Peace Between The Sheets
Marnia Robinson
(Reviewer - Rebecca Brown)
2003 North Atlantic Books
ISBN: 1583940871

Healing with Sexual Relationships. An enlightening antidote for people confused by the emotional chaos in their sexual lives.

Peace Between The Sheets poses several important & unsettling questions:
Why do so many relationships start out great & then fail?
Why are women & men at such odds with each other?
What if it is our misunderstanding of what sexuality is that makes us miserable?
What if our Western insistence that sex is sinful (which is not accepted at all by most other cultures) has impeded our ability to sustain harmonious & nurturing marriages?
What if this thing we call “falling in love” is meant to be fleeting, not as a foundation for lifetime partnerships?
What if we were to fully grasp what fuels our recurring sense of isolation from, irritability with & contempt for our sexual partners?
Why is it that when all the signs indicate that two people are “a perfect match”, yet within a surprisingly short span of time, they can't stand each other?
What if the chemicals which fire up our loins are the very ones that will, so shortly, herald our disillusionment?
What is the “cuddle” hormone, & why isn't it the friendly thing we expect it to be?

Marnia Robinson began by observing the collapse of her own relationships. She considered herself a modern young woman -- healthy, orgiastic & sound of mind. So why was it that she so quickly saw her partners' flaws & they hers? She began asking what did love have to do with it?

Then she began defining love, sex, biology & genes & what all of those had to do with the mating game & sustainable marriages.

Meanwhile, she had discovered the writings about sex of the Ancients from the East -- remember, outside of the Abrahamic religions many men had been pondering on this energy for generations & it had nothing to do with pornography! Then Marnia Robinson studied the chemistry of sex. From that study, candidly talking with her friends & lovers, & researching the subject both intimately & academically, she has written this fascinating exploration.

Peace Between The Sheets is divided into two sections:
Part I: Why:
• Why Do We Fall Out Of Love?
• Blind Spots
• Biology Has Plans For Your Love Life
• A Change Of Heart
• Outwitting Biology
• The Spread Of The Separation Virus
• Crossed Wires
• A Mystery Unfolds

& Part II: How:
• So You Want To Try It?
• In Case Of Emergency
• What Are The Ecstatic Exchanges?
• Impasse Checklist
• Adventures

With solid, scientific research, wisdom from the ancients & healthy doses of humor in the form of aphorisms from the trenches of the battlefront between the sexes, Peace Between The Sheets is a guide for all Readers who know there is something unhealthy, unsatisfying & unexplained in their sexual relationships.

Peace Between The Sheets is an earnest & hopeful, intelligent & amusing adventure in re-discovering our sexuality -- how it works & why; how it doesn't work & why. It then shows us how to re-train our bodies & our minds about doing “what comes naturally” & which, naturally, fails us in the long run. It is also a cleansing quaff of credible science, wisdom from the ancients, engaging memories, interesting exercises, & is, ultimately, a healing reflection on a subject that has tied the best of us up in knots.

Very well done. Peace Between The Sheets explains much of what I had gone through in the Free Love Era, & had never understood. I now look at my marriage, my sexuality & my Beloved in a gentler, kinder, more spiritual way. & the ecstasy? Ah, read the book & find out!

Ever since this author introduced her book to me via email, I have patiently awaited its coming hot off the presses, & like all anticipation of good things, when it arrived, I was deeply satisfied.

Marnia Robinson earned her B.A. in History at Brown University, & her law degree from Yale. She was recently the Director of Legal Services-Europe at Campbell's Soup. Currently she writes & speaks on relationships. She lives in Oregon. Her website is: www.reuniting.info.

Marnia Robinson will be interviewed in December 2003.
(11/30/03)

Rebecca