16 of 17 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Should be required reading for all couples!, April 9, 2008
I preordered this book directly from "Laugh Your Way America," and have been reading it for the past few days. I was married for nearly 22 years, and was widowed last year. I'm in a new relationship now, and this book looked like a good resource for getting a better understanding of what it takes to be a successful, happy couple (it doesn't always happen naturally). This book is insightful, witty, and really does explain some of the basic differences between men and women. If you want a better understanding of the opposite sex and how those differences can affect relationships, this is THE book for you!
Thank you, Mr. Gungor!
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19 of 24 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, June 12, 2009
This review is from: Laugh Your Way to a Better Marriage: Unlocking the Secrets to Life, Love, and Marriage (Paperback)
We're doing the series in a group at my church and currently we're about halfway through the video and discussion series. Here's my problem with the book/course: I'd estimate that about half of the couples doing the program kind of want to 'tweak' a marriage which is rusty, and occasionally problematic, while the other half of us showed up wanting to fix a marriage which at times feels desperate -- you know, the "go days without speaking to each other, how the heck did I ever end up with you in the first place, is that all there is to life" situation. "Laughing your way" is pretty good for helping the first group, but pretty darned near useless for the second group. In other words, there's a pretty big difference between being pissed off at your hubby because he leaves the toilet seat up and being pissed off at your hubby because he hates your children who also happen to be his stepchildren. Obviously, fixing the first situation is significantly easier than fixing the second.
My husband hates the series. The word he keeps using is "simplistic" -- it's all that Mars vs. Venus stuff which most of us already know anyway, and the series doesn't go deep enough in terms of actually identifying resentments, nor is it biblical despite the fact that it's used at many churches.
And at the risk of getting all "shrewy feminist a la Kate gosselin or Hilary Clinton or something", I sometimes find that he tends to emphasize altering behaviors over actually looking at the situation and thinking about whether or not it is actually unjust or inequitable. For example, he talks about how women multitask and men "just can't multitask" and, according to him, that's why the wife finds herself simultaneously making dinner/checking homework/unloading the dishwasher and setting the table/answering the phone/packing the kids up for soccer while the man reads the newspaper. His solution -- accept that your husband can't multitask! However, that still leaves the problem of the fact that there are six tasks that need doing and the woman is frequently doing five of them to the man's one. See? There it is again. He never addresses the underlying resentment issue.
Also, he seems kind of fixated on sex as the solution to many marital problems, basically stating that if people are kind to each other and therefore they end up having more sex, then their marriage will improve. On some level, it's a bit condescending -- suggesting that women who've been married twenty years have no idea what men are like or vice versa. I'd argue that this is kind of the "bridges of madison county" of marraige books -- simplistic, feel good, and if you've never read a book before, you might like it. But then again, you might have lower expectations than some of the serious readers or connoisseurs of self-help books. YMMV.
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Simple and fun read for Christians, August 25, 2011
This book is a simple read for Christian readers. Mark Gungor uses humor and his understanding and interpretations of his faith to help couples achieve successful marriages. The main topics are women and men are different, they are made differently, they communicate differently, and naturally they want different things! Nothing new is introduced here. In general, men want sex, and women desire talk! If their main needs are satisfied, then all is well. "Sex is the way to a man's heart." Therefore, when a husband is physically satisfied, he will be his wife's hero. If sex is your problem, then just "do it!" It is simple, and nothing deep and complicated about the interactions and expectations in marriages.
The book can be amusing to read and helpful if your marriage is good but lack of passion and fun or your spouse is a bit annoying. If your relationship is in trouble with serious long-term issues such as addiction, financial ruins, neglect, abuse, illness and infidelity, then you will NOT be able to laugh your way to a better marriage with this book.
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