Customer Reviews

Laugh Your Way to a Better Marriage: Unlocking the Secrets to Life, Love and Marriage

5 star:		(21)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

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!

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.

Laugh Your Way To A Better Marriage is NOT just for married people! It is a funny, effective look at the fundamental differences between men and women. Everyone could learn from Mark Gungor's book. I highly recommend it!! Kelly is CA

Laughter has long and often been called the best medicine, but they're usually talking about depression. Can Laughter be the panacea for people's marriage woes as well? "Laugh Your Way to a Better Marriage: Unlocking The Secrets to Life, Love, and Marriage" believes so, promoting tell-it-like-it-is honesty between couples to help work out their problems and get a laugh from both of them in the process. Good relationships are the products of hard work and skill, and it never just happens by accident. "Laugh Your Way to a Better Marriage: Unlocking the Secrets to Life, Love, and Marriage" is highly recommended to any couple who wants a preemptive yet humorous strike at their problems and for community library relationship collections.

After having watched the DVD series of the same title it is excellent to be able to have the same basic practical material with some extra comment in a convenient form to review. To take on board the issues discussed is a sure way of improving you understanding of how to have a better relationship with your partner by avoiding some of the real pit falls for two people who think and act so differently

THIS BOOK IS AMAZING AND SO ON POINT WITH THE FACTS. THE SELLER WAS VERY FAST!

This book is filled with a lot of information that should help couples save or strengthen their marriages. There is great advice and insight on the way men and women think and relate differently. There is an especially good explanation about what marriage really entails: it is not (and can not be) the Hollywood, romantic fantasyland that people are led to believe it should be. It is hard, hard work, with lots of ups and downs. In the end, couples who weather the guaranteed storms of married life end up stronger and happier.

I am ambivalent about Pastor Gungor's use of straight talk when discussing sexual issues. I agree with him that a large part of misinformation comes from the hesitation of churches and families to speak openly and truthfully about what sex is and what it entails. On the other hand, reading a book by a Christian pastor that includes explicit references to private (and sometimes really private) parts - I don't know, it made for awkward reading on the subway. In addition, although Gungor takes the conservative Christian perspective on divorce, pre-marital sex and other related issues, he emphasizes only the secular arguments and stays away from the moral aspects of the discussion, which seems peculiar for a Christian pastor.

Nevertheless, I recommend the book for any married persons who need to improve their situation, and get a few laughs along the way from Pastor Gungor's humor (that's where the laughing part comes in).

I read this book because the military chaplaincy has endorsed it as one of their conference tools. I was very disappointed and am actually very concerned about all of the hype around the author and his materials. This book is VERY legalistic, and it places the primary responsibility of adapting on women. According to the author, women need to lower their expectations for romance, come to grips that their husbands will always be takers, and follow certain rules in the bedroom in order to have a better intimate relationship with their husbands. None of these "insights" are biblical. In fact, what is written in the Bible is in direct opposition to some of what Mark Gungor writes. The section on intimacy is, aside from his view that pornography has no place in marriage or otherwise, one legalistic Christian's viewpoint of what should and shouldn't be done in the bedroom.

Sheet Music by Kevin Lehman and Intimate Allies by Dan Allender and Tremper Longman are MUCH BETTER books. Kevin Lehman is just as funny, and Allender/Longman write one of the most biblically right on books on marriage I have ever read.

This book is funny yet it is filled with truly great advice on how to have a better marriage.

We did a bible study at church so I ordered the book to go along with the DVD's. I love it, he is funny and you can really relate to the things he explains in the book.
I can only recommend it! It is great to read for both husband and wife. My husband and I read it together and we laughted a lot and had a great time reading it.