Books on love, marriage and gender: what intimacy gives us, and what it costs.
Love & Gender
Sue Johnson's Emotionally Focused Therapy shows why couples fight over trivia: beneath lies the fear of losing each other. Naming the pursue–withdraw cycle and repairing attachment beats winning.
10 min read
Love & Gender
Stephanie Coontz shows that marrying for love is only a few centuries old: marriage began as a peace treaty, a family business and a political alliance before becoming a matter of the heart.
11 min read
Love & Gender
Marshall B. Rosenberg's lifelong method: spot the four faces of violent communication, then speak in observation, feeling, need and request — to express yourself, hear others, even befriend yourself.
8 min read
Love & Gender
Israeli sociologist Orna Donath interviewed 23 women who regret becoming mothers. The book is not an argument against having children — it gives a silenced experience a public language.
9 min read
Love & Gender
Gottman followed 650 couples for fourteen years, named the Four Horsemen — criticism, contempt, defensiveness, stonewalling — and distilled seven principles that keep a marriage alive.
13 min read
Love & Gender
Judith and Bob Wright draw on thirty years of marriage and counseling: conflict is not poison but a doorway to each other's desires — 15 fight types, 6 skills that turn fighting into understanding.
8 min read
Love & Gender
Annabel Crabb does the arithmetic: women hold 2–3% of CEO posts, a housewife works 42 hours a week, and her labour is worth $113,568 a year. 'Balance' usually means someone else picks up the slack.
9 min read
Love & Gender
Gary Chapman's premarital checklist covers love languages, family baggage, personality clashes, conflict, chores, and money — the conversations couples skip while planning a two-hour wedding.
11 min read
Love & Gender
Sherry Argov's dating classic isn't about manipulation: the 'bitch' is a woman with self-respect, opinions, her own income, and the grace to show vulnerability. Sacrifice buys no love; boundaries do.
11 min read