You, too, can become a test reader

To counter the impression some readers of this blog might have of the book Man Overboard if they haven’t read it but saw crime writer Peter (blow to the) Temple’s comments in a recent blog, I am listing a representative array of responses from my panel of 150 test readers*:
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*You can also become a test reader. The Book is available in full in the first blog on this site.
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People from all walks of life and age groups "test read"
the Book. The testers indicate that women love it. ("It is a validation
of how every woman feels but fails to communicate to her husband."
40 year old Gold Coast businesswoman. "It spoke to my heart and
represented me and my deepest needs, desires... Just reading it
freed something inside of me." 35 year old woman from North Carolina.)
The practical examples of romantic initiatives are endorsed by
women: “The moments I remember in my romantic journey were
moments like these.” Female marketing director, cultural institution.
Men in crisis love it: Male, 25, MD, digital company, relationship in crisis
"Your book is fantastic... it made me smile, tear, feel uncomfortable,
wonder, think and most importantly learn."
Male, 40+, MD, ad agency, divorced "I've read a lot of these books.
When my marriage was on the rocks I read many of them and found
most of them a waste of time. Anyway to you book. I like the fact that
it's short. I think too many of the books I read were just filling space
because they had too. Men from Mars is a good example. I also like the
quotes you have scattered through the book. I found myself moved by
some of the anecdotes about your own relationship. I think many
American books are not as frank about how hard this is. Relationships
involve a lot of pain and insights are
in my experience hard to come by. You've been pretty frank about
how hard it is and I think that's somewhat comforting.
It's a good idea - most books in this space are too long
and a bit idealistic."
Male, 35, Senior Executive, IBM, divorced:"I loved it! I think you have
captured the ‘woman’ side of the story perfectly… that is pretty
much the story I pieced together during my breakup…. There are
some great pearls of wisdom in there… you are definitely onto
something, and it’s short enough
that a bloke will actually read it!"
Male 55, CEO communications consultancy:
“Where was this when I was being divorced… twice!!”
Other writers love it: “It’s a cracking read.” Paul Ham,
author,” Kokoda”
“You have some fantastic material. You offer a unique
perspective that in a way rolls the debate back 50 years,
yet is a radical alternative. It will be very controversial which
will be good for sales and your profile.” Jill Margo,
MEN’S ISSUES writer, Australian Financial Review
Finally it checks out with counsellors as valid: Female, 52,
Marriage Guidance Counsellor, divorced: "Started to read
your book at work today… very difficult to put it down…
found it very informative, funny at times,
but very sad to think we hurt each other so unnecessarily…
Robert is keen to read it… I think women will love what you have to say…
your explanations of relationship patterns are pretty accurate from the
female perspective…"
Maybe these people were just being kind.
Here’s an email I received from a young man of Indian extraction 2 weeks ago. I had sent him the manuscript after he heard me speak to his Australian Graduate School of Management class in North Sydney.
“ I found it very interesting, sufficiently detailed and most of all short enough that I actually finished reading it. I particularly found some of the examples quite interesting as some of them came from quite a different perspective. Whist the information was laid out well, I found that some of the information I was eagerly looking for (like the three things for a successful relationship) was not brought out early enough. Maybe this was a tactic to keep the reader interested so that he would not want to put the book down, but I would have preferred a structure with the summary of the contents at the beginning of the book. To me, this assists in creating a mental picture right from the beginning and then I can insert the details into the correct positions as I read on. One other way to get structure could be to have hierarchies of Headings and to show maybe up to 3 Heading levels in the Table of Contents.
Without getting too much in to religion / philosophy, one other interesting observation I made was that the advice you provide on Self Defence with the three stages is very similar to the teachings of the Buddha in Buddhism. You fight the enemy by forgiveness, non-violent / non-aggressive actions and by compassion. Sounds easy but not so easy to put in to action.
Finally, I think you have achieved your intention of bringing the important pieces of wisdom from the various sources into one concise reference. Now, the next stage for me is to put some of the theory in to practice.

Best Regards,
Chanaka