Talk Back

[ariel05]

I'm not quite sure how to review this book.

I'll start with the a short summary. The book presents the idea that there are five languages of love. These are Quality Time, Words of Affirmation, Gifts, Acts of Service, and Physical Touch. It describes each language and talks about how not knowing and/or speaking your partner's language is the path to relationship death. It goes into how to remedy the situation, and how to speak each language, keeping in mind each one has many dialects.

On one hand, the concepts expressed in here are very good. If you're paying attention, and choose to apply them, the chances of saving a failing relationship are excellent.

If I knew a couple that was having difficulties, and one (or both) asked me for advice, I'd recommend this book. It's easy to follow and fairly easy to implement.

On the other hand, the book is focussed entirely on heterosexual married couples (with a decent number of Biblical references thrown in for good measure), and can only be found in the Christian book section of the bookstore. "Bookstore", in this case, being the local Barnes and Noble - it might be different in other stores. That's where me and my husband were directed, after fruitlessly searching the relationship and self-help section.

To be fair, I didn't get the sense at all that the author was condemning couples that didn't fit the Christian married couple idea; I got the feeling he was simply writing about the type of couple he was most familiar with. The book is not judgmental or preachy, it's just the author seems to be writing from his own experience.

After reading it, I think it should definitely be sold in the relationship section. But that's just me.

Anyway, if you can get past the stuff "on the other hand", it would certainly be worth reading.

As a side note, I don't read relationship books... so I don't know if this is ripping off much better books, or if it's oversimplified, or what. I just know that overall, I really liked the ideas presented in there.