30 Lessons For Loving

"Drawing on interviews with seven hundred long-married elders, 30 Lessons for Loving delivers timeless wisdom from a wide range of voices on everything from choosing "the one" to dealing with in-laws, money, children, and, yes, sex"--

“Heartfelt and ever-endearing—equal parts information and inspiration. This is a book to keep by your bedside and return to often.”—Amy Dickinson, nationally syndicated advice columnist "Ask Amy" More than one thousand extraordinary Americans share their stories and the wisdom they have gained on living, loving, and finding happiness. After a chance encounter with an extraordinary ninety-year-old woman, renowned gerontologist Karl Pillemer began to wonder what older people know about life that the rest of us don't. His quest led him to interview more than one thousand Americans over the age of sixty-five to seek their counsel on all the big issues: children, marriage, money, career, aging. Their moving stories and uncompromisingly honest answers often surprised him. And he found that he consistently heard advice that pointed to these thirty lessons for living. Here he weaves their personal recollections of difficulties overcome and lives well lived into a timeless book filled with the hard-won advice these older Americans wish someone had given them when they were young. Like This I Believe, StoryCorps's Listening Is an Act of Love, and Tuesdays with Morrie, 30 Lessons for Living is a book to keep and to give. Offering clear advice toward a more fulfilling life, it is as useful as it is inspiring.

Two-time Pulitzer Prize nominee Nancy Shulins brings forth straight-from-life lessons on long-term love and the relationships nurtured by it in this composition of essays as varied as the moods of married life--each tale comes at love from a different angle to capture it in its entirety. Every Day I Love You More: (Just Not Today!) offers lessons in loving one person for life. It teaches couples to count their blessings, learn from their mistakes, and strengthen the bonds between them. It offers honest, reliable, witty advice, and addresses every couples' day-to-day struggles, as well as ideas that are as clever as they are fun. The tone of the essays will vary, much like the day-to-day mood in a marriage; some are poignant, some hilarious, some thoughtful, some spiritual, and some heart-warming, but all are drawn from real life. Each tale will focus on a different aspect of long-term love, and offer prescriptive suggestions for the reader. Some stories will come from the author's own marriage; others, from a wide range of committed relationships. Each offers gems of wisdom on weathering the bittersweet idiosyncrasies of every marriage, ranging from remembering why you first fell in love with him to knowing when you need time apart to indulging his need for a Lay-Z-Boy recliner. As a result, every couple who've made it past the honeymoon stage will recognize themselves in these pages, and learn to love each other more every day -- even when "every day" starts tomorrow.

The timeless, magical story of one woman's return to life and love when she thought she had lost it all.

Life is constantly in motion. With each birthday we celebrate, we have made a full trip around the sun. Each moment that passes, leaves us, ever so slightly, different. Every breath we take is new... This book is a collection of stories, of modern day fables, that just happen to be true. These stories are the highlight reel of a well-examined life, and told from the voice of a still evolving thirty-year-old woman, who is living her life, and her dreams, one day at a time. The inspiration for this book, came from my remarkable 75 year-old grandmother Georgette, who recently honored my family by writing her memoirs. So, I thought, perhaps you are never too old, or too young, to have a story to tell. May these stories bring you laughter and tears, as you follow my journey through the tough and tangled world of growing up, falling down, finding love and losing it. A student of life, taking the road less traveled, and sometimes taking no road at all, but always, standing at the fork in the road and enjoying the view. May the heart of these stories strike a chord in your own. Much love, Natalie

An advocate and son of same-gender parents recounts his famed address to the Iowa House of Representatives on civil unions, and describes his positive experiences of growing up in an alternative family in spite of prejudice.

While observing trainers of exotic animals, journalist Amy Sutherland had an epiphany: What if she used their techniques with the human animals in her own life–specifically her dear husband, Scott? As Sutherland put training principles into action, she noticed that not only did her twelve-year-old marriage improve, but she herself became more optimistic and less judgmental. What started as a goofy experiment had such good results that Sutherland began using the training techniques with all the people in her life, including her mother, her friends, her students, even the clerk at the post office. Full of fun facts, fascinating insights, hilarious anecdotes, and practical tips, What Shamu Taught Me About Life, Love, and Marriage reveals the biggest lesson Sutherland learned: The only animal you can truly change is yourself.

Starring an enthusiastic pooch whose joy, optimism and love know no bounds, this lively picture book is based on Emma Chichester Clark’s own dog, and joyfully celebrates unconditional love. Plum has lots of favorite things—catching sticks, her bear, her bed—but really, LOVE is her absolute favorite thing. She loves her family and all the things they do together. Sometimes, however, Plum’s exuberance causes trouble, and she just can’t help being naughty. But fortunately, love is such a great thing that even when she makes mistakes, Plum’s family still adores her.