Simply Informative, May 14, 2007

By Charles Mcdonald (Phoenix Metro_ AZ) –
  

This review is from: The Five Love Languages: Men’s Edition: How to Express Heartfelt Commitment to Your Mate (Audio CD)

I enjoyed this book on many levels. It presented such an easy concept, yet very hard to identify if untrained. I have learned how to identify what actions to help those around me feel loved by me. It helps to learn the love languages so that you aren’t putting out alot unrealized effort to show love that isn’t recognized as so. I have noticed a difference in the response of my children, and my wife. I have also been able to identify my own love language and in turn have been able to express my desire to my wife. This book is a good, informative, and thought provoking read.

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Your marriage doesn’t need to be in trouble to read this book, December 31, 2005

By Esther Schindler (Scottsdale, AZ USA) –
  

This review is from: The Five Love Languages: How to Express Heartfelt Commitment to Your Mate (Men’s Edition) (Paperback)

I’ve been happily married for over a quarter century. My husband is my best friend, as well as business partner, lover, and the person I giggle with most often. We’ve encountered a lot of people who wonder how we are still in love, while their relationships failed, or when they found themselves in well-upholstered traps. And the truth is that I don’t really know what we’ve done differently; the only thing I can say is that we make it safe to communicate with one another. Surely, there’s more to it than that? I admit I was intruiged; the author of this book says that we each express (and need) love in one of five ways: quality time, acts of service, gifts, physical touch, and words of affirmation. While I find the (over?) simplification a little *TOO* simple (there’s one anecdote that could as easily have come out of the Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus book), I also think there’s a bunch of truth in his “five love languages.” Based on Chapman’s definitions, my husband and I are motivated by the same “love language.” That probably makes it easier for us to make each other happy; it’s easy for me to give based on what I want to get. (I.e. I’d love it if he made me a cup of tea when I have a cold, so I tend to make him a cup of tea. In our case, that works. Someone else, who feels most loved with Gifts, would be more cheered by finding a rose on his pillow.) I also see how some relationships I’ve observed (my parents, for instance) had built-in friction because they wanted different things — one wanted to hear supportive words, and the other wanted “acts of service.” So yeah, I can buy into this stuff. Not obsessively so, but it’s another useful way to help us understand one another. The Five Love Languages is a quick and easy read, and like a lot of such books there’s a lot of repetition and plenty of anecdotal examples. (A friend once pointed out that most “relationship” and self-help books have the major message on the cover, usually in the title.) Some of the text is overkill, a bit, but not annoyingly so. It does stay interesting. If you aren’t a practicing Christian, you might be a little less thrilled with the book. While Chapman isn’t heavy handed about the Jesus references, and I dare say they make his message palatable to Christians (“…I also had the feeling that if the experiment was going to get off the ground, it would be because of Ann’s deep faith in God”), I sure didn’t need to hear it. It never reached the fingernails-on-blackboard stage for me, but you might be more sensitive to such things. (Or, if you’re Christian, it’ll help you find a context for his message. I don’t really think it’s necessary, though.) Overall, I’m glad I spent a couple of hours reading the book, and I see a few ways that I can put it to work. It’s worth reading.

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Same book, different wrapper, May 30, 2009

By Richard A. Cotte –
  

This review is from: The Five Love Languages: How to Express Heartfelt Commitment to Your Mate (Men’s Edition) (Paperback)

If you’ve already read “The Five Love Languages,” don’t waste your money since it’s the exact same book with minor changes in print style to make it more “masculine.” There are a few minor additions at the end of each chapter, focusing his recommendations more to the men’s point of view. However, billing this as a separate edition is nothing more than false advertisement.

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