This month I am recommending Everybody Fights: So Why Not Get Better at It? By Kim and Penn Holderness. If you’re not familiar with the Holderness family, you should be. They are YouTube sensations who make funny song parodies. You might be wondering how being a YouTube celebrity makes one qualified to write a book on improving your marriage. It doesn’t.
What makes this book so interesting is that Kim and Penn put their own marital issues in the spotlight and then share how their own pastor/couples counselor helped them work through their issues. The advice of their counselor is solid, and it is actually really helpful to read about a “case study” where you can see your own issues normalized and improved by certain techniques.
A few caveats–the advice here is going to be most helpful for couples that are generally doing pretty well but are experiencing the typical stressors that arise over time. If your relationship includes abuse, infidelity, addiction, or intense conflict–you need more thorough help than this. I also think it’s helpful to primarily view this as an entertaining memoir where you might gain some takeaways for your own relationship rather than as a book that will change your life.
I typically like to share some quotes as teasers from the book I recommend to give you a stronger sense of what I liked about it, but I listened to this one and it’s a new enough book that I wasn’t able to find a list of favorite quotes from the book on the internet to reference for my post. You will just have to check it out for yourself to find your own favorite lines! The audiobook is read by Kim and Penn and is worth a listen.