Mr Good Enough by Lori Gottlieb Collins, HK$104

Feminists shouldn't read this book because it will enrage them. As the title suggests, Lori Gottlieb reckons women should be prepared to settle for Mr Good Enough. The longer they wait, she argues, the less likely they'll find a mate: what man could be bothered with someone put out to pasture or, like her, already a single mum? Gottlieb returns to her early dating years to show the flaws in her ways. In her 20s, she chucked men for having the wrong colour hair (red) or for making up words (the writer in her could not accept such misdirected creativity). But then she realised the truth behind her 42-year-old girlfriend's dilemma. 'If I'd settled at 39,' the friend said, 'I always would have had the fantasy that something better exists out there. Now I know better. Either way, I'm screwed.' Gottlieb takes readers through speed dating and matchmaker-assisted meetings to find potential husbands. She also talked to marriage counsellors and divorce lawyers as well as singletons and smug marrieds. In the end, readers will have to make up their own minds about whether settling means giving up and whether they could be happy aborting the quest to find 'The One'.