Here Comes the Bride (Women, Weddings, and the Marriage Mystique) 
by Jaclyn Geller (2001) – It’s safe to say Ms. Geller does not like marriage…at all. As much as it pains me to say this – Geller comes off as the stereotypical academic, angry feminist. Her lengthy analysis and historical facts are dead on and painfully honest, but at the risk that she even ostracizes her fellow feminists who chose to partake in this “negative hierarchical division.” This book is great for people who have no clue what marriage or a wedding is, but already know they don’t like the idea of it. Once you’ve passed the scathing commentary, you’ll be trampled by pages of wedding description that sound deceptively like a bridal magazine. Then there’s the C-list pop culture references that are so terribly dated it’s clear none of her research was done before the Internet really took off (as opposed The Feminine Mystique which remains almost timeless). Had Geller waited ten more years to publish, she would have had a much more poignant argument to make once she revealed that half the happy-wedded celebrities eventually divorced. The book’s research and feminist analysis are really quite good, but the effectiveness of Geller’s argument is lost in excessive, unnecessary detail and rampant, ugly emotions, to make matters worse after all is said and done she has no solutions to offer. (Subject: Feminism, Marriage, Weddings, Culture, History, Patriarchy)