Family & Relationships

Children of all ages need clear boundaries to help them navigate the world around them and develop healthily. But 'boundaries' doesn't just mean rules: babies need physical boundaries such as loving arms or a crib to feel safe; young children depend on regular routines to know what will happen next and what they'll be doing tomorrow; older children need space to make positive choices and develop as individuals.

So how can we provide appropriate boundaries for our children? And how do we know when to adapt them, as children grow?

This insightful book gives an overview of the types of boundaries children need at different ages and stages, from babies to young adults. It offers a parent's toolkit of practical advice on common pitfalls to avoid, how to form healthy family habits and how to set appropriate rules.

Lois Eijgenraam, author of Helping Children Form Healthy Attachments, draws on Rudolf Steiner's theories of child development to create a holistic, natural and positive guide to inspire and support your own approach to parenting.

Many parents struggle with finding effective ways to manage their children's behavior. Can you discipline without punishing? How do you set limits while maintaining closeness and trust?

Lou Harvey-Zahra, an experienced parenting coach and teacher, has developed a method that really works: creative discipline. Offering new perspectives on children's so-called 'bad behavior', she helps parents solve immediate problems while fostering positive, lifelong family connections.

This book is full of ideas for overcoming everyday issues like fussy eating, bedtime struggles and sibling squabbles. It also offers inspiration for addressing larger concerns, such as lying, anger and bereavement.

With numerous examples, real-life stories and commonly asked questions, this is an encouraging, helpful guide for parenting children from toddler to twelve years old from the author of the bestselling Happy Child, Happy Home.

Reclaim childhood from digital devices—and rediscover the wonder of real life

Screens dominate modern childhood. The average child spends 7.5 hours a day on digital devices, leaving parents worried about anxiety, disconnection, and lost creativity. Childhood Unplugged offers a proven path to reclaiming childhood—without guilt, shame, or unrealistic rules.

Written by journalist and parenting expert Katherine Martinko, this inspiring guide helps families replace screentime with meaningful, hands-on experiences that build confidence, curiosity, and connection.

What You'll Learn

• How to reduce digital dependency and set healthy screen boundaries at every age.
• The hidden links between screen use, childhood anxiety, and attention challenges.
• Practical strategies for nurturing independent, resilient kids in a tech-saturated world.
• Real-world stories from families who've successfully reclaimed childhood—no tech meltdowns required.
• Ways to make outdoor play, creativity, and boredom your family's greatest teachers.

Praise for Childhood Unplugged

"...solid ideas for reducing digital dependency." — Publishers Weekly

"...a helpful guide for parents who hope to curb their family's electronic habits." — Foreword Reviews

"Real-world tools for parents to declutter their minds and set up safeguards to put themselves in control of digital technology. A digital minimalist's must-have guide." — Joshua Becker, #1 Wall Street Journal bestselling author of Things That Matter

"Katherine Martinko has written a treatise no parent should miss. How do we protect and enhance the humanity of our children in an age where they've been so recklessly bombarded with unfettered technology?" — Loreena McKennitt, Founder, Stolen Child Project

A Gentle Invitation

If you've felt uneasy about how digital devices shape your child's world—but aren't sure where to start—this book offers clarity, compassion, and a roadmap toward balance. It's time to unplug and rediscover the magic of being a kid.

Build a More Equitable World for Your Daughter

“If you’re a dad who wants to create a fairer and more equal world for your daughters to thrive in, this book is a must-read!” —Jerry Yang, cofounder & former CEO of Yahoo! Inc.

Winner 2020 Living Now Gold Award, Family & Parenting
Finalist 2020 Indie Book Award for Social Change

A world where your daughter can thrive. Today’s dads are raising confident, empowered daughters who believe they can achieve anything. But the world is still profoundly unequal, with workplaces built by men, a massive gender pay gap, and deeply-ingrained gender stereotypes. Dads For Daughters: How Fathers Can Give Girls a Better, Brighter, Fairer Future offers fathers guidance for building a more equal world for their daughters.

Invest in your daughter’s future. Inspired by their daughters, dads are uniquely positioned to become powerful allies for girls and women. That's where Dads for Daughters can help. Dads for Daughters is a feminist book for fathers invested in the gender equality fight.

Lean In for dads. There are so many ways that Dads of Daughters can make a difference—from mentoring women to equalizing pay, from sports fields to science labs, from building empathy to combating gender bias, from boardrooms to ballot boxes. With every small step, dads have the power to make incredible change for our next generation of girls. Dads For Daughters also offers women a guide for recruiting men into action. Together, we can give all our daughters a happier, more successful future.

With this book, you’ll find:

• Concrete strategies for creating a better tomorrow for the girls and women in your life
• Inspiring stories from dads of daughters who are already having an impact
• Resources for becoming a stronger male ally in your workplace and community
• Advice for engaging other men in gender equality efforts

Dad’s for Daughters is perfect for fathers who enjoyed books such as Lean In, The Moment of Lift, or We Should All Be Feminists.

We teach our children how to tie their shoelaces, how to read, how to ride a bike. We explain the weather and rainbows and why people have jobs. But when it comes to explaining the forceful, baffling, intense and marvellous emotions that we might experience, well, things become vague.

Nurturing your child's ‘emotional intelligence’, so they can understand and process their own emotions, is one of the most important things you can teach your child. But parents are often at a loss as to how best to do this. And your child’s big, complex emptions can also be somewhat scary.

In this book, clinical psychologist and family therapist Dr Anne Lane provides a compass through that haze of uncertain emotional parenting, to help parents teach their children the crucial life skills that create emotional intelligence. She equips you to understand your child’s emotions from pre-schooler through to pre-teen and, importantly, gives you the tools and advice you need to help THEM accept and understand these emotions.

As the conversation around children's mental health continues to grow, this is the book all parents need.

With jokes, quotes, to-do lists and even dad bod tips, this laugh-out-loud handsomely packaged gift is a hilarious celebration of the world’s most misunderstood and fragile species of man.

Their bellies may stretch their spandex beyond saving and their capes may only fly after an ominous-sounding fart, but – make no mistake – dads are superheroes. Well, half the time, at least. Because, let's not forget, when it comes to messing things up, dads are also incredibly self-sufficient. Ignored by moms everywhere and taken advantage by babies of all ages, being a dad is arguably the world's toughest job (after motherhood, of course). Overworked, underpaid and constantly in need of feeding, dads deserve just as much attention, validation and an equal share of the duvet as moms, and yet often have to settle for second best. From taxi-ing teenagers to funding fun, juggling jobs to half-baking house chores, dads simply are the best. Even at their hungover worst.  

Little Book of Dad is a celebration of dad-hood, daddy-ing and all the dad-based shenanigans that comes with it. The bitesize fun book is the perfect impulse gift for exhausted dads of all strange shapes, sizes and smells, which, last time we looked, was all of them.

Transform chaos into cooperation, gain control of your household, and achieve your family goals―together!

Former Ritz-Carlton project manager Hilary Kinney applies decades of proven project management experience to parenting, helping busy families get organized, strengthen relationships, and reduce stress.

The fast pace of modern life leaves many parents struggling to manage competing responsibilities, which can increase stress and cause conflicts. But Project Management for Parents demonstrates how a powerful set of techniques, tools, and exercises used to manage complex, time-pressured business projects for Fortune 500 companies can also work in the home.

Three simple steps form the foundation of the framework:

1. Build Teamwork: Learn how to work together as a family unit

2. Establish Your Approach: Create a plan that works for your unique family dynamic

3. Succeed as a Family: Use proven techniques to reach your goals together

Learn how to improve family relationships by creating a positive environment, fostering communication, and encouraging children to think and act independently.

INCLUDES:

- Practical and effective communication strategies

- Proven organization and planning tools

- Cooperative activities

- Easy-to-understand exercises

- Simple, reusable templates

- 25 real-life examples like selecting childcare providers, managing homework, dealing with risky teenage behavior, applying to college, or moving to a new city.

Don't wait any longer to transform your family life. Get this Amazon category bestseller today to transform chaos into cooperation, gain control of your household, and achieve your family goals―together!

Parents put so much effort into trying to raise happy and effective children, yet often end up stressed and frustrated. At Family Success Institute, Daniel Kingston and his team have been researching and applying parenting skills and techniques for over fifteen years and training families for nine. The tools, methods, and techniques developed by the Family Success Institute are easy to implement and quickly lead children to success. In Parenting for Success, parents learn systems to cover everything from waking up in the morning, to principle-based training, to a joyous bedtime routine that will bring the irreplaceable joy of great parenting. Parents learn to understand principles and create habits and routines that help them raise successful and balanced children.

If you are a mom, you are worried about your daughter surviving the adolescent years safe and sound. In a culture that encourages kids to be sexy long before they reach puberty, and when one in four college women report surviving rape or attempted rape and one in ten high school girls is the victim of date rape, the prospect of raising a teenage girl can be daunting. By tackling the subject of sexual assault head-on, Sally Clark offers a roadmap to navigating one of the most treacherous parts of the journey from girlhood to womanhood. Sally speaks directly to moms who are overly anxious about keeping their daughters safe and shows them that the crucial element in raising a strong, resilient daughter lies in healing and addressing their own adolescent wounds. Through interviews with experts and leading practitioners in fields ranging from adolescent psychology to mindful self-compassion, The Way of the Warrior Mama teaches proven, concrete, and innovative techniques to dramatically reduce parenting stress and increase mothers’ faith that they can protect their daughter.

JT is a successful coach and parent. He takes what he knows about coaching kids on the field and puts it in easy-t0-digest terms for parents. He has found a way to bring home the fundamentals of coaching, and he shows parents exactly how they, too, can be the parent they have always wanted.

Whether a good coach, aspiring to be great, or a good parent aspiring to be great, look no further, Coaching The Home Team is for both!

Are you ready to move from surviving to thriving in your relationship with your children? You will learn:

Nine parenting perspectives to guide your understanding of your child,

How communication defines relationship and the four distinct types of communication to use when your child is not having problems,

Eleven specific communication tools and behavior management strategies,

Practice these tools and strategies through "Learn The Concept" exercises embedded in the chapters.

*Reclaim and master your chaotic schedule, creating room to breathe.

*Reclaim traditions that will ignite family identity.

*Reclaim the sizzle that keeps romance alive in a marriage.

*Reclaim the hypnotic influence media is having over your children.

*Reclaim a work ethic in children that will impact their future success.

*Reclaim peace and meaningful connections around the family dinner table.

*Reclaim a family legacy that will offer children a place to call home.

Do you feel like you’ll never laugh again, engage in a meaningful exchange with your former spouse or parent with confidence? You can and you will. You’re taking the first step right now by getting the help you need as you navigate through the stages of establishing a long-term, mutually-beneficial co-parenting relationship.

Judith Fitzsimmons’ successful co-parenting story might seem uncommon, but it is an experience that, with the right tools and attitude, you can achieve in your own family unit. "Not At Your Child’s Expense" is a guide to help you overcome the obstacles of divorce and co-parenting, find a path to clearer thinking, and develop a healthy family dynamic.

"Not At Your Child’s Expense" provides valuable, practical ideas that are constructive to you, your co-parent, and, most importantly, your child. While you may not have expected your life to reach this phase, you do have a choice on how to move forward.

Building grit and hope in the face of the climate emergency

With catastrophic global warming already baked into the climate system, today's children face a future entirely unlike that of their parents. Yet how can we maintain hope and make a difference in the face of overwhelming evidence of the climate crisis?

Help is at hand. Written by Harriet Shugarman – the Climate Mama and trusted advisor to parents – How to Talk to Your Kids About Climate Change provides tools and strategies for parents to explain the climate emergency to their children and galvanize positive action. Coverage includes:

• The unvarnished realities of the climate emergency, where we are at, and how we got here
• Strategies for talking to kids of different ages about the climate crisis, including advice from engaged parents on the ground
• How to maintain our own hope and that of our children
• A list of practical actions families can take to tackle the climate change crisis
• Ideas for helping children follow their passions in pursuit of a livable, just, and sustainable world.

A lifeline for parents who are feeling overwhelmed with fear and grief, this book provides both hope and practical ways to engage children in pursuit of a better world that is still possible.

AWARDS

• SILVER | 2020 Nautilus Book Awards: Parenting & Family
• SILVER | 2020 Benjamin Franklin Awards - Parenting & Family
• FINALIST | 2020 Foreword INDIES: Family & Relationships

Practical and Positive Parenting that Promotes Your Boy’s Emotional Intelligence

From nationally recognized parenting expert and spokesperson, Will Glennon, come two hundred suggestions for raising emotionally aware and healthy boys.

Encouraging emotional intelligence from boyhood to manhood. Raised against a backdrop of gendered social and cultural norms, it’s no wonder that boys are more likely to struggle with their emotional intelligence. In this quick read, Glennon lists two hundred ways to nurture young men and, in turn, teach them how to nurture back.

Parenting tips and quotes. Avoid fragile masculinity, frat boy culture, and everything in between with a better understanding of male child behavior. Designed to help raise compassionate, emotionally intelligent boys and supplemented with emotional intelligence examples and child rearing anecdotes, Nurturing Boys encourages playful, thoughtful, and deliberate parenting styles.

Inside, boys will learn how to:

• Connect with and manage their feelings
• Use their feelings constructively, not destructively
• Communicate their feelings

If you’ve asked, “What is toxic masculinity?” or “What is emotional intelligence,” and enjoyed books like Decoding Boys, Wild Things, Raising Cain, or How to Raise a Boy, then you’ll love Will Glennon's Nurturing Boys.

A Powerful Lesson on Unconditional Love and How to Raise Happy Children

“A must for every family library.”—USA Today

This collection of essays offers a gentle guide on how to put your love into daily actions. A parent’s calling is to raise a person. By making loving actions part of your life, you have the power to build the kind of family unit most people long for. Wonderful Ways to Love a Child is filled with true stories of parents and children who are nurturing strong and loving families. The book provides the support that empowers you to be the parent you want to be and expands your parenting skills.

No simple tricks. Cultivating a loving relationship with your child demands integrity, compassion, and emotional honesty. It is a forever commitment to continuous loving actions–even when you are too tired. This low-stress approach to positive parenting produces children with high self-esteem. This is how children succeed.

A perfect gift for new parents. Wonderful Ways to Love a Child is a prescription to strengthen family bonds that will last a lifetime. There are many different parenting styles–this one is based in love and logic, and positive discipline. Learn to put yourselves in your children’s shoes–and have fun in the process.

In this book you’ll discover guides to:

• Loving yourself and allowing your child to love themselves
• Giving the gift of your presence and being open to the miracle of transformation
• Saying yes as often as possible, and knowing when to say no
• Teaching that all feelings are acceptable and making room for the Crankies
• Delighting in silliness by laughing, dancing and singing together
• Teaching values by example
• Other essential tools to ensure a loving, lasting friendship with your children–and make them want to come visit when they are older

Cynthia MacGregor has won the hearts of thousands of parents with her parenting classics. In The Naptime Book, she shares sweet, simple, and effective suggestions to help children get their allimportant sleep during the day. Current medical thinking indicates that small children should get at least nine hours of sleep at night and a nap during the day. Alarming statistics show that sleep deprivation can lead to countless health, cognition, and social problems. Cynthia MacGregor can help transform naptime into a treat both children and their caregivers look forward to every afternoon, leading to happier, healthier children and more joyful families.

The Naptime Book is full of creative, playful ways to help children relax. Plus the hundreds of storytime activities, quiet games, riddles, and rhymes in this little book will help develop language and number skills. And what book on naps would be complete without a chapter called "Time Out for Mom, Too " Adults who care for small children all day need to take time for themselves. MacGregor suggests ways to use this time to your own best advantage.

A sweet little book, with illustrations throughout, The Naptime Book is perfect for busy parents, tired teachers, and perplexed daycare professionals.

The Naptime Book offers creative solutions to the challenge of naptime as well as a unique opportunity to foster closer relationships with young children. It's a book bound to become dogeared with repeated use.

Mama Says is a delightful, funny, and very wise book of over 400 sayings from mothers from around the world that represent a lineage of mothers' wisdom. The sayings are not always kind, not always useful, but always true to the intention of teaching young ones how to survive in the world. Many times, it's clear that these sayings are inherited wisdom, received from their mothers who learned it from theirs back into the untraceable past:

"Nobody said life was fair.""You don't have anything to lose by asking."
• "From your mouth to God's ears."
• "Men only want one thing."

Many times, what mama had to say was simply outrageous:

"When faced with a room full of horse shit, look for the horse."
• "There's always something to come along to shorten the tail of the rabbit."
• "Whatever situation you find yourself in, think of what the Virgin Mary would do and do the same."

Mama Says will make anybody laugh out loud remembering what Mom used to say, or smile recognizing how often we end up with the exact same words coming out of our own mouths. After all, "sooner or later, we all quote our mothers."

The Mother's Book of WellBeing carries a mother through the first year of motherhood and beyond. Divided into fiftytwo short chapters (read between changings ) one for each week of the year Lisa Groen Braner provides wise advice for new mothers and experienced mothers alike. Learn to take time for yourself and claim a few moments of peace, survive sleep deprivation, make room for romance with your partner, and tune into your "maternal wisdom."

In The Collected Wisdom of Fathers, bestselling author Will Glennon encourages and supports men in building a bridge to their children. Based on the experiences of hundreds of fathers.

The Collected Wisdom of Fathers is an original and poignant collection of true stories and suggestions that provides fathers with the essential tools and advice they need. By passing on important lessons others fathers have learned in their own journeys, from staying connected even when physically separated, to listening in ways that allow children to know they are being heard, to simply showing deep love and respect. The Collected Wisdom of Fathers is an original and inspirational book for fathers everywhere.

Secrets To Becoming The Very Best Parent You Can Be

Be there for your children every step of the way and give them memorable experiences.

What's the recipe for a happy family? It’s collaboration and communication. Instilling a spirit of cooperation in your children is the real secret to providing the gift of a happy childhood, being a "good" parent, and building the family you have always wanted.

Perfect your parenting techniques. Research psychologists Marion Forgatch and Gerald Patterson have over 40 years of practice and tested clinical and prevention trials. Their Raising Cooperative Kids provides a universal and easy to use manual no matter where you live or how your family is structured. Discover the formula for overcoming family struggles and inspiring children to cooperate─from toddlerhood into their teens.

• Change unwanted behaviors
• Teach your children new behaviors
• Reduce family conflicts

Specific guidance is included for issues ranging from how to share the bathroom during the morning rush to what to do when a child misbehaves. The authors also remind us of the importance of play─enjoying each other and sharing time and activities together is the cornerstone of a connected, happy family.

If you enjoyed books like The Whole-Brain Child, What to Expect When You're Expecting, or The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Teens, then you’ll want to read Raising Cooperative Kids.

An Inspiring Book That Is Perfect For Fathers, New And Old

A one-of-a-kind collection of interviews, research, and personal experiences that detail the journey of fatherhood and the joys that come with it.

Fathering is a full-time job. It’s no secret. Whether it’s an only child or a full house. Once you’re a father, it’s a lifetime commitment filled with something new to learn at every corner. In this helpful book, author and dad extraordinaire Will Glennon combine his personal experiences along with wisdom and insight from fathers near and far to provide the ultimate positive parenting guide.

Raising children is no easy feat. Fathers are more involved than ever with daily care, teaching, and rearing of their children. Discover the role that you play in your child’s life with the Best Things Fathers Do. Learn to:

• Celebrate the best that Fatherhood offers
• Discover the tools for raising children successfully
• Build close, powerful emotional bonds with your children

Fatherhood is a gift. It’s time to enjoy and discover all that it has to offer with Best Things Fathers Do.

If you enjoyed parenting guides like Be Prepared: Be Prepared; Strong Fathers, Strong Daughters; or New Dad's Playbook, then you’ll love Best Things Fathers Do.

The ultimate baby shower gift, sure to become a keepsake

What's in a word? If the word is a wish, a powerful plenty times a hundred. Mina Parker has chosen one hundred words any new parents might wish for their baby and paired them with inspirational quotes, silly sayings, and little poems. Here are just a few examples:

Take achievementSleeping through the nighta fine achievement for baby and mom.
• Or beauty: "The most effective kind of education is that a child should play amongst lovely things." Plato
• Or generosity: "Thousands of candles can be lit from a single candle, and the life of the candle will not be shortened. Happiness never decreases by being shared." Buddha
• Or freedom: Barefoot in spring grass. Running without your diaper. Living the good life.

Find these plus ninetysix more whimsical, inspiring, and loving messages for baby, all rendered in vibrant pastelswith polka dots, hearts, stars, rabbits, teddy bears, and more.

The best time is story time.

Reading to kids from birth to age five has bundles of benefits: It helps them develop language skills, encourages empathy and emotional development, fires up their imagination, helps them focus, and better prepares them for school, especially reading and writing. But most important, story time is quality time between your child and you.

Born to Read is a keepsake memory book of your story time together and a guide to raising a reader, all rolled into one. By reading just one book a day for the first five years of your child’s life, they can log almost two thousand books before kindergarten. Use the beautiful journal pages within to keep a list of the books you and your child read together from birth to age five. It’s a perfect way to recall particular favorites, record memories, and chronicle your child’s reading journey—and your child will look back proudly at all the books they’ve logged as they start school.

Interspersed throughout the journal pages are age-appropriate tips for raising a reader and book lists to help you expand you and your child’s reading horizons or dive deeper into particular interest areas. Special features encourage you to think about your unique reader. For example, “My Kid in Books” allows you to record specific reading milestones and passions and, as your child grows, interview them about the books they love. And in “Reading Recs” you can note recommendations from family and friends.

The perfect baby shower gift for expecting parents or an excellent birthday present for growing readers, Born to Read: My First Five Years in Books helps document the story of how your child grew from baby to bookworm, as well as the memories you created along the way.

While the topic of gay marriage and families continues to be popular in the media, few scholarly works focus on gay men with children. Based on ten years of fieldwork among gay families living in the rural, suburban, and urban area of the eastern United States, Gay Fathers, Their Children, and the Making of Kinship presents a beautifully written and meticulously argued ethnography of gay men and the families they have formed.

In a culture that places a premium on biology as the founding event of paternity, Aaron Goodfellow poses the question: Can the signing of legal contracts and the public performances of care replace biological birth as the singular event marking the creation of fathers? Beginning with a comprehensive review of the relevant literature in this field, four chapters—each presenting a particular picture of paternity—explore a range of issues, such as interracial adoption, surrogacy, the importance of physical resemblance in familial relationships, single parenthood, delinquency, and the ways in which the state may come to define the norms of health. The author deftly illustrates how fatherhood for gay men draws on established biological, theological, and legal images of the family often thought oppressive to the emergence of queer forms of social life.

Chosen with care and described with great sensitivity, each carefully researched case examines gay fatherhood through life narratives. Painstakingly theorized, Gay Fathers, Their Children, and the Making of Kinship contends that gay families are one of the most important areas to which social scientists might turn in order to understand how law, popular culture, and biology are simultaneously made manifest and interrogated in everyday life. By focusing specifically on gay fathers, Goodfellow produces an anthropological account of how paternity, sexuality, and masculinity are leveraged in relations of care between gay fathers and their children.

While the topic of gay marriage and families continues to be popular in the media, few scholarly works focus on gay men with children. Based on ten years of fieldwork among gay families living in the rural, suburban, and urban area of the eastern United States, Gay Fathers, Their Children, and the Making of Kinship presents a beautifully written and meticulously argued ethnography of gay men and the families they have formed.

In a culture that places a premium on biology as the founding event of paternity, Aaron Goodfellow poses the question: Can the signing of legal contracts and the public performances of care replace biological birth as the singular event marking the creation of fathers? Beginning with a comprehensive review of the relevant literature in this field, four chapters—each presenting a particular picture of paternity—explore a range of issues, such as interracial adoption, surrogacy, the importance of physical resemblance in familial relationships, single parenthood, delinquency, and the ways in which the state may come to define the norms of health. The author deftly illustrates how fatherhood for gay men draws on established biological, theological, and legal images of the family often thought oppressive to the emergence of queer forms of social life.

Chosen with care and described with great sensitivity, each carefully researched case examines gay fatherhood through life narratives. Painstakingly theorized, Gay Fathers, Their Children, and the Making of Kinship contends that gay families are one of the most important areas to which social scientists might turn in order to understand how law, popular culture, and biology are simultaneously made manifest and interrogated in everyday life. By focusing specifically on gay fathers, Goodfellow produces an anthropological account of how paternity, sexuality, and masculinity are leveraged in relations of care between gay fathers and their children.

Naomi Eisenstadt and Carey Oppenheim explore the radical changes in public attitudes and public policy concerning parents and parenting. Drawing on research and their extensive experience of working at senior levels of government, the authors challenge expectations about what parenting policy on its own can deliver.

They argue convincingly that a more joined-up approach is needed to improve outcomes for children: both reducing child poverty and improving parental capacity by providing better support systems. This is vital reading for policymakers at central and local government level as well as those campaigning for the rights of children.

The Parent Track provides an in-depth understanding of parenting in academia, from diverse perspectives—gender, age, race/ethnicity, marital status, sexual orientation—and at different phases of a parent’s academic career. This collection not only arrives at a comprehensive understanding of parenthood and academia; it reveals the shifting ideologies surrounding the challenges of negotiating work and family balance in this context. 
Earlier research on parenting has documented the ways in which women and men experience, and subsequently negotiate, their roles as parents in the context of the workplace and the home. Particular attention has been paid to the negotiation of familial and childcare responsibilities, the division of labour, the availability of family-friendly policies, social constructions of motherhood and fatherhood, power relations, and gender roles and inequality. Studies on the experience of parenthood within the context of academia, however, have lacked diversity and failed to provide qualitative accounts from scholars of all genders at varying points in their academic careers who have, or are planning to have, children. This book addresses that gap.

Rad Families: A Celebration honors the messy, the painful, the playful, the beautiful, the myriad ways we create families. This is not an anthology of experts, or how-to articles on perfect parenting; it often doesn’t even try to provide answers. Instead, the writers strive to be honest and vulnerable in sharing their stories and experiences, their failures and their regrets.

Gathering parents and writers from diverse communities, it explores the process of getting pregnant from trans birth to adoption, grapples with issues of racism and police brutality, probes raising feminists and feminist parenting. It plumbs the depths of empty nesting and letting go.

Some contributors are recognizable authors and activists but most are everyday parents working and loving and trying to build a better world one diaper change at a time. It’s a book that reminds us all that we are not alone, that community can help us get through the difficulties, can, in fact, make us better people. It’s a celebration, join us!

Contributors include Jonas Cannon, Ian MacKaye, Burke Stansbury, Danny Goot, Simon Knaphus, Artnoose, Welch Canavan, Daniel Muro LaMere, Jennifer Lewis, Zach Ellis, Alicia Dornadic, Jesse Palmer, Mindi J., Carla Bergman, Tasnim Nathoo, Rachel Galindo, Robert Liu-Trujillo, Dawn Caprice, Shawn Taylor, D.A. Begay, Philana Dollin, Airial Clark, Allison Wolfe, Roger Porter, cubbie rowland-storm, Annakai & Rob Geshlider, Jeremy Adam Smith, Frances Hardinge, Jonathan Shipley, Bronwyn Davies Glover, Amy Abugo Ongiri, Mike Araujo, Craig Elliott, Eleanor Wohlfeiler, Scott Hoshida, Plinio Hernandez, Madison Young, Nathan Torp, Sasha Vodnik, Jessie Susannah, Krista Lee Hanson, Carvell Wallace, Dani Burlison, Brian Whitman, scott winn, Kermit Playfoot, Chris Crass, and Zora Moniz.

No one is immune to the byproducts of compulsory schooling and standardized testing. And while reform may be a worthy cause for some, it is not enough for countless others still trying to navigate the tyranny of what schooling has always been. Raising Free People argues that we need to build and work within systems truly designed for any human to learn, grow, socialize, and thrive, regardless of age, ability, background, or access to money.

Families and conscious organizations across the world are healing generations of school wounds by pivoting into self-directed, intentional community-building, and Raising Free People shows you exactly how unschooling can help facilitate this process.

Individual experiences influence our approach to parenting and education, so we need more than the rules, tools, and “bad adult” guilt trips found in so many parenting and education books. We need to reach behind our behaviors to seek and find our triggers; to examine and interrupt the ways that social issues such as colonization still wreak havoc on our ability to trust ourselves, let alone children. Raising Free People explores examples of the transition from school or homeschooling to unschooling, how single parents and people facing financial challenges unschool successfully, and the ways unschooling allows us to address generational trauma and unlearn the habits we mindlessly pass on to children.

In these detailed and unabashed stories and insights, Richards examines the ways that her relationships to blackness, decolonization, and healing work all combine to form relationships and enable community-healing strategies rooted in an unschooling practice. This is how millions of families center human connection, practice clear and honest communication, and raise children who do not grow up to feel that they narrowly survived their childhoods.

No one is immune to the byproducts of compulsory schooling and standardized testing. And while reform may be a worthy cause for some, it is not enough for countless others still trying to navigate the tyranny of what schooling has always been. Raising Free People argues that we need to build and work within systems truly designed for any human to learn, grow, socialize, and thrive, regardless of age, ability, background, or access to money.

Families and conscious organizations across the world are healing generations of school wounds by pivoting into self-directed, intentional community-building, and Raising Free People shows you exactly how unschooling can help facilitate this process.

Individual experiences influence our approach to parenting and education, so we need more than the rules, tools, and “bad adult” guilt trips found in so many parenting and education books. We need to reach behind our behaviors to seek and find our triggers; to examine and interrupt the ways that social issues such as colonization still wreak havoc on our ability to trust ourselves, let alone children. Raising Free People explores examples of the transition from school or homeschooling to unschooling, how single parents and people facing financial challenges unschool successfully, and the ways unschooling allows us to address generational trauma and unlearn the habits we mindlessly pass on to children.

In these detailed and unabashed stories and insights, Richards examines the ways that her relationships to blackness, decolonization, and healing work all combine to form relationships and enable community-healing strategies rooted in an unschooling practice. This is how millions of families center human connection, practice clear and honest communication, and raise children who do not grow up to feel that they narrowly survived their childhoods.

In lives where there is a new diagnosis or drama every day, the stories in this collection provide parents of “special needs” kids with a welcome chuckle, a rock to stand on, and a moment of reality held far enough from the heart to see clearly. Featuring works by “alternative” parents who have attempted to move away from mainstream thought—or remove its influence altogether—this anthology, taken as a whole, carefully considers the implications of parenting while raising children with disabilities.

From professional writers to novice storytellers including Robert Rummel-Hudson, Ayun Halliday, and Kerry Cohen, this assortment of authentic, shared experiences from parents at the fringe of the fringes is a partial antidote to the stories that misrepresent, ridicule, and objectify disabled kids and their parents.

China Martens started her pioneering mamazine The Future Generation in 1990. She was a young anarchist punk rock mother who didn’t feel that the mamas in her community had enough support, so she began publishing articles on radical parenting in an age before the internet.

The anthology of her zine, The Future Generation: The Zine-Book for Subculture Parents, Kids, Friends & Others, was first printed in 2007 and has been out of print for many years. Covering sixteen years, it uses individual issues as chapters, focusing on personal writing, and retaining the character of a zine that changed over the years—from her daughter’s birth to teenagehood and beyond.

We are proud to present a tenth-anniversary edition including a new afterword by China’s grown daughter, Clover. The Future Generation remains a timeless resource for parents, caregivers, and those who care about them. Though first published in the 1990s, many of the essays and observations—about parenting, children, and surviving in a hostile political climate—still ring true today. The next four years are going to be especially demanding for those trying to balance parenting, politics, and survival. We’re going to need the voices and experiences in The Future Generation now more than ever.

In this hilarious, heartfelt book, Brian Leaf tackles parenting with a unique blend of research and humor.

Explored is Attachment Parenting, as well as Playful, Unconditional, Simplicity, and good old Dr. Spock parenting. He tries cloth diapers, no diapers, co-sleeping, and no sleeping. Join him on his rollicking journey in this one-of-a-kind parenting guide.

Separated and trying to navigate the co-parenting world?

Separation often brings with it trauma, stressors, and obstacles that make it difficult to see a way forward. By working together as collaborative co-parents, separating couples can protect their children from conflict and the impact of divorce and separation.

Children do best in environments where there is stability. Separation is a when time separating parents need to put their children’s well-being ahead of their own and make decisions that help them raise their children in the healthiest and happiest way possible.

Although the family unit is no longer the same, it’s still a family. Acknowledging this and putting their children’s needs ahead of anger and conflict will help separated couples to co-parent in a more effective way.

Separated parents can coexist if they have respectful boundaries and the right rules and tools in place. Learning to effectively communicate and have positive dialogue is often the first step. By implementing a set of agreed rules around their co-parenting relationship, they can give their children the gift of safety, security, and stability following separation.

In The Collaborative Co-Parent, Gabriella Pomare, a separation and parenting expert, helps separating parents on their journey to redefining the family unit and co-existing peacefully with their former partner.

Discover what true femininity is in The Feminine Effect.

This is a message for all women: Conditioned by parental viewpoints and societal rules, women have long twisted themselves into unrecognizable identities to adhere to these demands—striving after power as defined by men, only to find themselves exhausted and unhappy. What if this centuries-long attempt to excel in a world with masculine values took women in the wrong direction? What if they no longer know what it means to be a woman? What, indeed, is the true nature of a woman?

Chelsea O’Brien’s mission is to take women back to their authenticity—to who they really are—and she does this by asking women to feel and see her life as she did: a life that has taken her from the extremes of poverty and wealth, of great fear and power, of divorce and death, and finally into laughter and joy and unconditional love. She represents all the best and worst parts of being a woman, all the while confirming those inklings women have to follow their hearts that, up to now, they haven’t dared to honor.

Guided by the mystical teachings of her mentor, Abdy Electriciteh, Chelsea uses vulnerable lessons around male and female relationships to redefine the true nature of a woman. 

Let’s face it—modern life is stressful. With constant demands on your time and attention, it’s not surprising that you’ve neglected what used to be your North Star: your relationship. You might feel disconnected from each other and stuck in a cycle of go-nowhere arguments. Perhaps you miss the spark that made you excited to see one another at the end of the day. You might long for the time when the two of you were in sync on most things and could laugh at misunderstandings and miscommunications.

Fire It Up is the solution to relationships that are struggling, feeling stale, or just in need of a little extra care. Experienced couples therapist Carolyn Sharp outlines a clear four-step process to bring back the love, connection, and vitality to any marriage, with humor and authenticity. She’ll help you understand how relationships work—and why your partner does that annoying thing. Get to the heart of the problem and empower yourself with the knowledge to make lasting change in your relationship.

The authors share lessons they learned about conflict, whether a small fight, a real battle, or even a period of war, to help couples reset into a different state of love by using a dynamic five-step model to rebuild and maintain a foundation of vulnerability, empathy, and intimacy.

Conflict and turmoil--the intimacy of everyday life--is the foundation great relationships are built on. Based on decades of helping couples address conflict and achieve long-lasting love, the authors created a simple five-step process for reconciling differences, taking couples in crisis from rupture to repair.

Their tool—the PACER model (Pause, Accountability, Collaboration, Experiment, and Review)—takes into account cultural differences, past hurts, and current crises. It is an opportunity for not just healing but for growth. Packed with interactive exercises that make real change possible, Love, Crash, Rebuild offers readers in any type of romantic partnership—straight, gay, nonbinary, interracial, etc.—a single toolbox that can help bring a new understanding of what a successful relationship should look like.

This groundbreaking new book includes dozens of client anecdotes and stories of the authors’ relationship as a mixed-race couple, who are also couples’ therapists, that highlight how a simple process can address and resolve all ruptures, large or small. Couples will learn how to take a deeper look at what is lying underneath their issues and find a healthier outlook on their relationship.

Learning Love teaches people easy-to-follow tools to build healthy, happy, thriving relationships in every area of life.

Dr. Mark A. Hicks applies his decades of research and personal experience in relationships to teaching a realistic understanding of love. Even those who have come from a dysfunctional family, been through a divorce, or struggled in past relationships can use his practical, real-life method to build the relationships they want, need, and deserve. 

Love is a learned skill set. Through understanding the five components of love, anyone can build healthy relationships that last. Healthy marriages, thriving families, deep friendships, and connected coworkers are all possible by learning and practicing these five components. 

Love doesn’t have to be a mystery. Relationships don’t have to be a struggle. Learn the five components of love and build relationships that last with Learning Love.

Your Essential Guidebook for a Thriving Marriage

Communication, support, affection, and encouragement are among the most important life skills that you need for marital success. Yet, they are rarely taught in a classroom. In our culture, these skills too often default to our upbringing coupled with hope the marriage will be loving, adventurous, and fulfilling. The reality is modern marriages encounter complex obstacles requiring more teamwork than ever before. Dr. Anne Brennan Malec helps you look past the planning and excitement of the nuptials to prepare you and your spouse for a happy, life-long relationship.

You will learn proven ways to:
· Break unuseful day-to-day habits and keep your relationship fresh and exciting
· Prioritize your relationship to provide time for yourselves as a couple, and as parents
· Openly discuss your financial goals and arrangements
· Create a conversational safety zone to discuss difficult issues and maintain a satisfying intimate relationship
· Face issues head on, rather than allow resentment to come between you
· Forgive and to listen to what your partner needs from you to achieve forgiveness

Marriage in Modern Life offers real hope by giving you the practical and actionable tools to help before problems arise. If your marriage is already in conflict, applying these principles can help you regain a balanced, fulfilling relationship.

WIVES: Give this book to your husband if you’re considering leaving him—or already did.
Your marriage is spinning out of control . . . you don’t know why your partner is mad, why you’re unhappy, or how to get back to that person they first fell in love with. How do you stop the damage and implement the healing steps necessary to recover your intimate relationship?
In A S.E.A.L. to Heal Your Marriage, decorated Navy SEAL Darek Laviolette addresses what you alone can do to heal your marriage, regardless of how broken it is. Darek’s heartfelt apology of the highest proportions to his ex-wife and children will expose the valuable information that will help you: ¯ Clearly identify and understand the hidden reasons you fight with the person you intend to love, honor, and cherish. ¯ Understand what both you and your spouse want in order to feel cared about. ¯ Create a plan to turn your marriage around—one your spouse does not need to be aware of or even participate in.
Close the wound—take action to heal your marriage.

Married Love or Love in Marriage (1918) is a book on reproductive health by Marie Stopes. Banned in the US and scorned by the British establishment, Married Love or Love in Marriage was controversial for its openness regarding sex and the use of contraceptives between husbands and wives. While relatively conservative by today’s standards, the pioneering work was an essential, bestselling book that guided generations of men and woman on how to nurture happy, healthy sexual relationships without increasing the stresses of motherhood and everyday life. "More than ever to-day are happy homes needed. It is my hope that this book may serve the State by adding to their number. Its object is to increase the joys of marriage, and to show how much sorrow may be avoided." Working with this goal in mind, Marie Stopes set out to rewrite the rulebook on sexual relationships between married men and women. Published the same year that she opened the first birth control clinic in the United Kingdom, Married Love or Love in Marriage pursued the thesis that desire and happiness could be nurtured within the home between a husband and wife by educating men and women on the use of contraceptives. An immediate bestseller, Stopes’ work marked a seismic shift in discourse on women’s reproductive health, paving the way for many of the reforms and attitudes some take for granted today. Risking her reputation and leaving behind a successful career in paleobotany, Stopes dedicated herself to the rights of women in England and around the world, for whom the burden of motherhood often proved not only limiting, but detrimental to their physical and mental health. This edition of Marie Stopes’ Married Love or Love in Marriage is a classic of British scientific literature reimagined for modern readers.

Since our inception in 2020, Mint Editions has kept sustainability and innovation at the forefront of our mission. Each and every Mint Edition title gets a fresh, professionally typeset manuscript and a dazzling new cover, all while maintaining the integrity of the original book.

With thousands of titles in our collection, we aim to spotlight diverse public domain works to help them find modern audiences. Mint Editions celebrates a breadth of literary works, curated from both canonical and overlooked classics from writers around the globe.

The Physiology of Marriage (1829) is a book length essay by French writer Honoré de Balzac. Written from the point of view of an author who has overheard scandalous conversations between two women, The Physiology of Marriage is both a critique of the institution of marriage and a satirical attempt to scientifically explain the cause and frequency of marital infidelity. The essay was an early success for Balzac, gaining him a reputation as a talented writer and creative critic of contemporary French society.

The essay consists of a series of meditations that approach marriage through a variety of scientific, philosophical, and anecdotal methods. Arguing that marriage is an institution that runs counter to human nature, the author uses questionable mathematics to calculate the number of married women in France who are likely to seek out affairs in order to feel a passion denied to them. Describing the likely signs of marital infidelity—standoffishness, a change in dress, lack of romance—he claims that French men have grown far too accepting of their wives’ affairs. Rather than reject the institution altogether—he sees it as integral to upholding the social order—the author suggests that young women be allowed a certain amount of freedom to explore their romantic inclinations and to prepare themselves for the banality of married life. The Physiology of Marriage finds satire in treating seriously and scientifically the often hidden and always complex matters of the heart, as well as through its suggestion that women, not men, are to blame for the proliferation of infidelity in France.

This edition of Honoré de Balzac’s The Physiology of Marriage is a classic of French literature reimagined for modern readers.

Since our inception in 2020, Mint Editions has kept sustainability and innovation at the forefront of our mission. Each and every Mint Edition title gets a fresh, professionally typeset manuscript and a dazzling new cover, all while maintaining the integrity of the original book.

With thousands of titles in our collection, we aim to spotlight diverse public domain works to help them find modern audiences. Mint Editions celebrates a breadth of literary works, curated from both canonical and overlooked classics from writers around the globe.

Cómo pasar del «yo» al «nosotros» en un mundo cada vez más individualista y así mantener relaciones de pareja fuertes y estables.

«Este libro es una hoja de ruta para todos los que buscamos la verdadera intimidad», Gwyneth Paltrow

«Una guía revolucionaria para una pareja próspera y feliz», Lori Gottlieb

«Uno de los mejores libros del año», The Wall Street Journal

No hay nada más difícil e importante que descubrir cómo amar a tu pareja en todo su desorden. En un momento en que el individualismo tóxico está desgarrando nuestra sociedad a todos los niveles, Terrence Real, renombrado terapeuta familiar y autor de bestsellers, ve en su consulta cómo esta tendencia envenena las relaciones, hasta el punto de situar a las parejas al borde del precipicio. La buena noticia es: las relaciones más cálidas, cercanas y apasionadas son posibles si contamos con las herramientas adecuadas.

En su nuevo y transformador libro, Nosotros, Real observa brillantemente cómo nuestra cultura basada en la competición se infiltra en las familias con resultados devastadores: peleas repetitivas que no llevan a ninguna parte, o una relación distante en la que los miembros de la pareja acaban viviendo «solos pero juntos». Con hábil perspicacia, humor y encanto, Real nos guía para transformar nuestra relación en una que esté basada en la compasión, la colaboración y la cercanía.

Nosotros es una guía revolucionaria con innovadoras habilidades respaldadas por la ciencia que nos permitirán superar esas reacciones automáticas e instintivas para acceder a nuestro yo más sabio y colaborativo. Con el estilo de un gran novelista, Real comparte las historias de parejas cuyas relaciones se han salvado gracias a estas habilidades y consigue desmontar a esta cultura que el individualismo por encima de todo. Si sientes que tu pareja y tú se dividen entre «tú» y «yo», este libro os ayudará a ver el camino de vuelta al «nosotros». Con «nosotros» puede comenzar tu verdadera relación.

ENGLISH DESCRIPTION

How to move from the "I" to the "we" in an increasingly individualistic world and thus maintain strong and stable relationships.

"This book is a roadmap for all of us seeking true intimacy", Gwyneth Paltrow

"A Revolutionary Guide to a Prosperous and Happy Couple", Lori Gottlieb

"One of the best books of the year", The Wall Street Journal

There's nothing more difficult and important than figuring out how to love your partner in all their clutter. At a time when toxic individualism is tearing apart our society at every level, Terrence Real, renowned family therapist and bestselling author, sees in his practice how this trend poisons relationships, to the point of placing couples on the edge of the precipice. The good news is: warmer, closer, and more passionate relationships are possible if we have the right tools.

In his transformative new book, Us, Real brilliantly observes how our competition-based culture infiltrates families with devastating results: repetitive fights that lead nowhere, or a distant relationship in which partners end up living "alone but together." With skillful insight, humor, and charm, Real guides us to transform our relationship into one that is based on compassion, collaboration, and closeness.

Us is a revolutionary guide with innovative science-backed skills that will allow us to overcome those automatic, instinctive reactions to access our wisest, most collaborative selves. With the style of a great novelist, Real shares the stories of couples whose relationships have been saved thanks to these skills and manages to dismantle this culture that individualism above all else.

If you feel that you and your partner are divided between "you" and "me," this book will help you see your way back to the "us." With "us" your true relationship can begin.

A vital anthology exploring the intersections between caregiving and abolition

Abolition has never been a proposal to simply tear things down. As Alexis Pauline Gumbs asks, “What if abolition is something that grows?” As we struggle to build a liberatory, caring, loving, abundant future, we have much to learn from the work of birthing, raising, caring for, and loving future generations.

In We Grow the World Together, abolitionists and organizers Maya Schenwar and Kim Wilson bring together a remarkable collection of voices revealing the complex tapestry of ways people are living abolition in their daily lives through parenting and caregiving. Ranging from personal narratives to policy-focused analysis to activist chronicles, these writers highlight how abolition is essential to any kind of parenting justice.

Contributors include:
Beth Richie
Harsha Walia
EJ, 6 years old
Dorothy Roberts
Ruth Wilson Gilmore
Dylan Rodríguez
Bill Ayers and Bernardine Dohrn
Shira Hassan
Victoria Law
Mariame Kaba
The PDX Childcare Collective
adrienne maree brown and Autumn Brown
and more

The second installment of Through a Therapist’s Eyes helps couples unlock the secrets to building a stronger, more vibrant marriage.

Written by Christopher A. Gazdik, LCSW, Through a Therapist's Eyes: Reunderstanding Your Marriage and Becoming Your Best as a Spouse delves into the universal concept of marriage, exploring its diverse beginnings, whether through arranged unions or serendipitous love stories. 

Addressing the common challenge of keeping the connection alive, a struggle many individuals face, this resource offers a distinctive approach by immersing individuals in the raw and insightful world of real-life therapy sessions.

Offering a front-row seat in a therapist's office, where genuine people endeavor to enhance their marriages or salvage them from distress, this thoughtful exploration delivers pragmatic, down-to-earth steps derived from these authentic therapy sessions. It serves as a guide, offering practical insights and actionable advice to empower people on their journey to becoming the best possible partners for their spouses.

Through a Therapist’s Eyes guides individuals in rekindling love and fortifying the connection within their relationships through firsthand glimpses into therapy sessions, providing them with tools to navigate the complexities of marriage and emerge as better, more connected spouses.

A vital anthology exploring the intersections between caregiving and abolition

Abolition has never been a proposal to simply tear things down. As Alexis Pauline Gumbs asks, “What if abolition is something that grows?” As we struggle to build a liberatory, caring, loving, abundant future, we have much to learn from the work of birthing, raising, caring for, and loving future generations.

In We Grow the World Together, abolitionists and organizers Maya Schenwar and Kim Wilson bring together a remarkable collection of voices revealing the complex tapestry of ways people are living abolition in their daily lives through parenting and caregiving. Ranging from personal narratives to policy-focused analysis to activist chronicles, these writers highlight how abolition is essential to any kind of parenting justice.

Contributors include:
Beth Richie
Harsha Walia
EJ, 6 years old
Dorothy Roberts
Ruth Wilson Gilmore
Dylan Rodríguez
Bill Ayers and Bernardine Dohrn
Shira Hassan
Victoria Law
Mariame Kaba
The PDX Childcare Collective
adrienne maree brown and Autumn Brown
and more

In making love, one is elevated beyond the carnal desires it satisfies. For the religious, it is Divine; for those who are not religiously inclined, it is still a spiritual experience, one of seamless solidarity, a unity of two as one that defies mere orgasmic stimulation. You don’t have to make love to have sex. Even strangers can be sexually attracted and have an orgasmic escapade. But in the act of making love, there is symbolic meaning that is felt through-and-through the sex act. Two in love are joined, in life, and the sexual expression of this unison is deeply felt in the sex act itself. This is sexual intimacy, the making of love, the likes of which is rarely, if ever, seen outside a loving relationship. There is no escape from the philosophical dimensions of such a loving relationship. It is as abstract as it is concrete in the ideals that ground it. There is a mystery about it, a kind of transcendent experience that defies translation into words. Making and being in love are thus joined at the hip. Loving relationships make the bed in which true lovers sleep.
Unfortunately, many relationships flounder or never get off the ground. Just having sex may ease the tension, but it then becomes a means, not truly an end-in-itself. The moment the sex act ends, the couple may retreat and fall into discord. It is an oasis in a barren desert that provides temporary relief, a titillating, temporary escape from reality. This book can help you to overcome the obstacles, the unlovable habits that encumber your relationship, both inside and outside the bedroom. It can help to create the harmonic balance between your sex life and other aspects of your personal and interpersonal relationships, which are preludes to making and being in love.
To accomplish this, it applies a five-step method based on Logic-Based Therapy & Consultation (LBTC), a popular form of evidence-based, philosophical counseling modality. First, it introduces you to six types of unlovable ways of thinking and acting and helps you to identify the ones that may be sabotaging your own relationship. Second, it shows you how to counter these self-defeating habits with certain lovable goals (“virtues of love”). Third, it helps you to identify and embrace a personal “love philosophy” that empowers you to reach for your lovable goals. Fourth, it provides core philosophical ideas that are key to any successful quest for romantic love. Fifth, it helps you construct a behavioral plan that applies your philosophies to making constructive changes in your relationship. The latter may require making changes both inside and outside your relationship. Thus, this book also shows you how the problems you are having in one area of your life (at work, in your social life, etc.) can affect the quality of your relationship, inside and outside the bedroom, and it offers guidance, including self-improvement exercises, to overcome these impediments and attain enduring love and sexual intimacy.

In making love, one is elevated beyond the carnal desires it satisfies. For the religious, it is Divine; for those who are not religiously inclined, it is still a spiritual experience, one of seamless solidarity, a unity of two as one that defies mere orgasmic stimulation. You don’t have to make love to have sex. Even strangers can be sexually attracted and have an orgasmic escapade. But in the act of making love, there is symbolic meaning that is felt through-and-through the sex act. Two in love are joined, in life, and the sexual expression of this unison is deeply felt in the sex act itself. This is sexual intimacy, the making of love, the likes of which is rarely, if ever, seen outside a loving relationship. There is no escape from the philosophical dimensions of such a loving relationship. It is as abstract as it is concrete in the ideals that ground it. There is a mystery about it, a kind of transcendent experience that defies translation into words. Making and being in love are thus joined at the hip. Loving relationships make the bed in which true lovers sleep.
Unfortunately, many relationships flounder or never get off the ground. Just having sex may ease the tension, but it then becomes a means, not truly an end-in-itself. The moment the sex act ends, the couple may retreat and fall into discord. It is an oasis in a barren desert that provides temporary relief, a titillating, temporary escape from reality. This book can help you to overcome the obstacles, the unlovable habits that encumber your relationship, both inside and outside the bedroom. It can help to create the harmonic balance between your sex life and other aspects of your personal and interpersonal relationships, which are preludes to making and being in love.
To accomplish this, it applies a five-step method based on Logic-Based Therapy & Consultation (LBTC), a popular form of evidence-based, philosophical counseling modality. First, it introduces you to six types of unlovable ways of thinking and acting and helps you to identify the ones that may be sabotaging your own relationship. Second, it shows you how to counter these self-defeating habits with certain lovable goals (“virtues of love”). Third, it helps you to identify and embrace a personal “love philosophy” that empowers you to reach for your lovable goals. Fourth, it provides core philosophical ideas that are key to any successful quest for romantic love. Fifth, it helps you construct a behavioral plan that applies your philosophies to making constructive changes in your relationship. The latter may require making changes both inside and outside your relationship. Thus, this book also shows you how the problems you are having in one area of your life (at work, in your social life, etc.) can affect the quality of your relationship, inside and outside the bedroom, and it offers guidance, including self-improvement exercises, to overcome these impediments and attain enduring love and sexual intimacy.

Married Ever After is a guide through the marriage process based on 20 timeless Qur'anic principles, insightful Prophetic examples and contemporary research on maintaining successful relationships. We know all relationships involve struggle, and challenges are an inevitable part of a believer's life. Married Ever After teaches us how to pick the struggles that are worthy, rewarding and lead to the greatest pleasure.  

Whether you are preparing for marriage, already in a marriage or contemplating ending one, Married Ever After is your companion, reminder and compass back to Divine pleasure at every stage.  

Rooted in Islamic principles, we learn how our spiritual health impacts the wellbeing of our human relationships. The goal of Married Ever After is more important than ever. Learn how to revive the contentment at home, because successful thriving families are at the heart of a successful thriving Ummah.  

In this important and transformative guide, three experienced practitioners identify the widespread dysfunctional dynamic they call "irrelationship," a psychological defense system two people create together to protect themselves from the fear and anxiety of real intimacy in a relationship.

Drawing on their wide clinical and life experience, the authors look at the behavioral "song-and-dance" routines repeatedly performed by couples in irrelationships. Readers will find a valuable framework for understanding their challenges with action-oriented tools to help them navigate their way to fulfilling relationships.

Mark B. Borg, Jr., PhD, is a community psychologist and psychoanalyst, and a supervisor of psychotherapy at the William Alanson White Institute.

Grant H. Brenner, MD, is a board-certified psychiatrist in private practice, specializing in treating mood and anxiety disorders and the complex problems that may arise in adulthood from childhood trauma and loss.

Daniel Berry, RN, MHA, has practiced as a Registered Nurse in New York City since 1987 and has worked for almost two decades in community-based programs.

We all want our relationships to be healthy—but who knows how to make that happen? Husband and wife authors Steve and Angie McCord, a couple with more than twenty years in recovery each, share with you the sound advice and spiritual exercises that have helped their own relationship grow and thrive. 

In A Spiritual Path to a Healthy Relationship you will learn effective tools and solutions for achieving the relationship you desire, including:

• Envisioning the qualities you want in a mate and identifying "must haves" and "deal breakers"
  
• Transitioning from self-reliance to partnership
• Overcoming relationship fears and getting past intimacy roadblocks
• Nurturing positive communication, gratitude, and spiritual connection
• Applying prayer and meditation for a more peaceful relationship

Steve McCord is a licensed marriage and family therapist who has provided counseling to individuals, couples, and families since 1991. Angie McCord is a certified life coach specializing in personal and professional relationships. They bring their avid quest for spiritual growth to their professional lives and have been actively involved in the recovery community for more than twenty and thirsty years, respectively. As leaders of couples retreats, they find great joy in mentoring others. Steve and Angie were married on March 30, 2003. 

What happens when your partner, your primary person, in an instant, becomes a source of danger and pain?

The Betrayal Bind introduces new language, concepts, and imagery to explore the crucial relational dilemma that betrayed partners face when their significant other is unsafe to connect to, yet connection is the key to healing. 

Discovering a partner’s sexual betrayal spins your world out of control. In a split second, your sense of safety is shattered, your trust is gone, and everything you thought you could count on is in question. 

Betrayed partners, whether dealing with an isolated infidelity or a pattern of sexual compulsivity, need immediate support to navigate the new terrain of their relationship. They need a clear articulation of betrayal trauma, a thorough education about their normal attachment-based reactions, and a proven path to healing. 

By focusing on how a partner’s attachment system functions in the wake of sexual betrayal, The Betrayal Bind offers a new, game-changing exploration into an age-old problem and connects the dots from research to the lived experience of betrayed partners.

A vital guide to overcome the barriers to achieving intimacy and meaningful connection

People in resilient relationships are co-owners, experience reciprocity, and are better prepared to meet challenges authentically and effectively. In this sequel to the best-selling Irrelationship, the authors use examples from their clinical practice to review the concept of irrelationship and expand the DREAM Sequence, a tool used by affected couples to address perennial relationship issues.

By mutually and mindfully viewing the relationship as a third entity, separate from each individual, couples will learn how to live in and with the ambiguity of empathy, intimacy, vulnerability, and emotional investment and view relationship sanity as a deliberate and joyful undertaking to maintain and deepen connection.

So many couples are guilty of the same dream: we are supposed to walk into love knowing how to do it—how to build and maintain a relationship. 

Creating and maintaining a great marriage, relationship, or partnership is hard work. A second truth is that nobody teaches you how to do it.

Conflict Resolution breaks down a five-step model for readers in any type of romantic partnership to help couples find a new understanding of what a successful relationship can look like.

A book to offer clarity and guidance when facing the difficult decision of whether your relationship has a future.

Whether we should stay in or leave a relationship is one of the most consequential and painful decisions we are ever likely to confront.

What makes the issue so hard is that there are no fixed rules for judgement. How can we tell whether a relationship is 'good enough' or plain wrong? How do we draw the line between justified longing and naivety? Does someone 'better' actually exist? Should the feelings of children be counted (and what might they be in the long term)? Could one's partner change, perhaps with therapy, or should one assume that who they are now is who they will always be?

All these questions typically haunt our minds as we weigh up whether to stay or go. With no axe to grind or ideology to promote, Stay or Leave walks us gently through our options, opening our minds to perspectives we might not have considered.

This book aims to take the reader towards a time, presently hard to imagine, when the choice will no longer feel so agonizing. Using its lessons, we can understand ourselves deeply, consider our options, minimize our regrets and find the way ahead.

• REFRESHINGLY PRAGMATIC relationship advice for couples of all kinds.
• ROMANTIC REALISM a common sense way to look at your relationship.
• RELATIONSHIP TOOLKIT for working through your fears and anxieties.
• THERAPIST-RESEARCHED draws from The School of Life’s Therapy department and their experience providing couples therapy.

The School of Life’s guide to the rest of a life together

Our society devotes huge attention to the start of a marriage – and the wedding ceremony —but the real challenge lies beyond the wedding, with the long years ahead, and here we are often left alone.

This box is The School of Life’s guide to the rest of a life together, containing twenty beautiful cards which lay out the central ideas on how to make a relationship work over the decades beyond the wedding day. It is filled with artful suggestions on coping with what even the most loving couple will face as they build a life together. This set of cards is both a celebration of marriage and a rich source of insights into the skills it demands.

"A moving look at the ties that bind."— Publisher's Weekly

An intimate look at the complexities of family life told through evocative photography and authentic interviews.

Families are a mystery. Is everyone’s as complicated as ours? Is there such a thing as a "normal" one? We generally only get to see the polished exteriors and are left to imagine what might be going on behind closed doors. Here is a book that takes us on a tour around the reality of families. It provides a rare, privileged glimpse into private realms, allowing us a new, profound understanding of ourselves and others. 

Comprised of 60 interviews and portraits captured by five supremely talented photographers – Mark Hobbs, Kate Peters, Marjolaine Ryley, Michelle Sank and Naomi Williams – the book introduces us to an extraordinary array of participants: new parents, stepchildren, siblings, the wealthy and the marginalized, the old and the young.

In this book, photographs intertwine with the the subject's story, reminding us of Humans of New York - a photographic project by Brandon Stanton which portraits daily glimpses into the lives of strangers on the streets of New York City.

What surfaces is the astounding diversity of family life – and the number of commonalities too. Above all, we recognize the fundamental role that family plays in making us who we are.This is a book for anyone who has ever wondered about their family or fantasized about being part of someone else’s – in short, this is a book for us all.

A bold rethinking of the wedding ceremony - and what comes before and after - designed to prepare us for modern marriage.

Many couples today feel uncomfortable with the rituals traditionally associated with getting married. The old ceremonies can feel too overtly religious and out of step with the complexities of contemporary relationships. In response to this dilemma, The School of Life has rethought the ideal wedding day and redesigned the entire process from scratch.

The book begins by proposing new methods of psychological preparation, providing practical advice on how to prepare not only for the day of the wedding, but for the long marriage that follows. Also included is a practical and thoughtfully redesigned wedding ceremony, covering everything from picking a venue to writing vows and selecting readings.

With their trademark wisdom and warmth, The School of Life presents a bold rethinking of one of humankind's most important and popular rituals.

• AN OUTLINE FOR A NEW KIND OF WEDDING CEREMONY: based on psychological theory rather than religious traditions.
  
• INCLUDES PRACTICAL INSTRUCTION: for marriage preparation, as well as advice for married life.
• GENDER INCLUSIVE: and non-heteronormative.
• PART OF THE NEW PAPERBACK SERIES 'LESSONS FOR LIFE'

• PRACTICAL ADVICE ON AFFAIRS: and on dealing with the aftermath of an affair.
• WHY DO AFFAIRS HAPPEN?: historical and psychological framework to help us understand affairs-both the lead up, and the aftermath.
• A FRESH TAKE ON INFIDELITY: and how it impacts our lives.
• PART OF THE SCHOOL OF LIFE'S LOVE SERIES: focusing on the joys and sorrows of relationships.

A book to offer clarity and guidance when facing the difficult decision of whether your relationship has a future

Should you stay or leave?

Whether we should stay in or leave a relationship is one of the most consequential and painful decisions we are ever likely to confront.

What makes the issue so hard is that there are no fixed rules for judgment. How can we tell whether a relationship is “good enough” or just not the right fit? How do we draw the line between longing and naivety? Is sex vital or can a relationship survive without it? Does someone “better” actually exist? How much should the feelings of children be considered (and what might they be in the long term)? Could one’s partner change, perhaps with therapy, or should one assume that who they are now is who they will always be?

All these questions typically haunt us as we weigh whether to stay or go. With no ax to grind, or ideology to promote, this book takes the reader (gently) through their options and opens their mind to perspectives they might not have considered. The goal is to help clarify what the reader wants—truly wants—deep down, so that the answer that emerges will be properly attuned to their unique circumstances and often very private aspirations. Here is a tool that carries the promise of the future we deserve.

This book aims to take the reader towards a time, perhaps presently hard to imagine, when the choice of whether to stay or go will no longer feel so agonizing. This book helps us understand ourselves deeply, helps us consider our options, minimize our regrets—and find the way ahead.

In the context of dramatically changing contemporary patterns of mate selection in China, Mate Selection in China focuses upon both the causes and consequences the societal changes which have resulted in a considerable shift in the ways in which young adults go about finding a spouse.

Tracking a period of change, from a long history of patriarchal families and arranged marriages, into an environment wherein individuals are relatively free to choose their intimate partners, Blair, Madison and Fang demonstrate and analyse how recent shifts in divorce, cohabitation, and pre-marital sex have altered young adults’ perceptions of marriage. Delving into demographic factors, such as the skewed sex ratio among young adults which have resulted in an overabundance of young males, cultural factors, such as increasingly individualistic forms of dating, and social and economic change which has resulted an increasingly materialistic middle-class, this book highlights that while traditional influence of parents in the selection of partners for their children has been overtaken, mate selection choices are not entirely made by the individuals themselves.

Providing a comprehensive examination of mate selection within an ever-changing context, this book is a fascinating read for scholars interested in the impact of culture of family and marriage.

Joshua W. White is a combat veteran who served during the 2003 invasion of Iraq. His story of what it’s like growing up in a fly-over state, riddled with poverty and drugs, and how the Marine Corps calling changed his life forever is one that everyone needs to hear.

Among the Greatest is a real life testimonial from the front lines of a major US conflict, and the struggle to readjust back into society as a young man.

For any person who is suffering with PTSD, or who lives with daily adversity, this is testament to weathering the toughest storms and putting yourself back to work. The hardest thing anyone could ever do is admit their mistakes, accept something is wrong, or recognize they NEED help. It’s important to share that even during the toughest of days, there are lessons to be learned within the chaos. It's those lessons that often lead to some of the greatest outcomes in life. As long as you are breathing, you are still in the fight, and you can make a difference. Joshua is a mentor that encourages readers to put a stake in the ground and make the decision to never give up!

"Your partner can and should meet all of your emotional needs." "All disagreements can and should be resolved." “Great relationships require little maintenance.”

Old models of marriage such as these are crumbling. Divorce rates remain high. Many people are skeptical and mistrustful about having real love in their lives. It's clear people need new models to help them connect with each other in meaningful, lasting ways. It's time to break free from old patterns of commitment and to forge new pathways for healthy, thriving, deeply loving relationships.

This hope-filled resource for developing soulful, mature love is aimed at committed couples who are looking to build, maintain and glorify the sacred in their relationship. It creates a context for couples to honor the gradual movement from physical “flight-fight-freeze” body-based survival to more heart-filled, communication-oriented love, to spiritual awakening and soul-purpose fulfillment. It encourages couples—as individuals and as partners—to let go of dysfunctional, hurtful, restrictive behavior in favor of liberating self-concepts and belief systems. It provides solutions for communicating and problem-solving more effectively, allowing each partner in the relationship to experience more emotional intimacy, joy and sexual pleasure. The book provides relationship information, practical tools and inspirational, real-life stories. It also offers a banquet of spiritual practices for couples of all faiths—or none—to bring these new models into focused action.

"Your partner can and should meet all of your emotional needs." "All disagreements can and should be resolved." “Great relationships require little maintenance.”

Old models of marriage such as these are crumbling. Divorce rates remain high. Many people are skeptical and mistrustful about having real love in their lives. It's clear people need new models to help them connect with each other in meaningful, lasting ways. It's time to break free from old patterns of commitment and to forge new pathways for healthy, thriving, deeply loving relationships.

This hope-filled resource for developing soulful, mature love is aimed at committed couples who are looking to build, maintain and glorify the sacred in their relationship. It creates a context for couples to honor the gradual movement from physical “flight-fight-freeze” body-based survival to more heart-filled, communication-oriented love, to spiritual awakening and soul-purpose fulfillment. It encourages couples—as individuals and as partners—to let go of dysfunctional, hurtful, restrictive behavior in favor of liberating self-concepts and belief systems. It provides solutions for communicating and problem-solving more effectively, allowing each partner in the relationship to experience more emotional intimacy, joy and sexual pleasure. The book provides relationship information, practical tools and inspirational, real-life stories. It also offers a banquet of spiritual practices for couples of all faiths—or none—to bring these new models into focused action.

Straightforward and nonjudgmental advice for dating couples, partners,
husbands and wives, in-laws, counselors and others.

Interfaith relationships are commonplace; the challenges that go along with them are not. An interfaith couple will have to confront tough questions, yet it’s often difficult to find answers, especially when traditional sources of help—family, friends, clergy and counselors—are unable or unwilling to understand the problems.

From a Jewish perspective, this book guides interfaith couples at any stage of their relationship—from dating and engagement, to the wedding and marriage—and the people who are affected by their relationship in any way, including their families and counselors who work with interfaith couples.

While making no judgments or dictating answers, and supporting individual choice, topics covered include:

• What is an intermarriage?
• Why do people intermarry?
• When do you bring up the subject of religion?
• What is conversion and is it necessary?
• When do you discuss and decide how children will be raised?
• … and much more!

Straightforward and nonjudgmental advice for dating couples, partners,
husbands and wives, in-laws, counselors and others.

Interfaith relationships are commonplace; the challenges that go along with them are not. An interfaith couple will have to confront tough questions, yet it’s often difficult to find answers, especially when traditional sources of help—family, friends, clergy and counselors—are unable or unwilling to understand the problems.

From a Jewish perspective, this book guides interfaith couples at any stage of their relationship—from dating and engagement, to the wedding and marriage—and the people who are affected by their relationship in any way, including their families and counselors who work with interfaith couples.

While making no judgments or dictating answers, and supporting individual choice, topics covered include:

• What is an intermarriage?
• Why do people intermarry?
• When do you bring up the subject of religion?
• What is conversion and is it necessary?
• When do you discuss and decide how children will be raised?
• … and much more!

Learning to look at life with four eyes and two hearts joined into one soul

Continuing his transmission of 2,000-year-old Polynesian wisdom that began with The Pleasure Prescription, Paul Pearsall introduces in this new book what be calls "naupaka love" or aloha kakou—love shared, profound companionship, surrendering to a relationship in all its dimensions and embracing it as a lifelong mission of discovery and mutual pleasure.

Our society tells us that individual success and self-fulfillment are the keys to happiness. This book asks, If that is true, why do so many of us—even those who are in a relationship—feel unhappy and alone? And it answers that there is no joy if there is no one to share it with. As a poet said long ago, "No man is an island .... "

A uniquely warm combination of oral wisdom and current research, Partners in Pleasure is nothing less than a re-visioning of marriage. It offers eight lessons in mahele (sharing)—eight pleasure prescriptions for partners, from dreaming die same dream to becoming one body. Woven throughout are partnering tests; relationship lessons from Hawai`i's foremost kupuna (elders) and kahuna (healers or priests); and insights from Dr. Pearsall's own work and seminars.

Partners in Pleasure shows couples how they can come together to face the challenges of life—conflict, sexual compatibility, child-rearing, career setbacks and getting old—and grow ever stronger together, united in heart.

Every couple for whom marriage is forever unearths nuggets of wisdom along the way. In Love for a Lifetime: Daily Wisdom and Wit for a Long and Happy Marriage, columnist Mary Hance shares a wealth of golden tips, collected far and wide from young couples just setting out to those whose wedding vows still echo through half a century and more. Here are a few:

• “Throw the word fair out the window. In one year of a marriage, one person may need 99 percent of the love, effort, or focus of the other; another year, it may be just the opposite.”
• “What my father always told me when I was planning my wedding: ‘You have to want to have a marriage, not just a wedding. Remember the difference.’ ”
• “Learn fast that the grass is not greener on the other side of the fence!”
  
• “After several years of marriage, there is no way I’m training another husband, so I will just keep the one I have!”

Feeling that you and your spouse need some new sparkle for that old marriage, but you’re too busy to take a seminar? Here is a guide filled with simple pointers for reviving the luster in that all-important relationship. In 75 Things To Improve Your Marriage Without Your Spouse Even Knowing, Barbara Bartlein offers an array of tips for rubbing the tarnish from the routine. Here are a few:

• Put out the fancy dishes for no particular reason
• Surprise them with a water balloon!
• Compliment them in public
• Dance in the living room
• Say, “I have confidence in you,” and say it often
• Have an attitude of gratitude

Helpful Strategies for Improving Your Marriage

Movies like Sleepless in Seattle and An Affair to Remember bombard people with bad ideas about love. We are led to believe that if you meet the “right person” and fall in love, your marriage will thrive and you will be happy. However, while love is important, stable marriages are not based on love alone.

Barbara Bartlein has worked with hundreds of couples as they have worked to save their marriages, and in Why Did I Marry You Anyway? she shares the secrets of what they have learned together. A happy, successful marriage almost always is the result of hard work and commitment, she says, but all too often people don’t know what to do to improve their marriages. This book fills that gap. With 15 strategies that cover all the common problems in relationships—like money, children, sex, and in-laws—Bartlein tells couples what to do and shows them how to do it.

Each chapter addresses one of these important relationship-building strategies. First, a common complaint is explored. Second, common myths that block solutions to the problem are identified and helpful ways of countering them suggested. Third, case studies illustrate the concepts in action with real couples. Finally, quizzes and tools provide opportunities to practice these new skills and behaviors. The result is a helpful, humorous, and easy-to-read book that will result in positive changes in the lives of those who read it and put its strategies into practice.

Nearly everyone has heard of the Ten Commandments. Most people can even name a few of them. For fifty-five years Mac and Amy McNair have used the commandments to establish the basic guidelines for their own marriage. In Ten Principles for a Successful Marriage they share these principles and illustrate them with personal stories from their own marriage as well as from couples they have counseled.

While at first these insights may seem like nothing more than common courtesy—or for that matter just plain common sense—the McNairs acknowledge them as the foundation on which their long-lived marriage is built, and they firmly believe that other couples can strengthen their marriages by following these ten biblically-based principles.

"Ten Principles for a Successful Marriage is a masterpiece. We use it in answering the many letters and phone calls we receive from troubled couples." —Ruth Stafford Peale, Co-founder, Publisher, and Chairman of the Board, Guideposts

Now more than ever, couples are facing tough times that can impact on even the strongest of marriages. In In Good Times and Bad, family counselor and relationships expert M. Gary Neuman and his wife, Melisa, take a look at one of the biggest issues couples face, money management, and give you the tools you need to deal with whatever financial challenges come your way. The Neumans explain why it's so important to talk about money in your marriage and offer strategies on how to discuss this often avoided topic. No matter what your age or how long you've been together, In Good Times and Bad will teach you how to come together when it matters most.

• Learn what money means to you and how to strengthen your marriage even during challenging times
• Includes strategies for dealing with other tough times such as grieving or serious illness
• From the author of the New York Times bestseller The Truth about Cheating

In Good Times and Bad is the tool you need to ensure your relationship remains strong through all of life's ups and downs.