Marriage & Family Books - Page 15

Nine Parts of Desire: The Hidden World of Islamic Women

Geraldine Brooks

List Price: $22.95 By: Doubleday Amazon Marketplace: 25 new & used starting at $1.99

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 142 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

nine parts of desire...ten parts intrigue 5 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

Geraldine Brooks takes us inside her personal trip trough the Islamic world and gives as close to an UNBIASED view of the treatment of Islamic women that i could imagine. she is careful to point out the reasons that are given for wierd practices. She doesn't shy away from her disgust for certain treatments.

For example the propagation of so-called "honor killings" that still take place all over the world, as well as many other ways women are opressed in the mainstream Islamic world.

O by the way the writting style is smooth and easy to read. You can really enjoy this book even though the topic is sad the way it is told is great!

Islam Means Submission 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

This is just one of the facts that I learned from this book. It became not just a fact but an insight as I continued reading it.

The book's excellence is demonstrated in that 13 years after its publication it is still being read. Its continued relevance is evidenced by so many current reviews here on Amazon. Since its publication there have been many books on this topic, including social studies and personal narratives, but this one still stands out.

Brooks spent 6 years in traveling to Middle Eastern Islamic countries covering the plight of women. While there is a chapter on Queen Nour, the book is primarily on the many anonymous middle class women who must submit to decisions about their lives, their health, their time, their children, where they can travel and even their dealth, all made by men. These men are not required, and most are not conditioned to, value her or consider her opinions or needs. They seem to be driven by their "honor" which is reflected by how well she masters the art of submission.

Brooks gives the clearest presentation I've read on the origins of the anti-woman practices that are permitted. She describes Mohammed's relations with his wives and the aftermath of his death which set the stage for others to interpret and misinterpret his words and actions.

The last chapter, where the author summarizes the issue and the lack of attention it receives world wide is pithy and strong.

Editorial Review:

An intimate portrait of the lives of modern Muslim women reveals how male pride and power have distorted the message of Islam to justify the subjugation of women and how a feminism of sorts has flowered in spite of repression. Tour.

We Can Work It Out: How to Solve Conflicts, Save Your Marriage

C. Notarius, Howard Markman

Amazon Price: $10.85 List Price: $14.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Perigee Trade Amazon Marketplace: 57 new & used starting at $4.24

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 12 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Absolutely the Best Book on Relationship Communication!!! 5 out of 5 stars.
65 of 65 people found this review helpful.

My husband and I separated after years and years of the same problems that we couldn't resolve. Realizing that perhaps it's not just what we are saying to each other but HOW we are saying it, I bought 6 books on communication. This was hands down the best one.

The first part of this book is a little slow, as it deals with research on couples and commonalities among happy and unhappy couples, blah, blah, blah. The 2nd and 3rd part of the book are the real meat of it. This book is excellent at not only helping you identfy the dysfunctional communication patterns you and your partner use, but also to determine WHY you use them. Most importantly, once you understand what NOT to do, this book tells you exactly what to DO in order to have successful communications with your partner. This book was an absolute eye-opener and my perception of my husband and his perspective has done a complete 180.

Now don't get me wrong, this book isn't going to do the work for you. You still have to commit to being open-minded enough to see YOUR faults in communication, not just be looking for everything wrong with your mate. However, I did see a lot of my mate in this book but instead of giving me ammo against him, this book really helped me understand him better. Also, this plan will be work. Changing old habits is ALWAYS hard work. But, my gosh...isn't it worth it? I can't stress enough though the importance of taking a hard look at yourself first. You have to be willing to consider that your partner has been just as hurt in your relationship as you have...and that you have caused as much destruction as you feel your partner has caused.

I have asked my husband to read the book. I don't know if he will. If he does, this book may very well save our marriage. Either way, I'm going to implement what I've learned into my own every day life. Because, if things don't work out with my husband, I need to be a healthier partner for any future relationships...and I need to be healthier for ME. I do have to say though, that reading this book has given me real hope that my marriage can be saved. Sadly, it shows me how unnecessary a lot of our pain has been. Every therapist tells you to talk about it but no one ever teaches you HOW to talk about it. You will be amazed how much HOW you talk is really what's going on in your relationship conflicts.

Every couple should have to read and discuss this book before they are allowed to get married. In fact, I may make this book my standard wedding gift from now on. In the end, where did all of those china place-settings ever get anyone? This book would be a real gift! I can not recommend this book more highly. If you are searching for books on this subject, than you need this book. Buy it now. Read it with an open heart. Share it with your mate. Good luck.

(Also, another great book to read to just better understand the many dynamics of all communication is Messages by McKay, Davis & Fanning...this book was also very helpful and I recommend it as a companion to We Can Work It Out. If you are dealing with an affair, "Not Just Friends" was the best of the several I read. That one deals with emotional affairs (which was my situation), not just sexual affairs.)

Editorial Review:

Based on national studies of more than one thousand couples, a three-part program guarantees that each partner's feelings be expressed and understood, helps couples identify factors and underlying principles that create successful marriages, and guides them to positive change. Reprint.

The Second Sex (Everyman's Library (Cloth))

Simone De Beauvoir

Amazon Price: $16.50 List Price: $25.00 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Everyman's Library Amazon Marketplace: 39 new & used starting at $12.49

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 37 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Doomed to immanence???? 3 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

In "the second sex", de Beauvoir is conducting research to determine how females came to occupy a subordinate social role to males; she turns to biology, historical materialism, and literature where she finds undeniable differences between men and women and countless examples, but no clear reason or justification for woman's implied inferiority.

By walking us through the stages of female's life, de Beauvoir tries to prove that women are not born feminine but shaped by external forces into dependent inferior creatures, or as she put it in her own words:" One is not born, but rather becomes, a woman". Maternity caused society to label women and rob their individuality during youth. Labeling women and forcing them into certain roles inevitably results in women living lives of incompleteness and immanence. Age and the subsequent loss of reproductive ability ends woman's purpose and in turn her identity and usefulness.

Great work, great research but the only reason I'm giving this work three stars is because of the mixed feelings I have about it: I agree with some of de Beauvoir's conclusions: the importance of financial independence for every woman, female character is a result of her situation not the opposite, the difficulty of breaking free from the myth of "femininity", and most importantly, women's own role in reinforcing their dependency and otherness. I strongly disagree though with the claim that being a mother or a wife are unfulfilling roles that exacerbate a woman's inferiority. For me, asking for absolute "equality" and taking away woman's motherhood is as cruel and dehumanizing as depriving females of subjectivity and turning them into objects.

Not to criticize de Beauvoir's personal life, but her fixation with resisting the myth of feminine inferiority drove her to the extreme position, rejecting marriage and having kids. Even though de Beauvoir was committed to her relationship with Sartre, she didn't want to marry him and allowed him and herself marginal romantic encounters with males and females.

The paradox of de Beauvoir loving some body and allowing herself to be with somebody else, to me, is as damaging as what she criticized in her work. It is exactly acting like the men she criticized for treating "the other sex" as objects.

Editorial Review:

(Book Jacket Status: Not Jacketed)

Introduction by Margaret Crosland; Translation by H. M. Parshley

Emotional Life of the Toddler

E. James Lieberman

List Price: $24.95 By: Free Press Amazon Marketplace: 23 new & used starting at $1.37

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 19 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

long on psychology, short on practicality 3 out of 5 stars.
2 of 4 people found this review helpful.

The Emotional Life of a Toddler is a good book for you if you're interested in the attachment theory or attachment parenting viewpoint of toddler psychology, and this book does read like a psychology text. It offers some insight into the whys, which will help you understand your toddler as a whirlwind of emotion and contradiction; however, the book does not offer any hows for living day-to-day with your tot. Therefore, if you are looking for practical advice and tips, skip this book and head to Toddler 411, Pocket Parent, No Cry Discipline Solution, or the dozen of other books that address toddler behavior.

Editorial Review:

Any parent who has tried to keep up with an active toddler for a whole day knows that a child of this age is a whirlwind of ever-changing emotions. Drawing on a lifetime of research, renowned child psychologist Lieberman addresses common emotional issues and questions facing parents with children this age. An insightful profile of the roller-coaster emotional world of those sometimes terrible twos.

First Comes Marriage: Modern Relationship Advice from the Wisdom of Arranged Marriages

Reva Seth

Amazon Price: $11.20 List Price: $14.00 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Fireside Amazon Marketplace: 34 new & used starting at $6.43

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 1 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

Seven time-tested secrets to dating the husband
of your dreams -- taken from the centuries-old
tradition of arranged marriages

Want commitment, love, and romance? Forget The Rules, and stop waiting for an idealized Prince Charming. In First Comes Marriage, Reva Seth shares the wisdom of more than three hundred women in arranged marriages...and shows how this classic tradition can teach twenty-first-century women important lessons about how to find -- and keep -- Mr. Right.

The men you date will become the men you marry. The seven secrets in this counterintuitive guide will help you become more selective and increase your chances of finding the right person to share your life with. Seth knows her secrets work -- she married her husband after only meeting him seven times.

• Secret #1: Your man doesn't have to be your best friend.
  (That's why you've had a best girlfriend all along, right?)
• Secret #4: It doesn't matter if he doesn't dance.
  (Common interests are less important than shared values.)
• Secret #6: Sexual chemistry isn't always organic.
  (Attraction can be created -- if you know how to unlock your passion.)

A practical, surprisingly progressive guide to love and romance, First Comes Marriage will open your eyes to what makes a guy perfect for you...and will help you find him, date him, and keep falling in love with him forever.

Positive Discipline for Teenagers (Positive Discipline)

Jane Ed.D. Nelsen, Lynn Lott

Amazon Price: $11.53 List Price: $16.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Three Rivers Press Amazon Marketplace: 71 new & used starting at $4.96

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 11 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

Positive Parenting for Those Important Teen Years
Adolescence is often a time of great stress and turmoil—not only for kids going through it, but for you, their parents as well. During the teen years, kids aggressively begin to explore a new sense of freedom, which often leads to feelings of resentment and powerlessness for parents who increasingly are excluded from their children's lives. This revised edition of Positive Discipline for Teenagers shows you how to break the destructive cycle of guilt and blame and work toward greater understanding and communication with your adolescents. Inside, you'll:
·Find out how to encourage your teen and yourself
·Grow to understand how your teen still needs you, but in different ways
·Learn how to get to know who your teen really is
·Discover how to develop sound judgment without being judgmental
·Learn how to use follow-through—the only surefire way to get chores done
Over the years, millions of parents have come to trust the classic Positive Discipline series for its consistent, commmonsense approach to child rearing. Inside, you'll discover proven, effective methods for working with your teens.
Over 1 million Positive Discipline books sold!
"I highly recommend this book to parents, teachers, and all others who work with young people. It is one of the best books I have seen on helping adults and adolescents turn their conflict into friendship. Remarkably, it shows how to accomplish this while helping young people develop courage, confidence, responsibility, cooperation, self-respect, and trust. I urge you to read it." —H. Stephen Glenn, Ph.D., coauthor of Raising Self-Reliant Children in a Self-Indulgent World.

The Feminine Mystique

Betty Friedan

List Price: $27.50 By: W W Norton & Co Inc Amazon Marketplace: 12 new & used starting at $5.97

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 56 Average rating: 3.5 of 5

Housewife phobia 2 out of 5 stars.
3 of 7 people found this review helpful.

I have long avoided reading this book, since I knew that Ms Friedan had a low opinion of housewives, and being one myself, I didn't think reading this book would do me any good. However, I finally took the plunge, and found it even worse than I had imagined.

Ms Friedan's loathing for the housewife is so venemous that it took me quite aback. Housewives, she reckoned, are mentally arrested, infantile women, afraid to engage in the 'real world' of work (it goes without saying that the workplace is more 'real' than the home, at any rate in Ms Friedan's estimation).

Her theory was that any woman who spent her life as a housewife was wasting her time, only in paid work could a woman really find fulfillment. And not just any paid work either. She doesn't have a kind word to say for the men who work at jobs which are not exciting, fulfilling, and challenging either. The housewife is no more making a significant contribution to society, she tells us, than is the man imagines he has built a car because he tightens the bolts on the assembly line. It doesn't seem to occur to Ms Friedan that we can't all be brain surgeons, college professors, and high court judges. Someone's got to tighten the bolts.

Ms Friedan believed that the rash of divorces in America at the time she was writing the book (early 60s) were caused by men being sick of supporting their useless wives. However, since nowadays most wives work, and since the rate of divorce has not noticeably decreased, I can't help feeling that perhaps the zombie-like housewife is not ENTIRELY to blame for this situation. She thought housewives were to blame for child-battering and homosexuality as well. Neither of those things have noticeably decreased since women gave up being housewives.

Even women who are not housewives are not necessarily safe from Ms Friedan's icy disapproval. She launches an attack on Shirley Jackson and Jean Kerr, both of whom wrote sublimely funny books about raising their children. Ms Friedan seems to be annoyed that even a career woman might think that her children are worth writing about.

But then I'm only a dumb housewife, what would I know?

Editorial Review:

Now with a new introduction, a classic first published in 1963 strikes at the core of the challenges women face both at home and in the marketplace and provides inspiration as woman continue their struggle for equality and fulfillment. Reissue.

Sacred Influence: How God Uses Wives to Shape the Souls of Their Husbands

Gary L. Thomas

Amazon Price: $10.19 List Price: $14.99 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Zondervan Amazon Marketplace: 43 new & used starting at $8.45

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 19 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Horrible 1 out of 5 stars.
3 of 11 people found this review helpful.

Gary Thomas is the last man on earth that should be writing a book for women. Sacred Influence is SO demeaning, I actually had to stop myself from ripping up the pages as I was reading them. Generalizations all over the place - none which even remotely describe me or my experience. This is the kind of book that actually destroys marriages because it doesn't teach you how to get to know and grow with your partner. It places all men in the same category ("this is how men are, therefore X..") and does the same for women ("this is how you are/must be, and if not, you are not godly..") This is not Biblically-based teaching, it is Gary Thomas' impressions of women and what they are like. Don't waste your time or money on this one!

Sacred Influence: How God Uses Wives to Shape the Souls of Their Husbands 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

This book is very effective and is a great tool in the hands of God for shaping wives. Thanks much!

Editorial Review:

Applying the concepts from his bestseller Sacred Marriage, Gold Medallion Award–winning author Gary Thomas reveals what a man needs from his wife to become the husband she wants. Now in softcover!

Widow to Widow: Thoughtful, Practical Ideas for Rebuilding Your Life Challenges, Changes, Decision-Making & Relationships

Genevieve Davis Ginsburg

By: Fisher Books Amazon Marketplace: 30 new & used starting at $0.01

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 37 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

It's ok, what you are feeling 5 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

This book is very helpful to me. It validates all the range of emotions I'm experiencing. Being a widow can feel very lonely at times, and this book is helping me feel less alone, seeing that other women are going through a very similar process. I continue to read and re-read parts of it. I would highly recommend this book.

Bought this for a dear friend ... her favorite 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

When a dear friend recently lost her husband in an accident, I did not have personal experience to relate. I searched Amazon and picked four of the highly rated books to send her hoping at least one would be helpful to her. She enjoyed them all, but called me especially thanking me for this one. She said that, out of all the books, this one was the most practical, helpful book. She said it made her feel that her feelings were "normally abnormal" - meaning that they were very normal feelings for an abnormal, unplanned situation - she said it helped her feel that the immense emotions associated with her loss were not hers alone but were "normal" for such a very difficult situation and that others had survived the grieving process. I told her I would put her thoughts here so others who want to reach out to a friend in a similar situation would feel comfortable purchasing this book. God bless all who have lost their dear companions. Our prayers and thoughts reach out to you.

Sos Help for Parents Book

Lynn F Clark

List Price: $9.95 By: Parents Pr Amazon Marketplace: 62 new & used starting at $0.01

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 24 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

easy to read suggestions for parents and professionals 4 out of 5 stars.
3 of 3 people found this review helpful.

This book is part of a series put out on a variety of topics including mental health issues. The presentation is similar to what a "Parenting for Dummies" book might look like without making the reader feel dumb. As a Therapist, I use this series with regularity to emphasize specific problem areas with my clients and/or their parents. A good resource guide for parents of children with common behavioral issues. Too basic for more serious mental illnesses, i.e. ADHD, substance abuse, PDD, etc.

Editorial Review:

SOS Help For Parents: A Practical Guide For Handling Common Everyday Behavior Problems is a book and parent education program, which helps children, two to twelve to improve their behavior and emotional adjustment. SOS is available in eight languages and is recommended by psychologists, pediatricians, and teachers worldwide.

SOS teaches over 20 methods for helping children and offers the most helpful instructions available for using time-out. The Video SOS Help For Parents, also available, is based on SOS and is used by counselors and parent educators in numerous countries. Quizzes, Index of 46 Problem Behaviors, 100 engaging illustrations, contains humor, and is enjoyable to read.