El arte de vivir en pareja Book

I saw this book recommended somewhere online, and . . . ugh.

The basic premise was fine. Men like to focus on one thing at a time, in women's lives everything is interconnected. Great. They could have wrapped it up in once succinct paragraph. But they didn't.

I don't think the authors (husband and wife) are bad people, I believe their hearts are probably in the right place, BUT. Halfway through, the book was actually making me so mad that I thought about chucking it. The only reason I kept going was because I wanted to be able to write this review with the whole picture.

First off, I listened to the audio edition, narrated by the authors, and the wife was not a great narrator. There were mumbled and fumbled bits, which was distracting.

They talked about sex. In generals and hypotheticals were fine, but they used a handful of examples from their own bedroom. To which I would think: STOP! I DON'T KNOW YOU. This is TOO MUCH INFORMATION! (Maybe because I was listening to the audio edition? It was very personal and awkward to listen to.)

They had all of these sections that I think (hope?!) were supposed to be jokes. Where men do nothing but think about sex, and women are so brainless that they can't remember their ATM numbers or to release the emergency brake in their car (and all they want to do is shop, shop, shop!) This is what pissed me off the most. Over and over again, the women were made out to be idiots, who had not a thought in their pretty little head. It. Was. Not. Funny.

They also said something like: if a wife is not getting enough positive attention from her husband, she will start acting out by shopping and spending more money than she should, until he starts paying attention again. (Because really, women all act like 2 year-olds, and will act out to get negative attention if that's all that is available.)

And every once in awhile they would throw in some Bible verses. Which didn't make me like it more or less, but overall felt haphazard.

There was a section at the end that was more focused on child rearing that I didn't actively dislike. So, in finishing the book, my rating did improve. Instead of one star, they got two. And that is being generous.