Rating: 
Summary: Very helpful - Easy to understand
Review: Very easy to read and understand. The "workbook" section is great. The technical information is presented very clearly and straighforward. Although I am Catholic and happen to agree with most of the authors' comments, I think their tone is at times a bit too preachy and might turn off some people to an otherwise, very good resource.
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Summary: Excellent way to plan your family the natural way
Review: As an engaged person, this book is a great resource for learning about my body and fertility cycles. I had considered unnatural forms of birth control for the first few years of marriage, but after reading this book, I will never use them. There is much the so called "medical experts" do not tell you, and so much they do not know, especially about NFP. This book gives the facts as well as many examples of how NFP has worked for so many couples. I would recommend it to any engaged or married couple who wants to plan their family the natural way, according to God's plan.
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Summary: Awesome Option
Review: Drug free! Natural! 99% effective!What more could you ask for! We found this book to be invaluable in our efforts to both postpone and to achieve pregnancy!
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Summary: Excellent source for the science and the art !
Review: Yes, I'm Catholic and after wandering away (severely!)from Church teaching practice NFP. I think it is important to note that it is Natural Family Planning - not Catholic Family Planning. The book's strength is in its science of human nature and the art of interpreting the data. The theology is there for those who want to marvel at what God has created in human nature. I concur with the comments about the indexing and ability to find topics in the book. I hope this is something that the Kippley's can improve in the next edition. I also concur that it is not always easy to tell where the Church doctrine ends and the Kippley's application,opinion begins. I think the point here is that the Kippley's are living their faith very naturally and completely in all aspects of their life. I would encourage readers to read Kippley's Sex and the Marriage Covenant which addresses doctrine more clearly as doctrine. I would also suggest reading Familiaris Consortio, Castii Connubi, Humana Vitae - primary sources of Church doctrine before reading interpretations by Kippley, May and other writers. Not that interpretations are invalid, just that it is best to read primary sources first. Faith aspects aside... is there anyone who has read the Art of NFP and Taking Charge of your Fertility? This section needs a good review comparing the science of the two books. From what I read, it sounds like Kippley's may be stronger and that Taking Charge may present an ideology instead of theology - one of controlling rather than working with nature.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent Book on the Science and Art of NFP
Review: My husband and I have used Natural Family Planning for the past 2 years with perfect success. We learned the method from the Couple to Couple League [who publishes this book]. It changed our lives [MUCH for the Better] and we love using NFP. I tell everyone I can about how great NFP is and I think every single woman in the world has a right to know about it - FREE birth control that is HIGHLY effective without any negative side effects. You just can't beat it. That having been said, this book in particular is a great place to start if you are looking for information on the science and biology behind NFP and how it works, as well as all the study information on its effectiveness. I must admit my husband and I were VERY skeptical at first, and this book gave us all the scientific evidence we needed to be convinced. No other book I've found is as comprehensive as this one in explaining the science/biology behind NFP. However, there are some problems with this book. If you are not a Christian you will probably find the religious stuff annoying or useless. The authors are devoutly Catholic, but they are writing to all Christians - so this book should be fairly appealing to anyone with a Christian belief system. I also found the book organized poorly and the index in the back is totally inadequate. It is frustrating to try to find specific facts in the book when going back to use it as a reference. I think this book might be much harder for a lay person to understand without taking an actual class on NFP [which I would recommend anyway]. The bottom line - you can't beat this book for facts, figures, and scientific data, but you will also get a heavy dose of religion and a confusing layout.
Rating: 
Summary: the Toni Weschler book is much more objective
Review: If you want the Catholic party line this is the book for you. However, "Taking Charge of Your Fertility" by Weschler will present the same information from a more succinct and empowering point of view that acknowledges both pros and cons in comparison to other methods.
Rating: 
Summary: A lot of information but poorly organized
Review: If you read this book, you will certainly learn a lot about natural family planning (a very effective method of birth control). However I found the writing style leaves much to be desired. For one thing, I believe the theoretical part (i.e. explanation of female cycles with all its hormones and effects thereof) should have been the very first chapter. How else is one to understand all the rules? If the authors had done this, many of the rules would be intuitively obvious. The theory should have been followed by a quick "overall" summary of the rules and subsequent chapters should then have dealt with all the little details, exceptions to rules, causes of failure, etc. In the first couple of chapters, there are constant references to subsequent chapters and admission from the authors that they are "getting ahead of themselves." Well, there is absolutely no need to get ahead of oneself in a well organized and thought out book. In spite of this there is also a lot of repetition! The authors also use unnecessarily confusing terminology. Why call the phases of the cycle Phase I, Phase II and Phase III when you can use descriptive names like preovulational, fertile and postovulational (or luteal) phase? The preachiness bothered me too. Although the book is obviously meant for a Catholic audience, NFP is for everyone and readers (yes, even Catholic ones) should not be made to feel guilty about avoiding pregnancy (i.e. as opposed to merely "spacing children"). If one is considering NFP as an alternative to artificial methods of birth control, she is to be commended for that choice, not covertly castigated for not being "open to life." If you can get past all the authors' biases, preaching, etc. there is a lot of important information to be gleaned from this book. The references are also quite useful. One suggestion though -- if you would like to learn NFP as quickly as possible and are not the least bit interested in Catholic theology regarding birth control, read Toni Weschler's book "Taking Charge of your fertility" FIRST (superbly written and organized)and then read this book. In their own way, the authors have obviously tried their best to be very thorough and they've managed to assemble a lot of very helpful information, especially for those who are interested in the statistics of success/failure rates. Inspite of all my criticism, I still think it's a good reference to have.
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Summary: good reference book
Review: I am Catholic and learned NFP from Couple to Couple League. I am in disagreement with the confusing way the Kippleys don't distinguish between what is Church doctrine and what is their opinion (i.e. co-sleeping, ecological breastfeeding) but this is a good reference book. Buy it!
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Summary: Good for Protestants too!
Review: As a protestant minister I want to highly recommend this book. Written from a Roman Catholic perspective, it is technically proficient and highly effective for the aid in conceiving or spacing children. We not only have used this book, but we now help other couples learn the method. It is interesting to note that until 1930 ALL Christian Churches condemned Birth Control as intristically evil, and that most Christian Denominations held to that position until well into the 1960's. This book gives you much to think about from a Biblical and Historical perspective, not just a Roman Catholic position.
Rating:
Summary: Wonderful -- even for NON-Catholics
Review: I am not a Catholic and I found this book very helpful and enjoyable. As for the instructional purpose of the book -- wonderful! My husband and I kept it at our bedside as our fertility bible both when we were postponing and attempting pregnancy. Because of this book successfully avoided pregnancy the first year of our marriage and then were able to conceive on the first try -- very impressive! We both learned many things about fertility that doctors had never told us and were able to pass on valuable information to friends. We also found our marriage strengthened through reading this book together and became confident about wanting to have our first baby. Although I'm not Catholic, I enjoyed learning what they believe and why because it challenged me to define what I believe about the creation of man and the meaning of marriage and family. It is comforting to find people with convictions about right and wrong who are not afraid to voice them in relation to common practices of our times. (I would have little respect for them if they said they were Catholic and yet spoke nothing about God in relation to having a family!) My only complaint is that I wish more information about early pregnancy was included. And, for the record, the author gives no "admonition" to say morning prayers while taking temps; they only mention that they found it was good time for doing so.
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