Review of The Seven Principles for Making Marriage Work

I read about this book on Wedding Bee and figured it was worth checking out. Look at me, I'm turning into a new-age self-help addict or something! Yeah, probably not.

Actually, I quite enjoyed the book and am considering actually buying it! It was well-written, and came at relationships in a different way than I've heard about before.

Basically, the authors have studied thousands of couples (and you hear about how they've done these studies many times...I know the academic way is to prove you've done your homework, but sheesh, we get it already) and figured out what the couples with successful relationships were doing differently than the ones with unhappy relationships. It's not whether you yell while you're fighting, or even if you communicate about every single thing, which I thought was interesting.

I don't remember all seven principles (because I'm so behind on book reviews, and at this point it's been awhile since I've read this book!), but the first one was knowing your partner--their background and interests, and then staying up to date on what's going on in their lives. There are little activities for you to complete with your partner, so I asked Mr. T one of the questions as we were laying in bed one night: "Where was I born?" and he had no idea! We laughed and laughed. Mr. T was joking that he'd failed on the first question, which of course wasn't true. It's actually nice to think there are things we can still learn about each other after nearly 12 years!

Anyway, even though I'm lame and can't remember all the principles, I do think I'll buy this one and I recommend this book highly, to anyone who's curious about improving their relationship or keeping it strong. And you know I can't stand most self-help books, so that's saying something!