Life After Your Lover Walks Out: A Practical Guide

admin — Mon, 12 Feb 2007 03:59:00 +0000

This is, indeed, a practical guide; think of it as a seventy-nine-page crash-course on how to get over a breakup.

Bevan, a fifty-nine-year-old charity manager and radio relationship counselor who is on her third marriage, makes no bones about her own past relationships. Throughout this short book, one feels as if Bevan, who lives in Wales, is coaching the reader by saying that if she has gotten through relationship bumps, they can too. Ignore the typos – and the fact that the cover design looks like a heart made out of pieces of dried-out steak – and it's a quick but helpful read for the newly dumped.

When describing the grieving that accompanies the breakup process – the book is specifically for the partner that's been walked out on – Bevan may be a bit melodramatic at times. (A reference to "lovingly touching" an ex-partner's clothes with "tears running down your cheeks" come to mind.) But she offers very specific advice on a variety of topics – sex with a new partner, handling finances, talking about the breakup with children, if there are any – in a refreshingly straightforward way.

The best thing about this book is that, unlike other self-help tomes, it isn't full of Dr. Laura-type, shrewish suggestions about how to change who you are to lure your man (or woman) back. The tone of the book is essentially positive, direct and at times even humorous. In chapter two, for instance, asserting that the dumped partner doesn't deserve to be unhappy, Bevan ascertains that "Unless you are a mass murderer, rapist, or pedophile, you don't deserve to be unhappy."

How's that for affirming your right to bliss?

Written by: M.L. Madison, February 11th 2007

Trinity of ChocoLove

admin — Wed, 07 Feb 2007 12:26:00 +0000

By Painter Girl Chocolates

It may shock you to hear that I'm not a fan of chocolate. (You may pick your jaw up from the ground now.) I've become familiar with the looks of disbelief after I make this radical confession. So why would a girl who doesn't like chocolate want to review the dreaded confection? Well, from time to time I get a hold of something that gives me hope, and I'm not afraid to be proven wrong.

Thanks should be given to Chloe Jo for making me privy to Painter Girl Chocolates, a company that makes me glad I'm not dogmatic in my sweets aversion. The Animal Print Chocolate bar was artful and delicious. I tried The Snow Leopard, a white chocolate bar with literal spots of dark chocolate. The sweetness is cut by a slight lemony flavor, which accents the white chocolate quite nicely.

Another cute and tasty goody is the aptly named Caramel Paint Tube. As you may have gained from the appellation, these have gooey caramel stuffed inside dark chocolate and comes in the shape of a squeeze tube of paint. The taste is creamy and (dare I say) divine, just the right mix of this classic combination.

The last treat I sampled was a cinnamon sprinkled Bon Bon that comes wrapped in colored foil. Uh... yum! This chocolate is rich and decadent, which means you only have to eat one to get your fix. (But for those on the opposite side of the chocolate adoration continuum, you might think differently.)

With Valentine's Day just days away, you can either wait until the last minute and give your loved one some quick and thoughtless gift, like flowers from the corner store or a cheap bottle of wine, or you can buy that special someone one of these fabulous chocolates and feel good knowing that the profits benefit the New Orleans Center for Creative Arts. Now that's what I call spreading the love.

Written by: Mandy Van Deven, February 7th 2007