Lessons on finding your partner, relationship, breakups, dating, and marriage.
This book is a collection of essays written by Ellen McCarthy, a wedding reporter from Washington Post who had covered a lot of wedding and relationship stories on her love section in the Post. In this book, Ellen talks about her encounter with the couples whose love stories worth sharing.
The length of each essay is considered short so the reader wouldn’t fall asleep while reading the book.
The book is divided into 5 big parts; Dating, Commitment, Breakups, Weddings, and Making it last. Each big part consists of five to six essays that talk about the respective ideas.
What I like about this book is that the suggestions and thoughts are so relatable to me personally. One of the things that is said in the book “Good on paper is all about externals: a person’s pedigree, occupation, income, status, appearance. But those things won’t keep you warm at night, rub your back when you’re exhausted, or know just what to say when you’re sad. They won’t bring out the hidden layers of yourself that you usually keep from the rest of the world.” Often times we care a lot about what others think about our partner. Wether we realize it or not, the set of criteria of an ideal partner that we have is based on “the paper” which actually is somebody else’s estimation of who we should be with, not our own inscrutable but deeply knowing internal compass.
I love the stories of how these couples found each other and how they managed to fight against the odds to be together. Having the book full of successful love stories, I love the fact that the author also frankly tell the truth that not everyone is meant to have a life partner. She doesn’t sugarcoat her book by guaranteeing that everyone is destined to find their other half, instead, she tells the stories of the people who are single and live their life to the fullest.
I would recommend this book for all singles who are still in the search of finding their soulmates, or anyone who are interested in the relationship matters.