I loved the topic of the book and the real-life stories of marriages were very real and therefore painful to read. The author explores the topic in an entirely anecdotal way and doesn't pretend otherwise, so the book is much less academic than, say, Judith Warner's writing about marriage and motherhood. I was disappointed in her discussion of ways to do marriage differently in that it was focused on various versions of nonmonogamy rather than rethinking the frantic child-centric households that are so ferociously celebrated in the media. Also, nearly ALL of her "research" is conducted on marriages between highly educated and wildly successful spouses. I'd recommend it as a browse through chapters that sound interesting to you.