Books on Marriage
(With Valuable Insights for Any Intimate Relationship)
Contemporary marriage involves complex notions of both connection and freedom. On the one hand, spouses are members of a shared community, while on the other they are discrete individuals with their own distinct interests. Alone Together explores the ways in which law seeks to accommodate tensions between commitment and freedom in marriage.  This solutions-oriented guide offers problem solving and behavior changing strategies for people working on their most intimate relationships. The book provides readers with: enhanced knowledge of their own and their partners' beliefs, values, habits, desires, goals, likes, and dislikes; ideas for opening communication and deepening a relationship; skills for making healthy decisions about lifestyles and boundaries; an in-depth understanding of the role of self-esteem in relationships; increased ability to let go of the past and embrace the present; and the knowledge that it is important not only to choose the right partner, but also to be the right partner.  Everybody lies. Friends lie to friends. Children lie to their parents. Politicians lie to constituents. And, inevitably, husbands and wives lie to each other. Lies between lovers can be highly electric; they have tremendous potential to both nurture and destroy a relationship. It is easy to underestimate the power that lies-even seemingly harmless lies-can wield in your marriage. Tell Me No Lies explores the complexity of honesty versus deception in marriage. |
 New reprint of this classic 1973 work by psychologist and Unitarian-Universalist minister Ron Mazur. As the 20th century closes, the traditional family has become a minority in America. The threshold of a new millennium is an opportune time to give voice to the intimacies of alternative lifestyles, including open marriage. The New Intimacy: Open-Ended Marriage and Alternative Lifestyles is for non-traditionalists, those ready for new life and love affirmations.  A new reprint of the controversial 1974 book that so influentially challenged the old paradigm of "closed" relationships. The O'Neills inspired a whole generation to rethink the previous assumptions about what marriages ought to look like, attacking the myths of jealousy, ownership, control, imbalance, and a host of other conventional beliefs about marriage. They offered a new way of thinking about relationships that remains as fresh and valid today as it was nearly three decades ago.  An extremely well-researched work on the origins of marriage, written by a lesbian journalist seeking to understand the "reasons" for excluding her lifepartner and herself from the institution of marriage. Extremely valuable in understanding how and why heterosexual, lifelong, sexually exclusive marriage came to be recognized as the "one true legitimate form" of intimate relationship (and who really benefited). |
 Dr. Schwartz follows up on findings from her classic study, American Couples, to explore how couples in "peer marriages" make genuine equality work to create a uniquely fulfilling relationship. The book points out the pros, cons and pitfalls of this special form of intimate relationship. The ideas contained in the book are drawn from real world experiences, and can be useful in successfully living any form of intimate relationship, not just the conventional monogamous dyad.  With fifty percent of marriages ending in divorce and the ever-increasing numbers of "trial" marriages, serial monogamists, and "scared singles," attaining a happy, long-lasting relationship can seem hopelessly out of reach. Conventional relationship advice promises such fulfillment in love, but really only adds to the confusion, anxiety, blame, and heartbreak. Where can couples turn when the old rules don't work anymore? Seana McGee and Maurice Taylor, couple educators and husband-and-wife psychotherapist team, have the answer.  "Here's that rarity: a short, piquant anthology on a subject of (almost) universal interest. Chasman and Jhee, Beacon editors, bring together highly personal pieces by 21 contemporary American writers (e.g., Barbara Ehrenreich, David Mamet, Willie Morris) offering some terrifically wry and insightful observations about how difficult it is to make a success of marriage and domestic life, given our culture of careerist individualism." Kirkus Reviews |