I found this book by looking for a list of books about long-term relationships and making them work. This was a very good read, not so much for relationships exactly but a way to frame your own thinking and life to get the most happiness out of it. She repeats throughout the book that you cannot control other people but you can control yourself. Making yourself happy makes the people around you happy.
Would highly recommend.
The parts of the book that take place on earth can be a slog. Always wanting to get back to the interesting Proxima planet. It was alright!
I'll be honest. Consider Plebias was kind of a slog in the back half to get through. But my God the universe Banks created was just too interesting to not keep going. As for this book the player of games this was much much smoother going down. It was a really detailed look at the actual culture and how it deals with other civilizations. I really enjoyed this book. So much I got the third in the series right away. I can only hope it's more player of games ish and less consider Plebias ish.
I actually enjoyed the history of the post office and in a very real sense how it created America. It got a bit depressing getting to the modern times realizing how much cooler the post office could have been with savings banking and electronic mail delivery and security.
It was a good book and I highly recommend it.