The Player Slayer: The Pocket Guide to Jamming the Player's Game by Ms. T is her humorous guide to recognizing and avoiding common dating & relationship pitfalls brought on by people following other dating guides' advice, oriented towards heterosexual women* wishing to not settle for someone who doesn't treat them with respect just because modern North American society has this obsessive fixation on pairing people up, but probably also useful in general terms for other genders and orientations assessing their potential relationships and developing more realistic expectations and setting mutual ground rules, free courtesy of publisher Agate.
This apparently was designed as an anti-"The Rules" (
Wikipedia) which advocates changing your behaviour in certain probably personally detrimental and communicatively dishonest ways in order to "catch" a mate, and I like how in the introduction the author openly states that if you're reading this hoping that you'll be able to get that one person you want to change their wayward ways just for you if you just do this and this and that†, you're better off putting the book down and picking up
Lord of the Rings or
Interview with the Vampire or some other fantasy to read, because that's exactly what that sort of expectation is. It's funny because it's true!
So this seems like it's packed with potentially useful and sensible advice.
Currently free @
B&N (may also drop in the
UK) &
Amazon (not available to Canadians, but also free in the
UK) &
iTunes (not available to Canadians). This may also be free at Google Play US, where previous fellow MR member comments have indicated that Agate freebies have been showing up recently, but their books don't even exist in the Canadian catalogue, so I can't pull up a URL for you, sorry.
Description
The Player Slayer is an outrageous and hilarious guide on how to defeat, reject and otherwise deflect the players in your life. It’s a real world revision of The Rules, an urban answer to He’s Just Not That Into You.
With steel-sharp wit and cutting insight, “Ms. T” breaks down both the player and the game. Most importantly, she shows you how to turn yourself from a “mark”—alone, outraged and disappointed—to a “slayer” strong enough to withstand even the best game.
Ms. T blows away the whole “don’t hate the player, hate the game” smokescreen to reveal what makes a player a player, what makes his game work, and why women get beaten up in the game. This down-and-dirty guide will leave you empowered with the knowledge to outwit, outlast, and outplay even the player’s player.
* Insert obligatory "strong enough for a man, but made for a woman!" joke here.
† No really, Kids, Don't Try This At HomeŽ. It never works out well.