Us by David Nicholls

“Of course, after nearly a quarter of a century, the questions about our distant pasts have all been posed and we’re left with ‘how was your day?’ and ‘when will you be home?’ and ‘have you put the bins out?’ Our biographies involve each other so intrinsically now that we’re both on nearly every page. We know the answers because we were there, and so curiosity becomes hard to maintain; replaced, I suppose, by nostalgia.”

Douglas Petersen may be mild-mannered, but behind his reserve lies a sense of humor that, against all odds, seduces beautiful Connie into a second date and eventually into marriage. Now, almost three decades after their relationship first blossomed in London, they live more or less happily in the suburbs with their moody seventeen-year-old son, Albie; then Connie tells him she thinks she wants a divorce.

The timing couldn’t be worse. Hoping to encourage her son’s artistic interests, Connie has planned a month-long tour of European capitals, a chance to experience the world’s greatest works of art as a family, and she can’t bring herself to cancel. And maybe going ahead with the original plan is for the best anyway. Douglas is privately convinced that this landmark trip will rekindle the romance in the marriage and might even help him bond with Albie.

Narrated from Douglas’s endearingly honest, slyly witty, and at times achingly optimistic point of view, Us is the story of a man trying to rescue his relationship with the woman he loves and learning how to get closer to a son who’s always felt like a stranger. 

I thought this was actually a pretty traumatic story. I'm so used to reading how couples meet and fall in love, but to have that side-by-side with the unravelling of that same relationship is just brutal!

It all unravelled in a very clever way. Each character was so relatable that I felt my allegiance shifting each time another clue to the demise of this relationship developed. It seems so obvious that Connie and Douglas are not right for each other, but that didn't mean I wasn't still hoping that they'd somehow work it out and their holiday would magically fix everything.

I give the story 4 stars, but the writing deserved 5 stars.

Read my review on Goodreads

Wild Connection: What Animal Courtship and Mating Tell Us about Human Relationships

"Animals don't feel badly about who they are, and unless animals are hunting or being hunted by predators, they don't spend their lives trying to look like or be something they are not. Maybe we can take our cues from them. I mean, have you ever seen a squirrel trying to act like a swan to get the girl next door? Not likely. Squirrels spend their time perfecting everything about being a squirrel. So, for all you squirrels out there, if you find that you are more squirrel than swan, your best bet is to embrace those acorn hoarding instincts in you and just be the very finest squirrel you can be."

Wild Kingdom meets Sex and the City in this scientific perspective on dating and relationships.

A specialist in animal behavior compares the courtship rituals and mating behaviors of animals to their human equivalents, revealing the many and often surprising ways we are both similar to and different from other species.

What makes an individual attractive to the opposite sex? Does size matter? Why do we tend to "keep score" in our relationships? From perfume and cosmetics to online dating and therapy, our ultimate goal is to successfully connect with someone. So why is romance such an effort for humans, while animals have little trouble getting it right?

Wild Connection is full of fascinating and suggestive observations about animal behavior. For example, in most species smell is an important component of determining compatibility. So are we humans doing the right thing by masking our natural scents with soaps and colognes? Royal albatrosses have a lengthy courtship period lasting several years. These birds instinctively know that casual hook-ups are not the way to find a reliable mate. And older female chimpanzees often mate with younger males. Is this the evolutionary basis of the human "cougar" phenomenon?

Fun to read as well as educational, this unique take on the perennial human quest to find the ideal mate shows that we have much to learn from our cousins in the wild.

This book is the best example of interesting, intellectual and hilarious. I loved reading it because I learnt lots of interesting facts that I can easily retell to friends and family, and it still made me chuckle in every single chapter.

It covered a diverse range of animal species, but there were still some interesting parallels to human relationships and behaviours. 

This was one of those books that I kept on my bedside table and picked up in between other books to read a few more chapters at a time.