5 New Books That May Help You Improve Your Love Life

Money and Love: An Intelligent Roadmap for Life’s Biggest Decisions

by Myra Strober and Abby Davisson

It’s crucial to keep rationality-clouding emotions from steering you wrong when you’re trying to make work, love and other kinds of important decisions. So say Strober, a labor economist and Stanford professor emerita, and “social innovation leader” Davisson. The authors advocate using their “5Cs method”: clarify your priorities; communicate with others involved in the decision; choices (consider a wide range of them); check in with others and listen to other perspectives; and consequences, which should be carefully thought through. The idea is that our personal and professional lives are often so intertwined that decisions about love or money need to be made strategically, while keeping both in mind.

8 Rules of Love: How to Find It, Keep It and Let It Go 

by Jay Shetty

Shetty, 35, is host of the podcast On Purpose and author of the best-selling 2020 book Think Like a Monk: Train Your Mind for Peace and Purpose Every Day, which offers lessons on living your best life based on Zen principles Shetty absorbed while living in India as a Hindu monk for three years. He offers similarly monk-like wisdom in his new book, presenting love as a daily practice, like meditation, that requires effort and attention. Love is not about “creating a perfect relationship,” he writes, but rather “learning to navigate the imperfections that are intrinsic to ourselves, our partners and life itself.” His first chapter is about finding comfort in solitude; the ability to do so, he argues, is important for developing healthy connections with others.  

Gray Love: Stories About Dating and New Relationships After 60

Edited by Nan Bauer-Maglin and Daniel E. Hood

The editors have compiled a diverse selection of essays by 45 men and women, ages 60 to 94, about the challenges and joys inherent in making and building romantic connections in their older years. They offer a wide range of perspectives. One woman describes how she found a partner with the help of a pricey matchmaker, and a few say they are divorced and happy with their independence. Some express exasperation with online dating, while others say they’ve relished even the fleeting encounters it’s afforded them (a woman who’s been on 39 first dates over nine years, for instance, writes that she got “something from everyone”). And many say they have had the best sex in their life in their later years.