Brené Brown

I wanted to like this book more than I did. I mean, it was okay... but I wanted to be blown away.

Brene Brown is a household name. Like millions of others, I adored her TED talk and her Netflix talk - and every other talk I've ever seen her give. RISING STRONG is the first book I picked up by her, and I settled in expecting to walk away with some incredible nuggets of wisdom, information, and insight. Unfortunately, that didn't happen.

While Brown writes with honesty and vulnerability, she comes across as surprisingly unlikeable in this book: self-centred, self-indulgent and haughty, with a chip on her shoulder. She attempts to explain this behaviour through numerous stories, but I still came away thinking this wasn't a person I'd want to sit down and have coffee with. And that, more than anything else, really surprised me. I'll try another of Brown's books at some point, but I'm in no hurry to dive into her backlist.… (mere)

This is a beautiful book that shines a light on the deepest blindspot in me. I recently struggled to grapple with the alien concept of self-love and self-compassion. It's quite a new idea for me. When someone talks about leading with vulnerability, it always gave a 404 error in me.

Brene Brown is a leading researcher on shame and vulnerability, and this book is an eye-opener for me into a new world. The concept of shame and the critical voice in my head was like water for a fish, which, as David Foster Wallace says, was invisible to me. Brene brings the rigor of qualitative and quantitative approaches to this problem. She writes about this voice, the damages done, and tools to manage it.

In my current quest for better mental health, this book has equipped me with some essential tools and vocabulary to think and work on. Highly, highly recommend this short, wonderfully researched, and very well produced book.… (mere)