Relationships (Re-energising, Bringing the Spark Back)

Book Recommendations on Bringing the Spark Back into Your Romance/Re-energising Your Relationship

 

(a) The Forty Rules of Love (Fiction) by Elif Shafak 

 

An incredible meditation on love through the story of the protagonist, Ella Rubinstein, her husband and their three teenage children. On the surface Ella’s life looks wonderful, yet Ella feels a profound emptiness in her inner life. Upon reading the love story of the poet Rumi and Shams of Tabriz by an unknown author, she sets out to meet him and, on this journey, she invites readers to explore Sufiism with her and consider a new world of faith and love that might be painful at times, but worth the quest. A wonderful book that invites us to explore our own complex feelings in our relationships. 
 

(b) The 5 Love Languages (Non-fiction) of Gary Chapman 

  

This is a remarkable book on the later stages of a relationship – how do you make it work once you’ve moved on from the romantic phase. How do you renew your feelings, maintain desire and passion, all the while managing everyday issues and the domestic routine of life? 

A New York Times bestseller, The 5 Love Languages, invites people in relationships to discover the ways in which they can help your relationship flourish and keep it fresh. The book guides us on how to give and receive love, and create a pathway for a deeper and enriched romantic experience.  There's also a couple’s personal profile assessment that will help you assess the love language that you and your partner speak.   

  

(c) Getting the Love You Want (Non-fiction) by Harville Hendrix 

 

This is a slightly older book, published in the late 1980s, that’s helped lots of couples reach a more satisfying relationship. Dr Harville Hendrix shares anecdotes and wisdom of what makes a great relationship after drawing from his experience as a ‘love and relationship’ psychologist of thirty-years-plus.  

 

Looking for something more specific? Get something more tailored with our personalised book prescriptions within 48 hours. 

You might also find it helpful to explore these feelings in a bibliotherapy session or learn some bibliotherapy techniques to help you process these feelings by completing our online Bibliotherapy, Literature and Mental Health course or our book Bibliotherapy: The Healing Power of Reading.

A big hello and thank you for reading! Passionate about literature, psychology, and life I launched Book Therapy as an alternative form of therapy using the power of literature. I train mental health professionals, librarians, teachers as well as readers on using bibliotherapy in their own work through our online Bibliotherapy, Literature and Mental Health course. We also curate reading lists/personalised book prescriptions for clients based on their individual needs. This is our signature personalised reading service.

You can also check out Book Therapy’s other free reading lists and A- Z of book prescriptions (covering both fiction and non-fiction). These suggest books based on your existing life situation (e.g. anxiety, job change, relationship heartache) as well as interests (e.g memoir, historical fiction, non-fiction, crime etc). There’s also a Children’s A — Z of Book Prescriptions. Feel free to check out the blog for more literary gems. There’s also a post on my personal story of how I entered the world of bibliotherapy and book curation.

In this role, I have had the opportunity to publish two books called Bibliotherapy: The Healing Power of Reading and The Happiness Mindset, and write various literary essays and pieces for newspapers and magazines. I have undertaken bibliotherapy workshops for The United Nations, various libraries in New York and corporate organisations in the UK and US. My book recommendations have featured in the Guardian, Marie Claire, NBC News, Asian Voice, New York Observer, Sydney Telegraph and various other publications. If you are a parent you might enjoy a podcast I’ve recorded with speech and language therapist Sunita Shah on Raising A Reader & Storyteller. And if you’d like to connect, email me at bijal@booktherapy.io or www.booktherapy.io.

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