Become a Patron!These are some books I’ve come across over the years that have come highly recommended and I wanted to share this list with you. Do note that some of them are from a religious angle – I would say “take what is useful and let go of what is not” if you do not identify as religious. I personally have read, like and would recommend books 5, 7, 9, 19 listed below.
1. Bigger Love: How to Have the Love of your Life for the Rest of Your Life (The Love Endeavor)
Learn the tips, tools and tricks that helped the authors bring their relationship back from the brink of divorce, to better than ever thought possible.
Written in He Said: She Said format
This book is the story of what the authors had to learn about themselves and each other, that enabled them to transform their relationship.
You will love the unique and totally authentic, lighthearted banter between the authors.
2. The 5 Love Languages: The Secret to Love that Lasts
Falling in love is easy. Staying in love—that’s the challenge. How can you keep your relationship fresh and growing amid the demands, conflicts, and just plain boredom of everyday life?
In the #1 New York Times bestseller The 5 Love Languages, you’ll discover the secret that has transformed millions of relationships worldwide. Whether your relationship is flourishing or failing, Dr. Gary Chapman’s proven approach to showing and receiving love will help you experience deeper and richer levels of intimacy with your partner—starting today.
The 5 Love Languages is as practical as it is insightful. Updated to reflect the complexities of relationships today, this new edition reveals intrinsic truths and applies relevant, actionable wisdom in ways that work.
Includes the Couple’s Personal Profile assessment so you can discover your love language and that of your loved one.
3. Men Are from Mars, Women Are from Venus: The Classic Guide to Understanding the Opposite Sex
Rediscover the most famous relationship book ever published
Once upon a time Martians and Venusians met, fell in love, and had happy relationships together because they respected and accepted their differences. Then they came to Earth and amnesia set in: they forgot they were from different planets.
Based on years of successful counseling of couples and individuals, Men Are from Mars, Women Are from Venus has helped millions of couples transform their relationships. Now viewed as a modern classic, this phenomenal book has helped men and women realize how different they can be in their communication styles, their emotional needs, and their modes of behavior—and offers the secrets of communicating without conflicts, allowing couples to give intimacy every chance to grow.
4. The Miracle Morning for Couples: Create Legendary Connections One Morning at a Time
Since 2012, The Miracle Morning has helped to empower millions with a step-by-step process for achieving goals and realizing dreams. Hal Elrod’s Miracle Morning Life S.A.V.E.R.S. have been the key to extraordinary success for readers worldwide, and now they can help take your relationships to legendary levels.
The Miracle Morning for Couples uses Hal’s Life S.A.V.E.R.S. to put you on a path of personal development and growth, so you can show up for your relationship and get more joy, greater intimacy, and a lifelong friendship.You’ll learn:
Why mornings matter more than you think
How to become a “morning person” in just five minutes
The secrets to a connected friendship and long-term happiness
The formula for an exceptional daily routine together, right after you wake up
The steps to building greater intimacy and fostering deeper vulnerability and trust
How to pull all the pieces together to become a Legendary Couple!
The Miracle Morning for Couples is your key to nurturing a fulfilling, lasting relationship with the one you love, and living a miraculous life together.
John Gottman’s unprecedented study of couples over a period of years has allowed him to observe the habits that can make—and break—a marriage. Here is the culmination of that work: the seven principles that guide couples on a path toward a harmonious and long-lasting relationship. Straightforward yet profound, these principles teach partners new approaches for resolving conflicts, creating new common ground, and achieving greater levels of intimacy.
Gottman offers strategies and resources to help couples collaborate more effectively to resolve any problem, whether dealing with issues related to sex, money, religion, work, family, or anything else.
Packed with new exercises and the latest research out of the esteemed Gottman Institute, this revised edition of The Seven Principles for Making Marriage Work is the definitive guide for anyone who wants their relationship to attain its highest potential.
6. 101 Questions to Ask Before You Get Engaged
More than half of all couples who become engaged this year will never make it to the altar. Why? Leading experts believe it’s because couples fail to really get to know their potential mate before getting engaged. Relationship expert and noted couples counselor Norm Wright steers potential brides and grooms through a series of soul-searching questions to discern if they’ve really met “the One.”
Couples will be much more confident about whether or not to pursue marriage after completing these in-depth and personal questions. Norm also addresses the delicate subject of calling off the wedding if readers discover that a potential mate isn’t actually meant to be a life partner.
7. The Good Marriage: How and Why Love Lasts
When it first appeared in 1995, The Good Marriage became a best-seller. It offers timeless clues to the secret of happy, long-lasting marriages. Based on a groundbreaking study of fifty couples who consider themselves happily married, psychologist Judith Wallerstein presents the four basic types of marriage — romantic, rescue, companionate, and traditional — and identifies nine developmental tasks that must be successfully undertaken in a “good marriage” — separation from the family of origin, up-and-down vicissitudes of early years, children, balance of work and home, dealing with infidelities, and more.
The men and women Wallerstein interviewed readily admit that even the best relationship requires hard work and continuing negotiation, especially in the midst of societal pressures that can tear marriages apart. But they also convey an inspirational message, for almost all of them feel that their marriage is their single greatest accomplishment. The Good Marriage explains why, and its lively mix of storytelling and analysis will challenge every couple to think in a profoundly different way about the most important relationship in their lives.
8. The Total Money Makeover: Classic Edition: A Proven Plan for Financial Fitness
Okay, folks, do you want to turn those fat and flabby expenses into a well-toned budget? Do you want to transform your sad and skinny little bank account into a bulked-up cash machine? Then get with the program, people. There’s one sure way to whip your finances into shape, and that’s with The Total Money Makeover: Classic Edition.
By now, you’ve heard all the nutty get-rich-quick schemes, the fiscal diet fads that leave you with a lot of kooky ideas but not a penny in your pocket. Hey, if you’re tired of the lies and sick of the false promises, take a look at this—it’s the simplest, most straightforward game plan for completely making over your money habits. And it’s based on results, not pie-in-the-sky fantasies.
9. Getting the Love You Want: A Guide for Couples
Originally published in 1988, Getting the Love You Want has helped millions of couples attain more loving, supportive, and deeply satisfying relationships. This 20th-anniversary edition contains extensive revisions to the groundbreaking book, with a new chapter, new exercises, and a foreword detailing Dr. Hendrix’s updated philosophy for eliminating all negativity from couples’ daily interactions, allowing listeners of the 2008 edition to benefit from his ongoing discoveries during his last two decades of work.
Finally, the information you’ve been waiting for to help you find and keep the right partner and make love last. A renowned expert on relationships and personal growth, and best-selling author of How To Make Love All the Time and Secrets About Men Every Woman Should Know, Dr. Barbara De Angelis explains everything you need to know about compatibility and shares secrets for making healthy love choices.
With powerful advice and groundbreaking techniques that have helped millions of people transform their lives, Dr. De Angelis will show you the formula for creating love that lasts. Whether you’re single and looking for love, married and wondering if you could be happier, in love and wondering whether your partner is right for you, or divorced and hoping to avoid making the same mistakes again, Are You the One for Me? will help you understand yourself and relationships as you never have before.
At the end of her bestselling memoir Eat, Pray, Love, Elizabeth Gilbert fell in love with Felipe – a Brazilian-born man of Australian citizenship who’d been living in Indonesia when they met. Resettling in America, the couple swore eternal fidelity to each other, but also swore to never, ever, under any circumstances get legally married. (Both survivors of difficult divorces. Enough said.) But providence intervened one day in the form of the U.S. government, who – after unexpectedly detaining Felipe at an American border crossing – gave the couple a choice: they could either get married, or Felipe would never be allowed to enter the country again.
Having been effectively sentenced to wed, Gilbert tackled her fears of marriage by delving completely into this topic, trying with all her might to discover (through historical research, interviews and much personal reflection) what this stubbornly enduring old institution actually is.
Which of these books have you read? Which would you recommend? Can you think of any which you think I should add to this list? Do let me know! Leave a comment below!
About Dr. Martha Tara Lee
Surrounded by friends who were sexually inhibited and struck by dire lack of positive conversations around sex and sexuality in Singapore, Dr. Martha Tara Lee set out to make a positive difference in embarking on her doctorate in human sexuality before launching Eros Coaching in 2009. Today, she remains dedicated to working with individuals and couples who wish to lead self-actualised and pleasure-filled lives.
She also holds certificates in counselling, coaching and sex therapy, and her fourth degree – a Masters in Counselling in May 2018. In practice for more than nine years, she is the only certified sexuality educator and certified sexuality educator supervisor by the American Association of Sexuality Educators, Counselors and Therapists (AASECT) in Singapore.
Often cited in the local media, Dr. Lee is the appointed sex expert for Men’s Health Singapore, and Men’s Health Malaysia. She was recognised as one of ‘Top 50 Inspiring Women Under 40′ by Her World in July 2010, and one of ‘Top 100 Inspiring Women’ by CozyCot in March 2011. She is the host of weekly radio show Eros Evolution on the OMTimes Radio Network. She has published four books: Love, Sex and Everything In-Between, Orgasmic Yoga, From Princess to Queen and {Un}Inhibited.
Martha works with individuals and couples in private coaching sessions, and conducts her own workshops. She takes prides in making sure all her workshops are also fun, educational, and sex-positive. This comes easily to her because even though she is extremely dedicated and serious about her work, she fundamentally believes that sex is meant to be fun, wonderful, amazing and sacred. As such, this serious light-heartedness has shone through again and again. For her full profile, click here. Email her here.
