great guys get misguidedly eliminated. On a quest to find the answer, Gottlieb sets out on her own journey in search of love, discovering wisdom and surprising insights from sociologists and neurobiologists, marital researchers and behavioral economists--as well as single and married men and women of all generations.

The #1 bestselling pioneer of "fratire" and a leading evolutionary psychologist team up to create the dating book for guys.

Whether they conducted their research in life or in the lab, experts Tucker Max and Dr. Geoffrey Miller have spent the last 20+ years learning what women really want from their men, why they want it, and how men can deliver those qualities.

The short answer: become the best version of yourself possible, then show it off. It sounds simple, but it's not. If it were, Tinder would just be the stuff you use to start a fire. Becoming your best self requires honesty, self-awareness, hard work and a little help.

Through their website and podcasts, Max and Miller have already helped over one million guys take their first steps toward Ms. Right. They have collected all of their findings in Mate, an evidence-driven, seriously funny playbook that will teach you to become a more sexually attractive and romantically successful man, the right way: No "seduction techniques," No moralizing, No bullshit. Just honest, straightforward talk about the most ethical, effective way to pursue the win-win relationships you want with the women who are best for you.

Much of what they've discovered will surprise you, some of it will not, but all of it is important and often misunderstood. So listen up, and stop being stupid!