Includes bibliographical references (pages 277-281).

San Francisco : after happily ever after -- Chile : surrender -- Mexico : never stop talking -- Maine : we're a team -- Denmark : make your house a home -- France : be your husband's mistress -- San Francisco : for better or worse -- Israel : secure your own oxygen mask first -- Kenya : it takes a village -- Holland : you didn't marry your job -- India : a little thanks goes a long way -- Meghalaya : money, money, money -- Sweden : bending gender roles -- Tanzania : conquer the world together.

"At age thirty-four, Jo Piazza got her romantic-comedy ending when she met the man of her dreams on a boat in the Galapagos Islands and was engaged three months later. But before long, Jo found herself riddled with questions. How do you make a marriage work in a world where you no longer need to be married? How does an independent, strong-willed feminist become someone's partner - all the time? Journalist Jo Piazza writes a provocative memoir of a real first year of marriage. A travel editor constantly on the move, Jo journeys to twenty countries on five continents to figure out what modern marriage means. She gleans wisdom from matrilineal tribeswomen, French ladies who lunch, Orthodox Jewish moms, Swedish stay-at-home dads, polygamous warriors, and Dutch prostitutes. Written with refreshing candor, elegant prose, astute reporting, and hilarious insight into the human psyche, How to Be Married offers an honest portrait of an utterly charming couple. When life throws more at them than they ever expected - a terrifying health diagnosis, sick parents to care for, unemployment - they ultimately create a fresh understanding of what it means to be equal partners during the good and bad times. Joe Piazza is the author of If Nuns Ruled the World, and the novel Knockoff.