Mini-review of "An Affair of the Mind" by Laurie Hall

I was looking through my book reviews on Amazon and realized that I should be sharing at least those reviews of the best books. I do have a backlog of books I would like to blog about and encourage others to review, so I'll have to get busy on those. Meanwhile, here are my brief comments on An Affair of the Mind by Laurie Hall. As a network administrator, now and then I encounter evidence of how widespread and pernicious internet pornography can be, and I want to do what I can to fight it. I'm sure there are by now a good number of first-person books describing the effect of pornography and sexual addiction on the spouse and family, but so far this is the only one I've read. Whether or not it's the best, it is definitely worth reading. My comments on the book:

The author writes from the heart, avoiding superficialities, intellectualization and spiritualizing. Her journey has not been smooth or easy ... this is not a success story with a fairy tale ending. I have to disagree, however, with the reviewers who think it is too pessimistic and without hope. The progress seen by the end of the book (which is certainly not the end of the story) is marked and more representative of the healing in addict families than is a quick, happy ending. Good insights on forgiveness, especially regarding the pain that it involves. After reading this book, I found myself wondering whether it should be required reading for pre-marital counseling. Given that the problem is so prevalent, would earlier awareness of the issues promote their resolution before the sexual addiction and family patterns cause such destruction?