Nolo's Essential Guide to Divorce - Emily Doskow [178]
Always Dad: Being a Great Father During & After Divorce, by Paul Mandelstein (Nolo), offers practical advice for dads trying to deal with the new world order after a separation.
Mom's House, Dad's House: Making Two Homes.1br Your Child, Revised Edition, by Isolina Ricci, Ph.D. (Simon & Schuster), is the classic text on dealing with shared custody.
Helping Kids Cope With Divorce the Sandcastles Way, by M. Gary Neuman, L.M.H.C., with Patricia Romanowski (Random House), helps parents understand what their kids are experiencing during divorce and offers practical advice for communicating with children and helping them to express their feelings. Includes sections for every age group.
The Good Divorce, by Constance Ahrons (Harper), offers hope for a postdivorce family structure that works and encourages parents to work hard on their own relationship as coparents after divorce, for the benefit of their children.
How to Parent with Your Ex, by Brette McWhorter Semher (Sphinx), has an interesting two-books-in-one format, with one side addressing parenting issues from a custodial parent's perspective and the flip side dealing with noncustodial parenting.
Communication
Difficult Conversations: How to Discuss What Matters Most, by Douglas Stone, Bruce Patton, and Sheila Heen (Penguin), has practical advice about how to prepare for difficult talks and communicate successfully about hard topics.
Crucial Conversations: Tips for Talking When the Stakes Are High, by Kerry Patterson, Joseph Grenny, Ron McMillan, Al Switzler, and Steven Covey (McGraw-Hill). This book appears to focus on business relationships, but its definition of a crucial conversation fits right in with what you'll be dealing with during your divorce: one where 11 .. (1) stakes are high, (2) opinions differ, and (3) emotions run high." It offers useful tools for planning and dealing with the difficult conversations that are inevitable.
Taking the War Out of Our Words: The Art of Powerful Non-Defensive Communication, by Sharon Ellison (Bay Tree Publishing). Using a three-pronged approach of questions, statements, and predictions, you can learn to communicate nondefensively no matter what your spouse is doing. The related website at www.pndc.com has tips and resources.
Emotional and Psychological Issues
Crazy Time: Surviving Divorce and Building a New Life, Revised Edition, by Abigail Trafford (Random House), focuses on the emotional difficulties of ending your marriage and the divorce process, and how you can come out of it and move forward.
Life After Divorce: Create a New Beginning, by Sharon Wegscheider- Cruse (HCI), offers an optimistic view of postdivorce life and promises to turn an event generally perceived as traumatic into a life-enhancing change.
Chapter 15 lists some additional titles that can help with emotional issues.
Estate Planning
Quicken WillMaker Plus is interactive software that lets you create a valid, state-specific will, trust, and health care directive.
Nolo's Simple Will Book, by Denis Clifford (Nolo), provides step-bystep instructions and forms to create a simple will. All forms come on CD-ROM as well as in the text.
Finances
Divorce & Money: How to Make the Best Financial Decisions During Divorce, by Violet Woodhouse with Dale Fetherling (Nolo), is a detailed, comprehensive guide to the financial issues involved in divorce. Includes lots of worksheets (on CD-ROM) that can help you make the important decisions about money and property.
The Complete Guide to Protecting Your Financial Security When Getting a Divorce, by Alan Feigenbaum and Heather Linton (McGraw Hill), is written by divorce financial planners and details how to make sure that what looks like a good settlement now will really benefit you in the long run.
Solve Your Money Troubles: Get Debt Collectors Off Your Back & Regain Financial Freedom, by Robin Leonard (Nolo), provides practical strategies for getting out of debt and making a fresh financial start.
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