A Little Bit Married: How to Know When It's Time to Walk Down the Aisle or Out the Door

Seligson's tidy handbook takes a clarifying look at the confusing and often frustrating world of long-term relationships, those open-ended multi-year affairs that could be described as ""a little bit"" like marriage. Putting extensive research into practical, everyday language, Seligson starts by defining the phenomenon with both broad social context and acute symptoms (""Does he value bromance more than romance?""), developing snappy common-sense lessons (""Thou shalt not move in together to save money""). Practical advice for making decisions and carrying through follows; an especially honest and illuminating chapter on ""The Female Proposal"" focuses on the reasons for wanting to get married, asking readers to ""propose to yourself"" first. Seligson's breezy style nearly obscures her intense original research, including 120 interviews with relationship vets and input from 30 professionals (an appendix contains brief profiles of all 150). Seligson even includes research into the market for her book: according to the U.S. Census Bureau, one out of 10 unmarried couples live together-that's 10.4 million people, all of whom (and not just women) could benefit from this clear-headed approach to making the big decision: marry or move on.