I’ve read two of Brené Brown’s books, and I was intrigued by the premise of this book. She hinted previously at writing more explicitly about spirituality, and I wanted to hear her thoughts specifically on faith and community. This book surprised me and challenged me in ways I did not expect, and it’s going to sit with me throughout the next few years of this challenging and exhausting presidency. Brown starts, as she often does, with a pivotal moment in her life that challenged her […]
Liked it, wanted more.
I am 100% here for the messages in this book, but I do not think I am the type of person this book is aimed at. My book club read this for January, and I’m really glad we did! Honestly, I have it on audio, and I will probably re-listen to it every once in a while for a pick-me-up, but I know every time I do, my feelings about how awesome the things she’s saying are will clash with my feelings about the style this book […]
Rising Strong
Brené Brown tackles the tough topic of what to do when we are faced with one of those I’m-a-failure-at-life moments, when you feel like life has thrown you into a pretzel in a wrestling ring. Ms. Brown uses personal experiences as anecdotal evidence that she builds off of using her expertise as a social worker and her research and shares how readers can face these moments head on, process and analyze, and then become better prepared to face what life throws at us next. There’s […]
No one belongs here more than you
“I imagine one of the reasons people cling to their hates so stubbornly is because they sense, once hate is gone, they will be forced to deal with pain.” — James A. Baldwin In Braving the Wilderness, Brené Brown comes full circle to one of the first findings I ever heard from her: “the people who have a strong sense of love and belonging believe they’re worthy of love and belonging.” An important finding, but how do you get there? How do you feel worthy? […]
What happens when we fall? We rise strong.
We just got done with a rousing book club discussion of C’s pick, Brené Brown’s Rising Strong, which acts as a sequel to her highly-acclaimed Daring Greatly. I’m not one for self-help books, but Brown touches on something that most of us don’t think explicitly about and runs us through mental processes that affect our daily lives and self-worth. This book works best if you’ve already read Daring Greatly, because Brown talks us through the Roosevelt quote about lying facedown in the arena and uses […]
Daring Greatly, or, the TED Talk that is now a whole book
I struggle with how to review and rate books like this. In the first place, I feel like they aren’t for me. I typically don’t pick up “self help” or “personal development” books of my own volition; to wit, this was a monthly book club selection. That’s not to say that I am stubborn, that I refuse to get anything out of them, that I’m dismissive of their messages, or that I think they’re a waste of time — none of those are true. It’s […]