The Five Love Languages: How to Express Heartfelt Commitment to Your Mate

Type: Relationship Author: Gary Chapman My rating:  Buy now
Posted by Dominic Book introduction: This book talks about the 5 different ways of communicating and pleasing your partner. According to the book, each of us has a specific preference towards one of the five ways, if the partner "speaks" the right language, the relationship will work very well, if the partner doesn't "speak" the right one then no matter how well he/she speaks the other four languages, the relationship will have much problems. So the five languages of love are: 1) Quality Time: Undivide attention and quality communications 2) Words of compliments: Sincere compliments 3) Gifts: Well thought out presents 4) Physical assistance: Help dealing, resolving matters 5) Physical touch: Hugging, hand holding and else It is also easy to find out what works well on your partner and what is lacking, e.g. "He always bring me very nice gifts", "We don't talk anymore", "He used to help me with many things". Well, you can figure out the rest.
My review: A very interesting book that structurely catogorises the different ways to treat each other. For new lovers, they "speak" all 5 languages on a very frequent basis, and they are also very receptive to all 5 languages, but when the honey moon period is over, we need to pay more attention to find out which of the 5 languages that our partner really likes to "hear". A good friend of mine introduced and explained this book to me and immediately I thought of the language that worked well on my girlfriend and I "spoke" a little more along that dimension :-) Highly recommended.

Mars and Venus on a Date

Type: RelationshipAuthor: John Gray  My rating: Buy now
Posted by irene Book introduction: This book explains the essence of handling different stages of relationship: attraction, uncertainty, exclusivity, intimacy, and, finally, engagement (for marriage).
My review: I read Men Are from Mars, Women Are from Venus first, then this book. I found the ideas similar, but Mars and Venus on a Date is more specific in each stage, which could give more ideas about where you are.

Men Are from Mars, Women Are from Venus

Type: Relationship Author: John Gray, PhD My rating:  Buy now
Posted by Dominic Book introduction: Do men and women understand each other? Why do men and women communicate in different modes? Can we learn to adapte each other's approach? How can we improve the quality of our interaction with our significant others? This book has all the answers that you are looking for. It describes the common communication issues between the two genders and explain why we see things differently, and how we misinterpret each others and how we can approach things in a better way by understanding how the opposite sex thinks.
My review: The result is remarkable, it's like relearning how to speak, or learning a new language. The quality of communication is much enhanced and thus the relationship is improved. The issues mentioned in the book are so common that you think the book was written based on your own experience. The solutions are remarkably simply, but it requires a lot of practice as old habits of communicating is hard to change. I recommend this book to all lovers and to those who are searching for love. Okay, I do have a negative point on this book, it tends to repeat itself too much, recycling old ideas, apart from that, it's great.

---

Replied by Vanessa. My rating: My review: Good book and pointed out the characteristics of males/ females, how to interpret behavours and enhance communications.