It's a Breakup Not a Breakdown is written by Lisa Steadman who is known as "The Relationship Journalist"(TM ) and "a multiple-breakup survivor."  With a keen woman sense, the author offers us well-conceived plans to survive a breakup in ten charming chapters.  Ten chapters were intelligently laid out (in pink and brown text with occasional pink extracts from Boyfriend Files and Breakup Chronicles), befriended us and gave us the comforting presence of a helping hand.

Lisa covers the major parts of breaking up, such as post-breakup rules, pitfalls of post-big breakup recovery, how to move on, how to live/love your life to give single gals a good name, how to wake up, and how to find your perfect partner.  Sometimes the author offers a "Post-Breakup To-Do List" that sounds so humorous and yet is so humanly practical.

Although categorized as non-fiction, Finding It Again reads like fiction.  It is designed for both the busy person and the not-so-busy person.  What do I mean by that?

For the busy person:  the book is divided into three parts, then each part is divided into three to seven chapters, therefore, if one doesn't have time, one can stop the reading after one chapter, next time, when one will have time to go back to the book, one can continue the reading without feeling any interruption of thoughts.  It's the very same technique that children authors use to write chapter books for children.

For the not-so-busy person:  it's a page turner, so you can finish it within one to three hours, depending on how fast you read it, how much thought you put into the authors' words, and how many interruptions you get in your daily life.

From story to story, from Naomi to Erin, to a stranger on the Internet, to Ellen, to Jordan, to Bonnie, the author has taken the reader onto a journey-his journey- to experience what it was like to look for love after 40, and after being divorced at 41 after 17 years of marriage.  I became submerged under the author's words and these women's stories.  Tears came to my eyes with Jordan's story.  Admiration invaded my spirit in Bonnie's story.

The author is Kenn Shapiro.  The book is not just a diary of his post-40 single life; it is also a reflection of multiple women's lives.

The reader will be delighted to learn that the author is a lawyer, a father, that he involved himself in community services and community service conferences, and that he's even been in the chocolate business.

You can also read his biography here at one of San Jose Public Library's databases, the Literary Reference Center: http://0-search.ebscohost.com.catalog.sjlibrary.org/login.aspx?direct=true&db=lfh&AN=49428300&site=lrc-live 

Seth Baumgartner's Love Manifesto by Eric Luper. Summer sucks for Seth Baumgartner. In one horrible afternoon he is dumped by his girlfriend who gives the lame explanation that she is “too comfortable” with him; he sees his father having a way too friendly lunch with a sexy woman who is NOT his mother and he gets fired from his job at the French fry stand in the mall. Understandably, Seth is feeling pretty confused and angry about love and relationships. To try to sort some of this stuff out and to blow off some steam, Seth starts recording an anonymous podcast called the Love Manifesto. In it he wonders about the absurdities and mysteries of love such as why normally sane people are "stupid enough to go back for more." He plays appropriately emo music. And he gives a blow by blow account of his “secret” mission to find out who his father’s mystery woman is. As you might have guessed, as the Love Manifesto gains in popularity, its creator’s identity is no longer a secret. That’s when stuff REALLY hits the fan for Seth. This book is a lot of fun; complete with loyal, wise-cracking friends, golf, lots of laughs and maybe even another shot for Seth at figuring out this thing called love.

Available in EPUB format, check out Seth Baumgartner's Love Manifesto from our OverDrive downloads page, download it, and start laughing.

No, no, no. You can't come to the library looking for a date. Well, actually, I suppose you can. After all, they do say "Check out a librarian!" But what I mean is that in this modern world where most of us are sitting at computers for most of the day, you can turn that screen time to productive use in finding that special someone. Oh, there are lots of online dating sites out there. And you may even have been brave enough to try out one (or two...). But here is how hip your library is: You can find materials on how to (and how NOT to) do it at the library!