Marry Like a Man: The Essential Guide for Grooms

by Pete Nelson

If you've seen a magazine rack lately, you know that countless words are written monthly about weddings--and nearly every word is aimed at women. But here is a book for the men, who make up 50% of every marriage. Amusing yet practical, it takes husbands-to-be from pondering a proposal to surviving the Big Day.

256 pages, Paperback

First published February 1, 1992

About the author

Pete Nelson lives with his wife and son in Westchester, New York. He got his MFA from the University of Iowa Writers' Workshop in 1979 and has written both fiction and non-fiction for magazines, including Harpers, Playboy, Esquire, MS, Outside, The Iowa Review, National Wildlife, Glamour, Redbook. He was a columnist for Mademoiselle and a staff writer for LIVE Magazine, covering various live events including horse pulls, music festivals, dog shows, accordion camps and arm wrestling championships. Recently he was a contributing editor and feature writer for Wondertime, a Disney parenting magazine.

He's published twelve young adult novels, including a six-book series about a girl named Sylvia Smith-Smith which earned him an Edgar Award nomination from the Mystery Writers of America. His young adult non-fiction WWII history, Left For Dead (Randomhouse, 2002) about the sinking of the USS Indianapolis won the 2003 Christopher award as was named to the American Library Association's 2003 top ten list.

His other non-fiction titles include Real Man Tells All (Viking, 1988), Marry Like a Man (NAL, l992), That Others May Live (Crown, 2000) and Kidshape (Rutledge Hill, 2004). His novel The Christmas List was published by Rutledge Hill Press in 2004. He wrote, with former army counterintelligence agent Dave DeBatto, a four book series of military thrillers, including CI: Team Red (2005), CI: Dark Target (2006), CI: Mission Liberty (2006) and CI: Homeland Threat (2007) published by Time-Warner. A More Unbending Battle; The Harlem Hellfighters' Struggle for Democracy in WWI and Equality at Home, was published in 2009 by Basic Civitas books. His novel, I Thought You Were Dead, will be published by Algonquin in 2010. He also has two CDs out on the Signature Sounds label, the first entitled The Restless Boys Club (1996), the second called Days Like Horses (2000).

Reviews

[MacK · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's become a family tradition to pass on my uncle's book whenever someone gets married. So, after my fiancee and I celebrated my Grandfather's 86th birthday, my grandmother pressed this book into my hands.

Though I have a good 10 months until the wedding, it was great to read through a frank, and funny account of weddings from the perspective of that oft forgotten participant: the groom. With a book on every other topic (from arranging flowers to zither music appropriate for processions) grooms, my uncle reasoned, might need a little bit of advice too.

Sure enough, there was plenty of advice, practical and impractical. Reminders to be gracious, sensitive, and agreeable even when you think you're right. Toss in my uncle's copious research and his warm sense of humor percolating on every page (Bachelor parties are third grade brithday parties with beer...you need to get blood tests for marriage licenses because some states are concerned about aliens and replicons overwhelming the human race), and you have a text well worth reading--even if you're only *thinking* about getting married.

I wish that there could be an updated edition, one to accommodate 20 years worth of inflation and societal changes. But, I can take solace in the fact that I can call my uncle and ask his advice whenever I please. I'd offer his phone number...but he might have an issue with that.