Spousonomics, by Paula Szuchman and Jenny Anderson

OK, so we're not exactly reading this book together, but I'm hoping that my postings may entice you to.  If not, at least you can get some of the info from it, as I wanted to make this outline anyway for my own benefit.

I’ll start by giving a summary of the book while offering a brief analysis and evaluation.  In short, I’ve been drawn into to this book not just for what it says about relationships but for the unique way it offers wisdom about human behavior.

Spousonomics, by two journalists who cover economic issues for WSJ and NYT, applies principles they have learned about economics to marital relationships.  They define marital relationships as any committed relationship, but it is clear that they are talking about people who have promised fidelity to each other, which covers most couples in the US.  Furthermore, they are clearly writing to an upper-middle class, urban (eg NY) audience, judging by the kinds of details and examples they provide.  Fortunately, this bias includes you and me, bourgeois as we are, but it makes sense because this group is probably as invested in (and have benefited the most from) the capitalist principles put forth in the book as anyone.  Given all of that, it’s one of the most rational and helpful books on marriage that I’ve come across, and it is mercifully free of much of the men-Mars, women-Venus stereotypes that pervade the genre.

In my next few posts, I'll be breaking the book down, chapter by chapter, to provide what I see as the main points and concepts of the book.