How to Love is a comprehensive listing of the characteristics to look for as well as avoid when we embark on our search for a life-mate.

The list of virtues human beings use when hunting a mate includes Beauty, Courage, Flexibility, Honesty, Humor, Intelligence, Kindness, Loyalty, Optimism and Tolerance. Livingston, a psychiatrist, gives advice on how to improve these qualities in ourselves in order to attract someone with whom we can happily spend our lives.

Even more important, Livingston lists the types of personalities along with how to recognize them that we should acidulously avoid. The most obvious piece of advice is what your mother always told you: appearances can be deceptive, so look below the surface regardless of how attractive or unattractive it may be.

His practical advice should be a must-read for every teen, every person who is actively or even just considering dating, and every divorced person alive. That seems a sweeping statement, but this small book contains invaluable advice that can save relationships and—in very extreme cases—perhaps even lives.