Optimist's Guide to Divorce | How to Get Through Your Breakup and Create a New Life You Love
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THE OPTIMIST’S GUIDE TO DIVORCE

THE OPTIMIST’S GUIDE TO DIVORCE

How to get through your breakup and create a new life you love.

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HOW TO BE AN OPTIMIST

HOW TO BE AN OPTIMIST

Learn to listen for the good and focus on what's going well.

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CREATE A DIVORCE CLUB

CREATE A DIVORCE CLUB

Find support from people you trust who share their advice, experience and inspiration.

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For the more than one million women who get divorced each year, welcome to your support group.

Shortly after their marriages ended, Suzanne Riss and Jill Sockwell realized that the best way through divorce is with the support of other women who understand what you’re going through, who know the practical issues as well as the emotional ones, and who can help you keep a sense of hope and a sense of humor. Brimming with stories and insights, from-the-trenches tips, and sanity-saving takeaways, The Optimist’s Guide to Divorce (buy now at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Indiebound, Workman, iBooks, Google, Kobo) is a girlfriend-to-girlfriend guide that prepares you for each phase of divorce, from having “the talk,” to figuring out where to live, to co-parenting with an ex, to rebounding and rebooting your life. Covering the process from start to finish, this comforting and uplifting book makes it easy to jump in no matter where you are in your journey. And, even better, to make the choices that will ultimately help you develop a better relationship with the one person you’ll be with for the rest of your life—yourself.

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  • "A valuable resource for recently divorced women who need to get back on track."

    - Starred review in November 15th issue of the Library Journal

  • "A chorus of relatable, emotional, and true-feeling stories about the many facets of divorce that will have newly single advice-seekers feeling less alone and more sure they’ll get through it, too."

    - ANNIE BOSTROM, Booklist

  • “An excellent, easy-to-read tour of the twisting roads you’ll need to travel to get through a difficult divorce in the best shape. Full of practical, compassionate, sometimes humorous, always wise advice from the women of the Maplewood Divorce Club.”

    - LAWRENCE BIRNBACH, PhD, author of How to Know If It’s Time to Go: A 10-Step Reality Test for Your Marriage

  • “Like having a heart-to-heart with a compassionate, no-nonsense best friend. It’s chock-full of wisdom, practical advice, encouragement,and what every woman in the midst of a divorce needs the most: hope.”

    - CYNTHIA L. COPELAND, author of Good Riddance: An Illustrated Memoir of Divorce

  • “The Optimist’s Guide to Divorce is a straight-talking fount of information for your heart, sanity, and soul during the horrendous slog of divorce. It’s the book (and club) I wish I’d had—peace of mind on every page and more useful than your best friend. Buy it.”

    - V.C. CHICKERING, author of Nookietown

  • “The authors take you by the hand and make the journey with you. This really is a guide to a new life—to a new you—so enjoy the journey with two very wise guides.”

    - DENNIS MERRITT JONES, author of The Art of Uncertainty: How to Live in the Mystery of Life and Love

Latest Blog Posts

  • The Roots of My New Life
    Suzanne Riss

    I’ve discovered that the community of women I met and relied on during my divorce has become the foundation on which I’ve built my post-divorce life. These women have become the people I turn to when I’m in a pinch or looking for someone to have dinner with, especially since......

    06.09.2017No comment
  • How We Tell the Story of Our Divorce Matters
    Suzanne Riss

    Do you see your divorce as the worst thing that’s ever happened to you? Or did it teach you lessons you needed to learn to cultivate more meaningful relationships in the future? Was it a disappointment so great you will never get over it? Or did it crack you open and......

    01.03.2017No comment
  • Cultivating Self-Reliance
    Jill Sockwell

    After my divorce, taking on new tasks and challenges that I’d never attempted before proved to be scary, but also healing. Living alone after I separated meant that when there was a jar with a too-tight lid, a shelf that needed to be hung, or a creepy-crawly thing in the......

    11.12.2016No comment

About the Authors

When Suzanne Riss (left) and Jill Sockwell met several years ago, they were determined to make the best of what felt like one of the worst times of their lives. They wanted the pain of their separations to be a catalyst for something better. As optimists, they wanted to challenge the notion that divorce is necessarily one of the worst things that will ever happen to you. Their weekly “walk and talks,” powering through their neighborhood, sharing what they were learning about divorce and their hopes for the future, became the start of this book.

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