Stoic in Love: Ancient wisdom to make dating, domestic boredom and breakups a bit less terrible by Annie Lawson & Illustrated by Oslo Davis - #blogtour #bookreview

 

The path to love is strewn with swipes in the wrong direction, unanswered texts, declarations of love followed by silence, and disappointment when someone claims to be 30 and then tuurns up to a date looking like Dumbledore...

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The Blurb

You're on date #17 since your last relationship ended in flames, and within a nanosecond of meeting Doug at a bar you realise you've made a huge mistake. You head to the bathroom to text your mate Lizzy and complain about how your date says aaaahh after every sip of beer, seems to style himself after Donald Trump, and definitely sniffed your hair. Ten seconds later, you realise you accidentally texted this to Doug. You sit frozen on the loo, wondering if there's a back exit, or if you should fake your own death.

The philosophy of the Stoics can help us all navigate the life cycles of love, whether it's dating someone wearing horns and a kaftan, a relationship where blobs of toothpaste are left smeared in the bathroom sink, or being dumped via text with just one word – enough! Across 45 rules, from dating tips like Do your due diligence to relationship advice like Don't tell your partner to calm down to break-up wisdoms like Resist putting your foot in your mouth, Annie Lawson applies ancient wisdom to the modern world of being in love, out of love, lovesick, love-bombed or just love-tired.

Romance and its rocky pursuit often sucks but, fortunately, not always, and Stoic in Love helps us realise that we can all use a little help getting together, staying together, or moving on.

My Review

This is the perfect little book to read in snippets and is brilliant for dipping in and out of. 

It is broken up into three main sections Dating, Relationships and Breaking Up. Most of us will recognise ourselves in some of the elements that the author describes, and many of them caused me to smile or have a little chuckle to myself.

There are 45 individual areas where she discusses the pitfalls of the seeking/doing/finishing of a relationship. The author then provides examples of how the wisdom of the Ancient Greeks can be applied to modern situations such as ghosting and gaslighting. It is a unique presentation of a book on relationships and I enjoyed reading it.

It is full of amusing anecdotes from the authors own experience, along with a good dollop of sound advice.

The illustrations by Oslo Davis are of a cartoonish style and add another layer of amusement to the text.  

I would recommend this book.

Book Details:

ISBN:  978 1761500404

Publisher:  Murdoch

Formats:  e-book and paperback

No. of Pages:  224 (paperback)

About the Author

Annie Lawson is a former journalist who has had a diverse love life, from a first pash as a teenage with braces to several boyfriends including one who alphabetised cereal packets, and finally to marriage, which ended. This all taught her that the key to a good relationship is not only lots of storage, regular holidays at a nice resort and someone who is funny, but finding a partner to do nothing with. She now works on the dark side of the corporate world and is a devoted student of the

Stoics, taking every opportunity to apply their wisdom to life's hard things – from the workplace to matters of the heart.

(book and media courtesy of Random Things Tours)

(all opinions are my own)