The Romantic Ideal

Many relationship books focus on some kind of unreachable ideal of what a man or woman should be. This book explores more of the common flaws that even the best intentioned of us often encounter.

Starting with Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus, my history of reading relationship books has always been more a journey to explore the psyche of humans in general and less about finding a compatible partner for myself. This book does a decent job at both. The foreward and the book being written from the two perspectives landed nicely.

Instead of putting love on a pedestal, I love the early Chekov quote making us think of being in love as the default and best form of human experience. Lacking this causes us a slew of problems that we, the readers, are too familiar with. Deeper dives into attraction and being able to see ourselves from our lover's perspective were fitting. Not controlling love but being in love is going to be one of the biggest takeaways for me on this one.