“The Top 10 Dating Essentials”

isn’t a book about how to manipulate potential partners into dating you, nor is it about social etiquette on a date. It’s about knowing what’s important to look for in a partner, what makes a relationship work, and what you need to be working on with yourself. After three books on couple’s conflict resolution, and following up 2014’s “Top 10 Marriage Essentials,” Paul Shaffer’s “Dating Essentials” addresses what every dater should know about dating. The ten “essentials” details:

• Knowing what healthy actually looks like
• Moving past your own past
• Understanding your partner’s “type”
• Recognizing manipulation
• Mythologies of dating
• Knowing what to judge
• How to handle conflict
• Knowing healthy boundaries
• Respecting the time needed for relationship transitions
• What true intimacy looks like