Saturday, April 14, 2012

Book Review: The Nest-Newlywed Handbook


The Nest-Newlywed Handbook
            Author: Carley Roney and the Editors of TheNest.com

Alright so here is the deal this book is indeed great….but as far as I could tell is doesn’t align with research very well. That is not to say it doesn’t point out some great tips and advice for newlyweds, because it does. But the book doesn’t refer to and cite research to back up their advice. Therefore, I recommend the book but ask you to keep that in mind.

The book is described as an owner’s manual for marriage! It is an offshoot of the very popular wedding website The Knot. The Nest started as simply an online community where girls could share their issues. Now, The Nest has grown into a weekly webzine, a print magazine and now this book series! The author Carley Roney is the editor in chief of both TheKnot.com and TheNest.com. The book claims to be an owner’s manual for marriage because they feel they are the experts on marriage. The authors also have had thousands of married couples contribute their knowledge to help develop the book. 

The quality of the real life application is fantastic! It is full of checklists, self-assessment quizzes, tips, pros and cons lists, quotes, ect!! This book gives you shopping lists, date ideas, a money lingo dictionary, budget worksheets, trip planners, again ect! I could go on and on about how easy this book is to apply to the everyday life of a newlywed. Also, I am sure there is an answer to your question because it carries a broad range of topics including: money, the home, friends and fun, in-laws, sex, kids and others.

The thing that I enjoyed about reading this book is that I enjoyed it. It was as simple as that! The quality of the writing is very entertaining. It is written in an easy to understand, real life conversation way. As you read the book you feel as if a good friend of yours is giving the advice. (That could be the only potential reason that I could think of that they didn’t include research, to possibly make it more like a friend relaying some advice? I don’t know, just a thought!)

All in all I feel like this is a great tool for the newlywed to tackle many subjects that may be touchy. It gives couples a give of neutral ground to bring up some delicate subjects. For a lot of readers they simply appreciated the fact that the book is a good conversation starter. I experienced this as well! I have been married now for 9 months and some topics in the book sparked a conversation between my husband and I where I learned things about him that I wouldn’t have even thought to ask directly. It was quite fun!

Roney, C. (2006). The nest-newlywed handbook. New York: Clarkson Potter Publishers.

1 comments:

Janey said...

I think this sounds like a great book and i also plan to look at the website and the web-magazine as well. Although it isn't well backed by research, I think that it will be very helpful especially at the beginning of the marriage. You did a great job of reviewing this and I am excited to get some useful information from this book. Thank you!

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