Romance Awareness Month

 The following titles are newer relationship books you may have missed!

Codependent No More by Melody Beattie is "[t]he cultural phenomenon that has helped heal millions of readers, this modern classic holds the key to understanding codependency and unlocking its hold on your life. Melody Beattie’s compassionate and insightful look into codependency—the concept of losing oneself in the name of helping another—has guided millions of readers toward the understanding that they are powerless to change anyone but themselves and that caring for the self is where healing begins. Is someone else's problem your problem? If, like so many others, you've lost sight of your own life in the drama of tending to a loved one’s self-destructive behavior, you may be codependent––and you may find yourself in this book. With personal reflections, exercises, and instructive stories drawn from Beattie’s own life and the lives of those she’s counseled, Codependent No More helps you break old patterns and maintain healthy boundaries and offers a clear and achievable path to healing, hope, freedom, and happiness. This revised edition includes an all-new chapter on trauma and anxiety—subjects Beattie has long felt necessary to address within the context of codependency—making it even more relevant today than it was when it first entered the national conversation over 35 years ago." (from Amazon.com)

Love After 50: How to Find It, Enjoy It, and Keep It is by Francine Russo. "A comprehensive and intimate guide to finding, keeping, and enjoying love after fifty, the best kind of love there is. Studies keep showing that love after fifty is more satisfying than at any other stage in life, and it makes sense: at this stage, you are more emotionally stable and more focused on the present; you know what you absolutely have to have, but also what you can live without; partnering is no longer about building family and fortune—it’s about sharing intimacy as grounded individuals. And sex isn’t pass/fail anymore, but about becoming erotic friends. So, if this is the promised land, how do you get there? In Love After 50, journalist Francine Russo interviewed the best experts in the field and dozens of couples to help show the way. Her “practical, excellent guide” (John Gottman, author of The Seven Principles for Making Marriage Work) includes advice like:

• How to recover from the emotional damage of divorce, the grief of widowhood, or a history of unfulfilling relationships
• How to build realistic requirements for a partner
• What attitudes to bring to dating
• How to overcome the psychical challenges of sex and embrace your erotic selves
• How to evaluate the financial, emotional, and practical results of marrying, living together, or living apart
• How to deal with (hostile) adult kids to safeguard your relationship and family

Love After 50 is “essential reading” (Pauline Boss, PhD, author of The Myth of Closure) that is not only practical but also unassuming and candid. It is full of real people’s stories (including the author’s), with vivid examples of couples who have overcome their pasts to form healthy and nurturing partnerships. In other words, it’s as real as love after fifty can be." (from Amazon.com)

8 Rules of Love is from Jay Shetty, "[t]he author of the #1 New York Times bestseller Think Like a Monk offers a revelatory guide to every stage of romance, drawing on ancient wisdom and new science. Nobody sits us down and teaches us how to love. So we’re often thrown into relationships with nothing but romance movies and pop culture to help us muddle through. Until now. Instead of presenting love as an ethereal concept or a collection of cliches, Jay Shetty lays out specific, actionable steps to help you develop the skills to practice and nurture love better than ever before. He shares insights on how to win or lose together, how to define love, and why you don’t break in a break-up. Inspired by Vedic wisdom and modern science, he tackles the entire relationship cycle, from first dates to moving in together to breaking up and starting over. And he shows us how to avoid falling for false promises and unfulfilling partners. By living Jay Shetty’s eight rules, we can all love ourselves, our partner, and the world better than we ever thought possible." (from Amazon.com)

February Reading Challenge!

Valentines Day is on the way and our February challenge is all about sharing the love.  

Do you have a favorite book with love in the title?  Let us know!

Relationships and Other Life Advice

     Two new books in our dating and self-improvement sections may appeal to the fans of self-help books.

     First is 121 First Dates: How to Succeed at Online Dating, Falling in Love, and Live Happily Ever After (Really!) written by Wendy Newman. Professional dating and relationship educator Newman says there are three things she has learned for sure: There is one special someone for each of us. You will probably meet a lot of "nos" before you find your "yes." And you can't let this fact scare you off, because you could miss out on some amazing experiences! Newman chronicles her often hilarious, always heartfelt, and occasionally mortifying 121 first dates she went on before finding her perfect match. She made every imaginable dating mistake out there--so you don't have to. She busts dating myths, answers some long-sought-after questions, and examines the pitfalls that could make you lose your mind and swear-off dating altogether. She also offers a plethora of the best tips for navigating the online dating scene. Newman's dating pitfalls and triumphs serve to illustrate her advice and will certainly inspire anyone ready to step-out and find just the right person for a happily-ever-after.

     Kelsey Miller had done it all: crash dieting, healthy dieting, and expensive nutritionist-prescribed "eating plans," but nothing was working. In Big Girl: How I Gave Up Dieting & Got a Life, she chronicles how she realized, at the age of 29, that no diet was going to transform her body or her life. Armed with this knowledge as well as the help of an intuitive eating coach and fitness professionals, she learned how to eat based on her body's natural instincts and how to exercise for her health without obsessing over the number of calories burned. With each healthy step, Miller had to learn to contend with the painful memories from her past. For anyone who has wrestled with a distorted body image, food issues, or family traumas, this book is definitely for you. It is also for anyone who has tried and failed and "felt like a big, fat loser." So, basically, all of us...
     While both of these books tend to be geared toward women, I think guys could pick up some good advice as well. We all feel the jitters of a first date and we all feel less than perfect about our bodies and eating habits every now and then.

An Unexpected Surprise!

     Recently, the library received a letter--dated March 10, 2015--from Jenel Looney, assistant to New York Times bestselling author Susan Mallery. It read:

"Earlier this week, author Susan Mallery asked her friends at Facebook.com/SusanMallery to nominate their favorite library to receive a hardcover copy of her latest women's fiction novel, The Girls of Mischief Bay. From almost 2,000 nominations, 20 libraries were chosen at random--and Vicksburg-Warren County Public Library was one of them! (Yay you!) You were nominated by Betsy Farr. Congratulations."

     So, we here at the library would like to thank Susan Mallery for being an awesome author and for being so generous to her readers! We would also like to thank Betsy Farr for thinking of her local library and nominating us!

     The Girls of Mischief Bay is Mallery's latest work and it is the first book in a new series. According to the author's website (susanmallery.com), the book is about three friends on the verge of a new life.
First, Nicole Lord wants to be a good wife, but her husband has quit his job to write a screenplay that Nicole has yet to see. She is left to work full time, take care of the household, and raise the couple's young son. Is she being supportive or merely supporting her husband?
Throwing all of her energy and determination into her career, Shannon Rigg is now V.P. at her firm, but she questions whether or not she has made the right choice. A new love shows her that it's not too late, but will the bombshell that he drops keep Shannon from having it all?
Pam Eiland is a bit restless now that her children are grown. She adores her husband and has taken to finding sexy new ways to put the humor and romance back into their relationship. When she finds herself confronting an unexpected change, Pam must decide if she can redefine herself again.
Through the heartbreaks, romance, laughter, and tears these three women will find out that it is much easier to face life's ups and downs with a friend at your side.

Don't forget to check it out!

Eight Habits of Love

8 Habits of Love:  Open Your Heart, Open Your Mind by Ed Bacon teaches you how to take the first steps on a life-changing journey toward self-discovery, creativity and healing, by celebrating and sharing the love that already lives inside you!  This will help you free yourself from the fear, anger and sadness that causes so much suffering in your life.  Using stories to illustrate his points, Bacon reveals how the reader can create a full and meaningful life by developing the habits of generosity, sillness, truth, candor, play, forgiveness, compassion and community.  By learning how to develop these habits in our daily lives, the reader learns how to reject fear's hold and embrace the power and grace within his/her self.  Author Ed Bacon has served as the rector for All Saints, an urban Episcopal Parish in Pasadena, CA with over 4,000 congregants, for over fifteen years.  His church services have attracted visits from many famous figures and he has been a frequent guest on Oprah's Soul Series on Oprah Radio and been a panelist in the "Spirituality 101" segment of The Oprah Winfrey Show.  Bacon lives in Pasadena, CA with his wife, Hope. 

A Unique Love Story

Christmas is around the corner and for some of our library patrons, this is the perfect time to settle in and catch up on some reading! I am not a big fan of "love stories," so I was amused at myself when I picked up Jacquelyn Mitchard's newest book, Second Nature. I enjoyed reading Mitchard's Deep End of the Ocean and I exprected to like this book as much as that one. I was not wrong! Second Nature is a very unique book. The heroine of the story is Sicily, a young woman who was badly burned in a fire when she was young, and was saved by her firefighter dad, who was killed in the fire, as were most of her classmates. Sicily lives her life disfigured, until a surgeon searches her out for a face transplant. The rest of the story details her life after the transplant and discusses how she experiences many things for the first time. The story is beautiful and the writing is exquisite. Sicily is a brave heroine who exemplifiies the meaning of grace under pressure and every character in this book is richly complicated. The book's action covers many seasons, and the description of the Christmas one is especially beautiful. If you love family and relationship drama, mixed in with the bittersweetness of love, you will enjoy every minute of this book.

Remember Me

Every now and then I watch a movie that is so beautifully written it makes me want to cry. Remember Me, starring Robert Pattinson and Emilile De Ravin is one of those types of movies. It takes place in the Summer of 2001, in New York city, and is the story of a young man and woman, who each have had their own tragic experiences, who meet and begin a passionate love affair. The couple each let go enough to work through their own pain and the end result is a stunning piece of acting. The emotions and feeliings are so raw, that the viewer is totally sucked in to the film. This movie is an unforgettable story about the power of the heart, the strength of family, and the importance of treasuring every day of one's life. This is a great film to watch if you want to be inspired to live your life to its fullest!

Relationships

Love is a Verb by Gary Chapman
The author shares forty true stories from everyday people that chose to show love in action. There are times in each of our lives when we choose to show love even when the feeling is not there. Showing love is not always easy but it’s something we all need to do. I enjoyed reading each of these personal accounts and found inspiration from them. Read these stories to find out what happens when love comes alive.

Gary Chapman is also the author of the bestselling book, The Five Love Languages: How to Express Heartfelt Commitment to Your Mate. In this book he identifies the five basic languages of love; quality time, words of affirmation, gifts, acts of service and physical touch. He helps couples to better understand their unique love language. This book will also help identify the unique love languages of your children and other special people in your lives.