Meeting Your Half-Orange: An Utterly Upbeat Guide to Using Dating Optimism to Find Your Perfect Match [Hardcover]

Amy Spencer (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 12, 2010

How would you like to have a wonderfully well-suited, kind, adoring half-orange who feels like a teammate, a partner in crime, a true other half? “Half-Orange” refers to the Spanish term mi media naranja, which describes one’s sweetheart, that perfect other half. What if you heard he or she would be coming along soon? Would you be relieved? Excited? Happy? Well those are the feelings that dating optimism can give you.

Rather than admonishing readers to make themselves more available, or turn dating into a full-time job, Spencer's program of dating optimism is a fun, results-oriented way to find a healthy happy relationship, based on brain science and psychology that can help you become a more positive dater. She'll guide you through sowing the orange seed of your ideal relationship and growing it to “fruit-ion.” In essence, by focusing positively about dating, you can actually change your brain, which changes everything from your body language to the way you perceive others and what you ultimately attract.

Meeting Your Half-Orange is the pep talk that puts finding true love back into your own hands. It will guide you toward becoming so focused on the relationship you want and so happy in your own skin, the right person will be naturally drawn straight to you. You’ve never read a dating guide like this before. But best of all, it will be the last one you’ll ever need.

Editorial Reviews

Review

Harville Hendrix, Ph.D., author of Keeping the Love You Find: A Personal Guide and Getting the Love You Want
"This is a book of hope helping those looking for their other half move from pessimism to hope and from fantasy to reality. A must read for singles looking for love.”

Jillian Michaels, fitness trainer on NBC’s The Biggest Loser and bestselling author of Master Your Metabolism
“IF YOU’RE SINGLE, drop everything and read this book. It will completely change dating for you as you know it. I can work out your body, but Amy will get your love life in shape!”

Harper’s Bazaar, February 2010
"Disillusioned by dating? Meeting Your Half-Orange is the ultimate pep talk.”

Glamour, March 2010
“Tear up your old list for your ideal mate, says Amy Spencer, author of the new book Meeting Your Half-Orange. Forget the superficial musts . . . and focus on how you want to feel in the relationship.”

Cosmopolitan U.K. , February 2010
"Meeting Your Half-Orange by Amy Spencer is a dating guide with a difference.”

Laurie Sandell, author of The Impostor’s Daughter
“I could not put this book down. Amy Spencer cuts through the scrap heap of self-help literature with a guide to life that is so joyful—so utterly helpful—you can consolidate that library into one. Women and men looking for love, meet your new guru.”

Star magazine, February 8, 2010
“Just in time for Valentine’s Day comes this upbeat book from relationship expert Amy Spencer. She thinks there’s a Mr. Right, or half-orange, for everyone, and the only way to find him is by being yourself. Sounds tasty!”

Actress Diane Farr, Californication and Rescue Me
“Where the heck was this book when I was single? It would have saved me years of frustration! I’ll be recommending Meeting Your Half-Orange to every ‘single’ person I know.”

Joanna Bober, magazine editor
“I feel like Amy is absolutely hitting on every issue that spins around in the brain of a single woman, even the ones that I couldn’t explain to myself. This book is a gift to women.”

BookPage, February 2010
“In Meeting Your Half-Orange, Amy Spencer helps singles harness the power of optimism to find their other halves. If your glass is empty . . . you may be the person who needs it most.”

Skirt! Boston, January 21, 2010
“If you're constantly looking for love, stop the search, and pick up Amy Spencer's new dating guide Meeting Your Half-Orange. This optimistic and unique take on relationships and what we truly want in our other-halves is unlike your typical "go seek our Mr. Right" self-help book. Instead, Spencer advocates for establishing yourself as an individual and learning to accept yourself for who you are, rather than transforming to cater to the needs of a potential boyfriend.”

Sirens magazine, February 16, 2010
“Snaps to Spencer for putting ‘upbeat’ right there in the title. Nearly every other dating book screams at women with phrases such as ‘find love now!’ or ‘stop making dumb mistakes!’ This text—half memoir, half advice book—takes the perspective of an honest, encouraging friend who’s been there.”

About the Author

Amy Spencer is a relationship expert who writes for Glamour, Harper’s Bazaar, Page Six Magazine, Cosmopolitan, Match.com, and others, and the former host of the relationship call-in advice show Sex Files on Sirius Satellite Radio’s Maxim channel. She lives in Venice, CA, with her own “half-orange.”

Product Details

• Hardcover: 240 pages
• Publisher: Running Press (January 12, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 076243774X
• ISBN-13: 978-0762437740
• Product Dimensions: 8.7 x 6.1 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (25 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #74,895 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #51 in Books > Health, Fitness & Dieting > Relationships > Dating
  • #83 in Books > Health, Fitness & Dieting > Relationships > Mate Seeking

More About the Author

Amy Spencer grew up in Sea Cliff, New York, spent a decade in Manhattan and now resides in Venice, California with her half-orange, her husband.

Amy is the author of BRIGHT SIDE UP: 100 Ways to Be Happier Right Now (Perigee, 2012) and MEETING YOUR HALF-ORANGE: An Utterly Upbeat Guide to Using Dating Optimism to Find Your Perfect Match (Running Press, 2010). Read more about the books at brightsideup.com and meetingyourhalforange.com.

Amy provides doses of life and love positivity on her site TheLifeOptimist.com, offers "Assignment Optimism" tips on Twitter (twitter.com/@datingoptimist) and creates the happiest email you'll get all week, VITAMIN OPTIMISM, which offers an small optimism practice you can try each week--you can sign up for it on Amy's website, AmySpencer.com.

Amy's a magazine journalist who has written for Glamour, Harper's Bazaar, New York magazine, CNN.com, Redbook, Health and others. Prior to writing full-time, she was an editor at MAXIM, GLAMOUR and STAR magazines. She was a radio host on Sirius XM radio and has appeared on NBC, CBS, VH1 and the E! channel and more. She created Half-Orange Optimisms for the iPhone, which appeared in the "Featured Apps" section of the App store, made the App store's "What's Hot" list and was featured in New York's The Daily News. And when she's not writing, Amy loves biking, taking photographs, watching television cooking shows and she absolutely lives for popcorn.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

20 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Should be Clearly Labeled "Law of Attraction", February 21, 2011

By 

Natasha Smith (Minnesota, USA) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Meeting Your Half-Orange: An Utterly Upbeat Guide to Using Dating Optimism to Find Your Perfect Match (Kindle Edition)

I feel that this book was poorly marketed. Somehow, I didn't immediately equivocate "dating optimism" with the Law of Attraction and its accompanying pseudo-science. Spencer quotes from science books (not interviews) and tries to spin the mumbo-jumbo as a legitimate "scientific" approach. Some of the gems from this book so far: She quotes that "Nothing exists until it is measured," and then tells us that we can measure our thoughts! Apparently this thought is supposed to be connected to the fact that our atoms are made of vibrating energy. Oh, and "The universe just knows what you're giving your attention to." Goody! I'm glad the universe is so attuned to me. (If that's the case, why do I need a book to tell me? Shouldn't the universe just be focused on making me happy?)

I do like some of the ideas in this book, but trying to pass off "stop being so desperate and you'll look better" as a scientific law strikes me as fairly cheesy. The people who want to buy into it don't need the desperate attempts at science, which actually make the book look worse. Furthermore, I'm a little incensed that the Law of Attraction seems peculiarly marketed towards women; I guess the more passive we are, the better. And that leads me to my next beef: like many dating books out there, this one's completely heteronormative. It's also anti-feminist, blaming the women's movement for some kind of singleness epidemic (stating that the "pendulum" has "swung too far"), when the fact that women are forced to choose between marriage and a career is actually a testament to how much more the women's movement has left to do. To some extent at least, it assumes traditional gender roles, and seems to dumb women down unnecessarily.

The book doesn't surprise me so much; all the raving reviews certainly do. Is this really the twenty-first century? We should have come further by now.

18 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Not for Men, June 1, 2010

By 

Joe Kindle (Rhode Island) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Meeting Your Half-Orange: An Utterly Upbeat Guide to Using Dating Optimism to Find Your Perfect Match (Kindle Edition)

Having heard so much positive buzz about this book I thought it might be good for me to read it since I'm back in the dating world again. While this book may have great ideas, and I have to assume it does from all of the 5 star reviews, it isn't a book that men can use to get help with their dating. Before buying the book, I read reviews on this site and on others to try and determine if the book was meant for both female and male readers. I couldn't find anywhere that said the book was intended only for women, and actually did find a couple of editor reviews that said both men and women could benefit from it. I bought the book and started reading it with an open attitude, assuming that the primary target was women but it would still be a good read. Unfortunately, I couldn't get more than 10% of the way through it, even after three attempts. I finally had to give up on it. All of the references to dating prospects were to "handsome guys", "Mr Right", etc.. All examples of positives, negatives, dating situations, etc. were targeted towards females. I tried to substitute male examples but it completely broke the thought flow of the book. I just couldn't get through it. It's obvious why they don't but I think the marketing should indicate the book is intended for females.

13 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Awesome! Extra-Oranginary!!, February 17, 2010

By 

Margaret G. DaValt - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Meeting Your Half-Orange: An Utterly Upbeat Guide to Using Dating Optimism to Find Your Perfect Match (Hardcover)

I stumbled onto Amy's book via a web connection from Arielle Ford's blog site, where she was tauting new authors and Amy's book came up on my orange-dar. After going out and checking out the book online, I had this nagging feeling that I JUST HAD TO GET THIS BOOK. So I took time off from work and went to find it Sorry Amazon, I just had to have it..*grin* During a trip to New York City, this past week, I took the time to finish Amy's book.

I thought this book was fabulous. It was so written from the heart. For those of us who are single and who do believe in BIG LOVE, don't just walk to the book store...RUN. Amy infuses scientific research from a number of great sources: The Univeristy of Wisconsin-Madison, the University of Pennsylvania, to name a couple. Her personal experiment with finding her own half-orange is enough to make her an expert on the subject. She provides other examples of validation of this principle and theory and it's all told in a wonderful, personal, from-the-heart experience.

The art of a positive attitude and an attitude of gratitude permeate Amy's book. Don't say you can't have the love you want. Say you CAN. Yes I can have that big love. If your passion is popcorn at the movies. You CAN find someone that shares that passion. If you love reading you CAN find someone that enjoys reading.

Patience is a key, but so is the fine art of that positive/optimistic way of thinking that can help you in any part of your life, not just dating.

The trick is: you just have to WANT that big love. Do not worry how it'll find you...just know that it will.

Thanks, Amy, for making me a fan of the theory of dating optimism and the idea that my half-orange is out there waiting for me!!