Customer Reviews

Every Day I Love You More (Just Not Today)

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During the courtship, magic rules the universe. However, the morning after the marriage, reality often nukes the magic disappear. EVERY DAY I LOVE YOU MORE (JUST NOT TODAY) provides a series of essays so that the magic never vanishes, but instead reenergizes as a thriving loving partnership.

A happily ever after non-fiction work seems like a boring sure loser, but Nancy Shulins turns her material into an amusing, intelligent, and educational read that varies from story to story. Each of the essays is relatively small so that the reader can pick up and put down this self-help book as warranted. No essay is boring as they run the relationship gamut with the shared goal of "loving more today than yesterday, but not as much as tomorrow" instead of "where did all the flowes go"?

Harriet Klausner

When I came across Nancy Shulins's book, Every Day I Love you More, I was on a retreat from marriage, hiding out for a couple of hours in a bookstore. I'm not a fan of "relationship" books, but something about this one attracted me. (I think it was the subtitle--Just Not Today.)When I sat down to read, I was hooked. Had to buy the book. When I was done, marriage no longer seemed like the worst idea anyone had ever had.

When I read her account of those days "when grotesque crimes of passion actually start to make sense," I was laughing and didn't stop. By the time I got to the part where her husband brings home bubble wrap as a gift, I began to realize that what I had been retreating from was not my partner but my sense of humor.

These essays are not all about the author's marriage. She seems to have corralled all her friends, somehow convincing them to reveal the saddest,happiest, and most absurd moments in their own marriages. I think she must be one of those rare women people love to tell their stories to, then delight to see the spin she has put on them in print. If she produces a sequel, I have a story or two to tell her.

How is this book different from others of its kind? It's way funnier, not at all smug, and far from authoritarian. I think that for her, marriage is something like a vaudeville act made up of flexibility, resilience, and a few pratfalls. As Nancy Shulins puts it, it's "a little song, a litle dance, a litle seltzer in your pants."

Ideally this book should be read one essay at a time, savoring each one and trying to apply it to one's own life. Instead I can't wait to get on to the next one. She's a very inciteful, observant young woman who obviously is a good student at observing human nature. I find myself in every essay, and sometimes just laugh out loud. I always marvel at these people who can take the ordinary little things that make up each of us and express them in the written word.

"Every Day I Love You More (just not today)" is a collection of essays about Nancy Shulins' marriage (and those of her family and friends) that demonstrates lessons in loving one partner for life. Right away, you feel drawn in by the essays, as if you're reading the juicy diary of a friend. You're also aware you're learning something from this friend - a very wise one with secrets to share and advice that is enlightening - but never preachy. You're laughing and nodding your head in mute agreement and wondering if the author has been spying on your own marriage and you're thinking, "Why didn't I think of that?" when Shulins suggests ideas that strike you as profoundly life and marital changing.

Each vignette in this perfectly sized volume highlights a different aspect of married life, from first date to the ultimate, joyful realization that you and your partner will be together for life. I gleaned much from this book: how to call back that "first date" feeling, when to accept that which you cannot change about a partner, how to look for the special, unexpected moments that appear everyday in a marriage and how to deal with the force of incompatibility, happily.

I bought an extra copy of this book for a friend because my husband is now reading "Every Day I Love You More (just not today)". This is the first book my husband and I have ever shared; the book is working its magic already.

Nancy Shulins' book has saved my marriage and my life. It is the most believable, relationship-affirming book I've ever read. I couldn't put it down!! My husband and I have had our share of problems - who hasn't. And I was toying with just tossing in the towel, so to speak. Then I saw "Everyday I Love You More" in a bookstore and I bought it. That night, I got in my bathtub with the book and read. And I read and read until the water turned lukewarm, then cold. I didn't even notice. I wanted to read more. I cried, I laughed, I felt a special kinship with Nancy and her husband and I knew, finally, that there was hope for me and for my marriage. Thank you Nancy Shulins. REad this book - it's the best.

Finally, a tell-it-like-it-really-is look at marriage. From irritating little personal habits to all the biggies - sex, romance, honesty - Nancy Shulins focuses an unblinking eye on the realities of life in a long term relationship. Her insight and openness lets us know that real life marriage bears little resemblance to the book and movie versions we grew up with. I defy any woman not to recognize her own life and relationship in these essays. Shulins' writing is humorous and wise, compassionate and yet uncompromising as she examines her own marriage as well as those of friends, relatives and neighbors. When I finished this book, I felt like inviting her into my home for a glass of wine and a long talk. She really gets it.

There is a special magic in Nancy Shulins writing. She gets to the heart of marriage and the many nuances of behavior therein that leaves you laughing and some times crying as she shares her experiences. We woman can relate to much of what she says and men can too. A must gift from mother to daughter to sister to friend. This book is a sure winner and a joy to read.

Nancy Shulins has beautifully and poetically captured the essence of relationships. She understands the unversality of our experiences in relationship, and writes, with humor and pathos, about...what we love about our partners in life...and what we hate about them. It was as if she were speaking directly to... and about me and everyone else I know. It was wonderful to read a book that felt so personal...I felt completely understood!

Bring out your tissue box, get ready to LOL. I loved, loved, loved this wonderful book about love lost and found. It is so funny and true, filled with marvelous stories.

This is the kind of book that you can carry with you anywhere. Reading it bits at a time is like dipping into a box of cookies. Open any page and you are refreshed by the humor, warmth and humanness shared by Nancy Shulins. It is like having an understanding friend keeping you company throughout the day. It can get rid of boredome and loneliness in a moment. I would prescribe it as a quick antidepressant with reality orientation. Arnold Sadwin, MD Psychiatrist