Relationships Books

Fireflies is, by far, the most amazing book I have ever read. I have never been so moved by words on a page as I was when I read Fireflies for the first time. Upon re-reading it, I was again moved in a way that no other book has ever been able to do. Never forget Matthew Morrell or his extraordinary family... and never stop looking for fireflies in the night.

...David Morrell's book, Fireflies, does a remarkable job of providing a little window into the lives of families dealing with such unimaginable fear...It's not an easy read. It will tear at your heart. However difficult it was to read this book, I found every page worthwhile. I strongly recommend it for anyone who is facing the loss of a child. I thank Mr. Morrell for this beautiful piece of work. I hope that it brings him some healing and comfort to know that by recording his ordeal, he has touched the lives of many others suffering from similar battles...

This is one of the best books I have ever read. I have found myself reading it several different times over the last couple of years. When I feel that I have lost all spirituality, I read this book and feel whole again. This book elegantly combines love, anger, and sorrow. The reader is able to feel the emotions that David is struggling with.

David Morrell is known for writing about strong characters being placed into incredible and life threatening situations. Imagine finding yourself there...imagine what it must be like to know that your son, a boy not yet 16 years old, is dying and that there is absolutely nothing you can do but watch it happen and pray that things will turn out okay. Imagine the torment, the despair, the pain. Morrell brings all of these powerful human feelings to the forefront and provides us with a breath of hope that we CAN endure such agony...his eloquent writing and deeply expressed feelings shine through like fireflies in a night sky. You don't have to be religious or spiritual to recognize what true, unconditional love is. David Morrell shows us this side of himself. Fireflies is a completely unflinching and heart-rending story of love, loss and acceptance. It will touch your heart and make you cry. By book's end, you will be in awe of this family's strength, courage and commitment to one another. READ THIS BOOK! It will remind you of what it really means to be human...it'll provide hope...it will give you reason to believe. Thank you, Mr. Morrell. You are an inspiration.

I was having a difficult time accepting the death of my son to bacterial meningitis. It was so sudden I never had a chance to say "Goodbye". I was so tired of all the people who kept telling me that I had to "get on with life". I knew this! But inside was that feeling of helplessness that you can't explain to anyone, that feeling of guilt that as a parent I had not been able to stop what had happened to him. I read this book and was so comforted because here was someone who not only understood, but put into words the "want" of every parent who loses a child. In the end you had the same results...but in your heart you keep hoping that it will change. Mr. Morrell's sharing of his sorrow gave me a sense of peace and hope...he understood how I felt. I love to watch for fireflies in the summer now and I think of my son Jason, and I think of David Morrell and thank him for allowing me to know I was not alone in wanting to turn back time and change the inevitable. I also wish him peace. Any parent who has ever lost a child will identify with the pain, but find peace, comfort, and even an occassional smile, in Mr. Morrell's story. This is a wonderful book.

Thank you, Lori Paris, for weaving such a sentimental and enriching read. The reader is literally swept away and becomes a part of Sara Martin's heartfelt search for her birth parents -- people she only just found out about at the age of 21, on the sad occasion of her last remaining relative's death. Lori Paris does such an excellent job with rich detail that for the timeframe that you are reading the book, you morph into Sara's close friend, cheering for her to find her happy ending. And she does find a doozy of one -- not without her share of struggle and conflict, but the author wraps everything up very well at the rewarding and satisfying end.

Follow Your Heart is not only suspenseful, but also heartbreaking and hope-filled at the same time. Lori Paris is at a place where many dare not go, and through writing this book, the blessing that she received was to reveal the secret of the human heart, and that love fills our emptiness and loneliness. She took on a difficult subject in a sensitive manner. Because of its uncalculated emotions, she explored the fragility of not only adoptees but also their families with tender care. And in a gentle, loving manner, she brought out the hidden message of her book; that is, to teach the reader to take a chance on the feelings of their heart. She walks the reader down the path of pain, and in the process, discovers love and being loved by a new family, and encourages the reader to take a leap of faith and go on to a hope-filled future.

Paris has written a sweet and fictional love story about adoption. But this is not just a sappy love story. It is about loving and losing, loving again, and loving forever. This is also a must read for any Late Discovery Adoptee (LDA). There are very few books out there that touch on LDA's and their unique circumstances of finding out their adoption status as adults. Paris has a great command of the language and she carries you along. You feel like you are there with her and I had trouble putting it down. It has an incredibly beutiful ending that makes one hope for a better life. "Follow Your Heart" reminds us to do just that...follow our hearts!

Kasey Hamner, M.S., adoptee and author of "Whose Child?" and for LDA's, "Adoption Forum"

Follow Your Heart is a beautifully written novel. Sara has been living with her aunt since she was eight years old. When her aunt dies, Sara discovers the family secret. She was adopted. Lori Paris draws you into Sara's search for her birth parents. This is an inspirational and compelling story. A must read.

Sara Martin was orphaned at the age of 8 and lovingly raised thereafter by her Aunt Reni. Shocked to her core by Reni's sudden death shortly after her college graduation, Sara has yet another, potentially more monumental shock to come. A letter in Reni's safety deposit box addressed to Sara reveals the devastating news that she was adopted as an infant.

With a copy of her original birth certificate her only clue to her origins, Sara hires charismatic private investigator Dennis Miller to search for her birth parents.

As the novel unfolds, Sara eventually meets her entire birth family, including her taciturn and enigmatic father and his young son.

This is a charming, upbeat story about what COULD happen in these types of searches and the fantastic results Sara achieves, results which will enrich her life even as she herself breathes fresh new life into the lives of those she meets.

Lori Paris's characters, including the 4-legged ones, are warm and 3-dimensional, and I guarantee you will fall in love with them as you read this well crafted, uplifting story.

I highly recommend this book. It is such an easy read, and chock full of insights that every married couple or wanna-be married couple should read.

Chapman is known for his perennial best seller, The Five Love Languages. He now looks at what he calls the four seasons of marriage. We don't progress through these seasons in a steady progression, like the literal four seasons we experience over the course of a year. Instead, he takes characteristics of each season and applies them to where we might be, or where we've been in our journey together as a couple.

Summer is obviously the time of warmth and closeness; winter is the time of trouble, discouraged and even dissatisfied. But the main point Chapman makes is that each season presents us with opportunities for emotional growth and for strengthening our marital relationship.

Chapman provides a "Marital Seasons Profile" with a copy for each spouse to take and interpret. The profile helps tell which season each partner sees their marriage in at this time.

Then building on this, he describes seven strategies a couple can work on to strengthen their marriage, regardless of which season they might be in. He looks at dealing with past failures, working on our attitude, speaking our partners love language, becoming a better listener, helping your spouse succeed, dealing with our differences, and working on developing a positive outlook together.

He has an interesting section at the back of the book where he asks a number of questions that he thinks would be in the mind of the reader, and then answers then for us. He also provides a section that looks at how a couple can use the book, even when only one partner is interested.

Final Note: Telephone and Online Counseling may be a great way to help struggling couples. Learn to Provide Telephone and Online Counseling with this book: The Therapist's Clinical Guide to Online Counseling and Telephone Counseling: The Definitive Training Guide for Clinical Practice

Ever wonder why sometimes you have a love/hate relationship with the person you took the wedding vow with? You have done "everything" to make your partner happy but he/she still "thinks" that it wasn't good enough for them. Then, this is the book for you.

If you're living in a place where there are seasonal changes, you would understand already how spring, summer, autumn and summer feels. Anticipation, depression, joy, and the many feelings that comes along with the warm or very cold weather. In this book, it explains that your relationship is going through all the emotional roller coaster ride as well.

Author Gary Chapman also included ways to understand your partner's love language. Regardless of which season your relationship is in, I highly recommended this book, for all seasons. :)

"My experience both in my own marriage and in counseling couples for more than thirty years, suggests that marriages are perpetually in a state of transition, continually moving from one season to another..." ~ Gary Chapman

While "The Four Seasons of Marriage" can be read in a matter of hours, the lessons learned are quite valuable. You can instantly put the ideas into practice because they are practical and wise. Instead of taking a complex problem and making it overwhelmingly difficult to solve, Gary makes everything more simple.

Once you have determined your season (winter, spring, summer, fall) then you can decide to try to stay in a season (summer is comfortable) or move out of a season (like winter which is harsh) more quickly and into a situation you prefer. All that is needed is a little motivation and a sense of determination.

You can experience spring after twenty years of marriage or winter in the first year. Since each relationship is totally unique some seasons may feel more familiar than others. However, Gary believes that you go through the seasons on a continual basis. I have personally found this to be very true.

After reading numerous books on marriage and relationships I think this is one of the best books on the subject. It really makes sense and is written by an author who has been married for over forty-two years. This book also contains a summary of the five love languages.

I can also recommend: The Five Love Languages: How to Express Heartfelt Commitment to Your Mate

~The Rebecca Review

This book is truly a blessing to I and my husband. We are always on the look out for books that will continue to enhance our marriage. We like to be pro-active and not re-active when it comes to enhancing our marriage. This book enlightened us tremdously on how to adjust to the seasons of marriage. It is helping us to do what's necessary to get the best out of each season.

This was an excellent approach to singleness and marriage in today's Christian culture. Candice raises many great questions and challenges readers without feeling threatening or bossy. I loved the way that she illuminated hope and faith as the essential substance of our prayers regarding marriage and our lives as we seek to live in a Christ honoring way.

I was very skeptical at first when I saw the title and "what women can do to help it happen" but after reading it I realized that it was very God-centered and biblical. The point of the book is not so much trying to figure out what women can do to "hunt down a man" but to truly honor and value marriage and to realize it's okay to have the desire to be married.

This book offered a fresh perspective on being a single Christian women. I recommend it to everyone that would like to be married.

This book is easy to read and as I read it I realized that a lot of what Candace says I've also said. I found it quite easy to follow and I nodded my head a lot as I read through it. There were some things from her own experience that made a lot of sense to me. There were also some things that I learned from her experience that helped me. A good read for a 20-something year old, but even good for a 30-something who's still single.

Candice Watters has taken the thoughts of a multitude of single chrisitian women and have so wonderfuly penned it in this book. This book is in a category all by itself, instead of telling single women that their unwanted singleness is "Gods Will" for there life she explains that the desire for marriage is perfectly O.K. if not the norm!! The most life changing point she made to me was that we can bodly pray for a husband. After reading so many single books and hearing the church say that if you are single it is better and instead of wanting a husband you should just want to work more for the Lord. But this answer did not work for me or the countless other single woman I knew it just left us more discouraged than ever. So the more I worked the more I desired a husband and the cycle goes on but along came this book to give me the wisdom and tools that I need to move forward. Give this book to every single christian young lady you know!!!

I loved this book. My girlfriends loved this book. It is a must for anyone in a relationship. It doesn't repeat things you already know. It opens your eyes up to things that you should see but don't.

I've read both the boyfriend test and girlfriend test. Finally someone broke the dating game down so that the novice dater who is looking to become a girlfriend knows what men are looking for in a potential gf. Wendy illustrated the steps that we need to get through in a clear, light, and humorous way....Before reading the girlfriend book, I had great difficulty understanding my role as a woman throughout the different stages of dating...I'm a more confident dater now...by doing the tests, I can gauge where I am in the relationship...I must say it is a must read for the woman who want to become gf someday...it's now a reference book that i refer to all the time...the chapters are short and easy to understand.

I find the girl friend test both entertaining and informative .
I happened to stumble upon the book through a reading by the author Wendy Walsh at the Barnes and Noble in Santa Monica. She was late due to a mix up and kindly offered to personally buy us each a copy of her book. (I'm not sure that I would have read it otherwise ,seeing that I'm married).
Most unexpected was what she wrote about the pshychology of the attachment theory based on our first parental relationships and how they shape our capacity to love.
I sure wish I would have had all this knowledge before I was married....It would have helped me keep boys on their toes!

It's strange how sometimes a sequel can be better than the original. I had good things to say about Wendy's first book, The Boyfriend Test -- but I have to say that this one is MUCH more consistently excellent and light years kinder to both men and women, a must-read if you were a fan of TBFT.

Once again, Walsh affects the informal, chatty "girlfriend" style readers of TBFT will remember. But this time the emphasis is on equiping women with the tools to take an inner journey of discovery crafted so as to make them "a better date, and a better mate" on the other end. Once again, there are scored tests and detailed elucidations for each item.

But the real heart of this book is at the beginning, and even more so at the end -- when Walsh lays out her personal wisdom about the work needed to build life's most important adult relationship, as well as the rewards of doing that at-times painful, always revelatory work on yourself BEFORE you hit the trenches looking for a man to share your life with. Drawing on her MA in psychology (and especially something called "Attachment Theory"), Wendy gently, frankly and patiently guides her reader to a place of such inner strength that any guy worth his salt would be crazy not to fall head-over-heels for her. Once again, she shares personal anecdotes so you know it's real. And unlike in her other book, you finish this one with a satisfied sense that all loose ends have been tied up perfectly -- like the pleasantly full feeling you get at the end of a perfect meal among close friends.

So once again, I find my single, male self endorsing a book by and for women on the subject of dating and relationships. And this time, guys, I can wholeheartedly assure you: Wendy Walsh really DOES feel warm things toward us! In fact, the astute reader of both books will note that Wendy puts women through one more test than she subjects us to. But perhaps the very best thing here is the sense you'll come away with that the word "test" has a whole different meaning than it did in school -- being less about scoring points, and more about self-realization and keeping your eyes open, keeping your heart and soul's radar on so as to sidestep life's landmines and go straight for the gold. If you're a man, this may be interesting. If you're a woman looking to develop a higher relationship IQ, "The Girlfriend Test" is pure gold. Good for you, Wendy!!

Hereýs a book that most men will be happy about. Instead of ýThe Boyfriend Testý (how men measure up) author Wendy Walsh takes a serious look at what it is the women have to do in order to become a better ýgirlfriendý and thereby get the love of her dreams.

As a fellow relationship author Iým always interested in what others in my field have to say about dating, romance, and love. And while I liked Wendy Walshýs previous book, I appreciate this one even more.

My favorite part of ýThe Girlfriend Testý is when she writes about the 9 types of girls/women. Iým sure we can all think of a person that we know who fits one of these bills:

1) Daddyýs Girl: no ones can live up to Daddy
2) The Barbie Doll: the perfect girl as long as youth & beauty last
3) The Girlýs Girl: the perfect friend to every woman at the expense of her own love life
4) The Material Girl: the one who appears to want money more than love
5) The Miss Priss: the one who lives by family standards primarily
6) The Corporate Cat: the female executive with all the perks except a man
7) The Chatty Cathy: talks too much, too many stories
8) The Jockette: one of the boys in her recreational activities
9) The Mirror: the one who surrenders to men at her own expense

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My only beef appears on page 22 where she writes, ýHeýs the Hook, But Youýre the Fish.ý And on a philosophical level I have to let her know that an old American proverb states, ýa man chases a woman until she catches him.ý What that means is the woman is the angler and the man is the fish. (The Power of An Enlightened Metaphor For Love)

Back to her book.

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As far as Walshýs tests, there are actually 5 of them, all of which are very practical and insightful. Here they are with my favorite question from each test:

The Hook-Up Test (sounds fishy doesnýt it?): Question #2 Are you more worried about your appearance than your disposition?

The First Date Test: Question #7 Do you talk too much about past relationships?

The Five Date Test: Question #5 Are you rewarding bad-boy behavior?

The Girlfriend Sex Test: Question #9 Do you know how to say no to sex?

The Ninety-Day Test: Question #3 Do you know how to deal with the boys club?

Along the way the author also has important side-bars like tips on going out alone (valet park for safety, meet the business happy hour people instead of the late-night crowd & leave by 11:30 PM because nothing good ever happens after that).

I hope this book gets in the hands of a lot of women. I said much of the exact same things in my second edition of Men Are Like Fish, but the difference here is that it comes from the more trusted voice of another woman instead of from a guy (the nerve of a man talking about love....what do they know, right?)

Anyway, donýt be fooled by the whole ýtestý idea. While it is more on the tactical side than the spiritual side, it does a darn good job of making refined distinctions in the area of hooking (creating secure attachments wisely).

This is one of my favorite new books because it is so focused on this one area of dating which is a key element in the big picture of ýfishing for love.ý

Valuable both for individuals contemplating alternatives and for cemetery managers like myself thinking of establishing a green cemetery.

What a great book, really well done. Mark Harris has written a concise but very informational book on alternative options to the traditional method of caring for the dead. I've been uncomfortable with this method since I was a pre-teen and attended my first funeral, for an uncle who died of cancer in his early 20s. It seemed so strange to me, the artifical blush of his face against the voluptuous bedding in the enormously ornate and polished coffin. It seemed so removed from him, his life, and who he was. The actual burial place seemed removed as well, very sterile and manicured, the standard level emerald green lawn with no understory, trees, and little wildlife. I juxtapose this method with the natural burial method in the last chapter of this book and I'm blown away at how different it can be. Mark Harris has done a fine job of illuminating the realities of the funeral business today in a non-confrontational manner, without sarcasm or a posturing. I appreciate the description of the alternatives in under 200 pages; so many authors these days feel it necessary to expand on a topic ad nauseum for 500-600 pages. This book isn't perfect; there are a few contradictions in the summaries at the end of each chapter when he compares state requirements and Harris doesn't really address the high costs of burial at some of the natural cemetaries (the ones in California come to mind), which is only fair after he extensively discusses the costs of traditional funerals. But these are minor issues with an overall excellent book. Highly recommended.

This book is concise and informative and provides a great overview of the various burial alternatives that are accepted in the US today. It presents the options, which range from one end of the spectrum to the other. This is an eye-opener for those who think the modern funeral industry is the way to go (pun intended). I have already passed this book on to my family and will encourage all my friends and loved ones to read it. At least they can make decision about their own burial from an informed point of view.

I really enjoyed this book. It's organized very systematically with each chapter covering one topic or burial scenario. The first two chapters lay out the current state of affairs in burial. One was on the specifics of embalming and funeral-prep, which was nauseating yet fascinating, and another on the funeral business of selling services - both needed and unneeded - to grieving families. From there, the book goes into actual burial options, starting with the least green of the eco-friendly options (cremation), following through to the most eco-friendly scenario at the end. The chapters themselves are broken down even further with the bulk of the chapter telling a story of a family burying their loved one in the prescribed manner, and ending with a basic informational snapshot or "how-to."

The storytelling tone of the book made for a quick, entertaining read (well, as entertained as one can be when peering into the funerals of others), and occasionally left me a bit choked up due to touching nature of each of the burials and contentment that each family seemed to feel by taking the "green" route and fulfilling their loved ones wishes at the same time.

The book often referred to other well-know books on the funeral industry (Mitford's "American Way of Death," for example), which was smart seeing as the information presented here is more brief than I had hoped. But, really, that's the only criticism I can give it. And if "it was too short!" is the worst the author can do, he should probably be pretty pleased with himself :)

I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in a more natural way of death and burial, whether to protect the environment or to just keep life - and death - as simple as it should be.

These pages do the human race a great service. Every Funeral Director needs to read this book. Death is not a pleasant subject. This book is more than worth the price. Everyone has trouble thinking about grave matters. Just as cremation came to America, so comes the green funeral. This book is the future in Funerals, it is well thought out, researched and well written. Practical How to tips are in the back of each chapter. Everyone needs to read these tips. Everyone! Great work, Mark Harris.

Funeral Directors please read this book with an open mind. Personally, I have found this book helpful in my work with families in the Funeral Profession.

The frank outlook on motherhood, daughterhood, sisterhood and gardening was a welcomed fresh approach. I found myself laughing outloud and crying tears of understanding. I would highly recommend this book to both mothers and my childless friends. I was very sorry to let the characters go at the end of the book - I didn't want it to be over!

This book hit the nail on the head. Many new moms are faced with taking care of their aging parents while having babies & toddlers running amuck at home. Spiegelman keeps you laughing when you want to just give UP! I finished the book and wanted to find her to give her a big hug. Their is so much honesty and love in this book.

This is the story of our lives. I devoured this book in a weekend. Funny and smart and irreverent. Vive la femme!

Growing Seasons offers a feast of gardening, aging family, movie biz, marriage and new parenting stories to keep you laughing and crying all the way through. The book truly is a gem. I was sorry it ended so soon.

The author came to visit our book group at the Sonoma County Library today. She was just as sweet and sassy as her book! We loved her and Growing Seasons.

I just had triplets in November and this book was a gift. I took a lot of the advice and tips Blythe had in this book and applied it with my babies. I suggest if you have a baby that is fussy or colic, this book will help you out!

Common sense advice that we sometimes need in the middle of a crisis!

I enjoyed the easy to read tips and cute photos through-out the book. "Help, My Baby Came without Instructions" has good advice for your marriage and reminders to take care of yourself -- something we often forget to do when we're taking care of our new babies.

I wish I had this book around when I brought my twin daughters home. They were difficult to get to sleep and if I had used some of Blythe's advice they would probably be better sleepers today!

I thought most of the info in this book was pretty common sense. Its sort of a cute little book which is why I gave it two stars, but I didn't learn anything from it.

I bought this for a present and found myself reading it before I gift wrapped it. Sure wish this book had been around when my kids were babies. Great tips, and very easy to read! Can pick it up on the spot during a "crisis" and get immediate advise! Just right for those times when you don't want to bother the pediatrician, but could use some really good suggestions. Great for new mom's groups to use for discussions as well...hurry up with the sequel Blythe!!!

I was out for the first time with a friend after having my little girl and I saw the book, "Help, My Baby Came Without Instructions." That's exactly what I was thinking at the time so I bought it. My friend was in town to help out with the baby for the weekend so while I took a much needed rest, she read a couple of the tips in the book. Viola, when I got up I did't hear crying and the baby was asleep in the crib... for the first time! The warm blanket comforted her and putting her in the corner of the crib instead of the middle was perfect. So many of Blythe's tips have helped us. I don't know where we'd be today without knowing these valuable bits of helpful information!

When it comes to reading about family life, I am somewhat of a voyeur, since my own family members come with four paws and fur. And I absolutely loved this book. It's family life at its best...a lifestyle even devotedly single people can admire. It's like visiting friends who are so much fun you don't want to go back to your own home.

David Valdes Greenwood writes with understated humor that leads to laugh out loud paragraphs. For instance, he tries to join a circle of new moms in his town, only to be referred to a gay parents group in another town. "I know how to be gay," he says. "I want to learn how to be a parent!"

As someone who's lived through shifts in attitudes toward gay couples (including a stint in San Francisco), I'm delighted with the tone of the book: it's more about being a family than about being a gay family. He finds humor and human interest in the routines of grocery shopping, cooking and waking up to change the new baby. And he finds ties to extended family as the couple's own parents morph into doting "Grammy" figures, each determined to spoil the baby.

Wouldn't it be fun to have these guys as neighbors, living down the block? You could pop down to say hi, borrow a cup of sugar and get cooking tips along with a dash of fun and friendship...and they're smart, too.

Let's hope David has a follow-up volume in the works.

I hope the readership of this book doesn't get limited to those who want to read about same-sex relationships, because this great book should be read by anyone who enjoys a good memoir. The author has a great way of writing about feelings that are shared by many but not expressed well by many! For example, how it feels during the early days of having a new baby in the house. I can well recall the feeling that I wished somehow there was a way out of parenthood without anyone being hurt! It's such an overwhelming time, and you love that little one so much, but the crying....! And then those days pass, and that first smile happens, and it's all written about here so skillfully. I also very much enjoyed hearing about buying a house in the Boston market written about by someone NOT rich! I often feel like the world of published writing is getting pretty exclusive, and most of those who write seem to have very little idea what it's like to struggle financially. I really appreciated reading about someone else that understood how very hard it can be to buy in Boston! I hope this author keeps writing and writing.

I have to admit that I didn't rush right out and buy this when it first came out. I figured it was just another knock-off title meant to capitalize on a hot topic. Besides, having read Dan Savage's memoirs of gay parenting ("The Kid") and gay marriage ("The Commitment"), I thought this topic had been pretty much exhausted. WRONG! I should have known that a rich topic is never exhausted when the writer is as talented as David Valdes Greenwood.

"Homo Domesticus" is an incredibly fluid collection of essays depicting the courtship, marriage, home buying and adoption experiences of a unique, yet average gay male couple. Valdes Greenwood is a hugely gifted story teller, deftly communicating the seemingly mundane travails of day-to-day living with equal measures of poignancy and genuinely witty humor (I laughed out loud on several occasions). Perhaps the greatest praise I can give this (or any) writer is that I eagerly await the publication of his next book (in this case "A Little Fruitcake: A Boyhood in Holidays" slated for release this November).

Greenwood, David Valdes, "Homo Domesticus: Notes from a Same-Sex Marriage", DeCapo Press, 2007.



Sane, Smart and Funny



With so much in the news right now about same-sex marriage and the rights of gay couples, it was only a matter of time until someone involved in a same-sex marriage would write a book about it. We should be very happy that David Valdes Greenwood is the one to do so.

Greenwood gives us an honest and very funny look at his experiences as a married man. Of course, the issue here is that he is married to another man and herein lies the difference. We see that there is not that much different between a same-sex marriage and the other kid (for lack of a better term). Marriages all have problems and they are basically the same kinds, regardless of the genders of the couples involved. This is the key to enjoying this book, "Homo Domesticus". Here is an intelligently written account that looks at a gay married couple. Greenwood looks at his own marriage and draws upon it to give advice to others. We see the ups and the downs of two men building a life together in a world where the odds

outnumber the chances of success.

Wittingly told, the story of this marriage is heartwarming. There are no stereotypes, everything is presented realistically. We see that we as gay men have the same kinds of problems as everyone else and building and maintaining a relationship is not an easy chore. The issues of acceptance and adoption seem to be the major crosses we have to bear. "Homo Domesticus" is candid, especially about the relationship Greenwood shares with his spouse. We learn of how they met how they dated and then drifted apart and then marred and adopted a child. The description is beautiful and the writing is clear. This is one of those books that should be read by all who are concerned with same-sex marriage and acceptance.

David Valdes Greenwood has written an incredibly honest, humorous, and poignant account of his experiences as a married man. That he is married to another man is, of course, the key point that will make many readers pick up this book. (That, and the nifty "His and His" towels on the cover.) But readers who hope for a safari through the exotic world of gay marriage, or a laugh-a-minute leather-thonged Lucille Ball comedy, or a "Desperate Househusbands" soap opera, are bound to be disappointed. Because HOMO DOMESTICUS is about love and marriage, period.

Yes, it would be idiotic and insensitive to say there are no differences between gay and straight marriages. The unending and infuriating debate about marriage itself makes that abundantly clear. But what HOMO DOMESTICUS makes clearer is that the similarities outweigh the differences by about a million to one, and that if you pull the covers off any couple, gay or straight, you'll find the same angels and demons surrounding them: love and jealousy, sex, money, in-laws, fights, reconciliations, joy, stress, and, of course, the issue of "issue" (children).

Once you accept that, what you find in HOMO DOMESTICUS is not just a familiar account of marriage, but a funny and heartwarming one. David Valdes Greenwood's style is energetic and inviting and so full of wit and candor, you'll start to feel like you're sitting in a coffee shop with him, listening to his latest adventures in marriage, rather than sitting alone somewhere reading his book and wondering why the hell your spouse doesn't think about all these things.

One word of warning: reading HOMO DOMESTICUS is addictive. The book leaves off at a key point in the marriage, and you'll find yourself desperate to know what happened next. But take heart. In his writing, as in his marriage, David Valdes Greenwood seems to be in it for the long haul.

"Hope, Faith, and Charlie" is an incredibly touching account of a very personal and terrifying family ordeal. This is a heart-warming story that will have you giving your kids extra hugs and kisses and thanking God every day for the blessings in your life. A true story of the power of faith and love.

Hope, Faith and Charlie is a real account of what it is like to experience the possibility of losing a child. The book takes hold of your heart from page 1 and inspires you throughout. It is an intimate look inside a family's struggle with their grief and the with doctors, hospitals, etc.that are left to treat their child. I highly recommend this book to ANYONE who has a child. It definitely made me appreciate the blessings I have been given, but also made me realize that it could all be taken away.

"Hope, Faith and Charlie" is one of the most touching true stories about a loving, dedicated family who make you believe in miracles, who give hope to those who think there is none to be had and to Charlie, the amazing child who beat all the odds...and his cancer!
You can't help to fall in love with Charlie and his older brother, Jay. And to their parents, Deirdre and John,you can truly "feel" what they experienced over the first few years of Charlie's young life.
You have to read this book to really understand the true meaning of unconditional love.

A wonderful book that I didn't want to put down. Definitely worth reading if you are looking for a little hope and faith in this world. Also, a great reference if anyone should find themselves in a similar situation.

I literally could not put this book down! It is an inspiring story of a mother's instinct, faith and courage. It is an honest account of the emotions and challenges you feel when someone you love is diagnosed with cancer. I am so thankful that I heard about this book & have recommended it to many, many friends. Everyone should read it. You won't want to put it down!