★★★★★ 5
Very Insightful Read for Anyone in a Relationship!
Format: Paperback, Format: Paperback
I first heard of this book a number of years ago and it had been on my wish list of books to read for awhile, not necessarily because my husband and I have trouble in our marriage; it's more that there is always room for improvement in many areas of life, especially a relationship as important as a marriage. Finally, I decided to just buy it because I heard several of my friends talking about it.
Gary Chapman, author of The 5 Love Languages, has determined that everyone speaks a different love language, meaning the way they show someone they love them. The five languages he has identified are: Words of Affirmation, Acts of Service, Receiving Gifts, Quality Time, and Physical Touch. Speaking a love language is similar to speaking a foreign language. For instance, if I speak French and I meet someone who speaks German, we are going to have a difficult time communicating if we don't at least know how to speak the other person's primary language. The same goes for the love languages. Some people may have more than one but there is usually one love language that speaks loudest to that person. The author says most individuals speak a different love language than their spouse and it's important to know how to speak the other person's language so you can communicate effectively and have a more loving and successful marriage.
This book is divided into several chapters that average about ten pages long so they aren't incredibly long and drawn-out. There are five chapters discussing each of the love languages as well as talking about love and how to apply these love languages in the relationship with your spouse. There are several Frequently Asked Questions and profiles (quizzes) for both individuals to determine their primary and secondary love languages. Chapman states that you can select the chapters you'd like to read based on what you believe your love language is but I found reading the entire book to be extremely helpful since I thought about myself and my husband and how these love languages apply to our marriage. It's not a particularly long book (just over 200 pages) so it won't take a long time to read and I like how the book is organized in easy-to-read sections with anecdotes about couples the author has spoken with (names have been changed) and main points located in "bubbles" in the margins.
I really enjoyed reading this book and found it to be very helpful. My husband and I even had a conversation about the topics in this book and we've talked about how we can use our newly-discovered love languages and apply them to our marriage to make it even more loving, happy and successful. Regardless of if you've been married for 40 years or are engaged to be married, I'd highly recommend reading this book. I regret not reading it sooner because so many actions between my husband and I now make more sense. I've already got two friends queued up to read this book so I'm glad I purchased the paperback version which makes it easy to lend out. I haven't read many books on relationships and marriage but I really liked how easy and interesting it was to read this and I'm now looking into purchasing The 5 Love Languages of Children since I want my kids to know they are loved more than anything. I highly recommend this book!
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Reviewed in the United States on October 23, 2016