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meekoh's review against another edition
3.0
Untamed is a woman’s journey to self-discovery and embracing feminist narratives at the age of 40. Doyle is a late bloomer and therefore can sometimes come across as privileged and naïve. For example, at the age of 36 with a husband and three kids she does not know how to book a flight because quote – “my sister usually does easy things for me.” Doyle also never thought to raise her son as feminist or acknowledged the existence of harmful male stereotypes until 5 years ago while watching CNN. Nevertheless, I get it; this is a story of growth not of perfection.
The author definitely has some blind spots. Doyle’s stance on friendship is to embrace her unwillingness to invest any effort into maintaining them. She does not want anyone to text or call her and is undaunted by leaving messages unanswered. However, her eureka moments throughout the book are usually framed by calling a friend and frantically asking for advice or exploring her issues. Doyle does not appear to see the irony in this. It is a strange approach for someone who lists empathy as her superpower.
As is common with self-help books, Doyle sometimes comes off as overly presumptious or simplistic with her advice. In particular, during the two instances when she mentions mothers with dying children. It felt wrong to hear someone speak on such a traumatic topic in which they lacked lived experience or education.
Don’t get me wrong, I understand why people love this book. There are some exceptional chapters and passages. Doyle makes great use of metaphors to conceptualize feminist ideology. She also knows which stories to present to convey emotion and understanding. The cheetah metaphor, the Touch Tree concept, the answer to the God conflict, the notion of anger revealing boundaries, modesty vs. humility, the hot yoga story, the midnight/pearl poem about Abby… all great moments.
I wish my enjoyment of this book was more linear but for me it was pretty up and down. I was either engrossed or bewildered.
The author definitely has some blind spots. Doyle’s stance on friendship is to embrace her unwillingness to invest any effort into maintaining them. She does not want anyone to text or call her and is undaunted by leaving messages unanswered. However, her eureka moments throughout the book are usually framed by calling a friend and frantically asking for advice or exploring her issues. Doyle does not appear to see the irony in this. It is a strange approach for someone who lists empathy as her superpower.
As is common with self-help books, Doyle sometimes comes off as overly presumptious or simplistic with her advice. In particular, during the two instances when she mentions mothers with dying children. It felt wrong to hear someone speak on such a traumatic topic in which they lacked lived experience or education.
Don’t get me wrong, I understand why people love this book. There are some exceptional chapters and passages. Doyle makes great use of metaphors to conceptualize feminist ideology. She also knows which stories to present to convey emotion and understanding. The cheetah metaphor, the Touch Tree concept, the answer to the God conflict, the notion of anger revealing boundaries, modesty vs. humility, the hot yoga story, the midnight/pearl poem about Abby… all great moments.
I wish my enjoyment of this book was more linear but for me it was pretty up and down. I was either engrossed or bewildered.
hammock_and_read's review against another edition
4.0
This was a great listen via audiobook.
This is one of those books that I will just say Read it. Some People are going to love it and not stop talking about it but others will hate it. It’s also going to make a lot of people uncomfortable but in a good way. I listened to the audiobook which I like for memoirs and I think this book is that mix of self help and memoir. It does read/listen more as blog posts, just an FYI.
I read her first one and I liked this one much better. It has way less churchy preachy in it but still some parts I liked way better than others. It also talks about issues white ladies don't like to talk about ie aboration, sexisim, the parchicy society we live in and controls us, and racism. Along, with the big one we hate white privilege. Really like the parts about women getting back to their childhood freedom and self with creativity and not caring so much.
This is one of those books that I will just say Read it. Some People are going to love it and not stop talking about it but others will hate it. It’s also going to make a lot of people uncomfortable but in a good way. I listened to the audiobook which I like for memoirs and I think this book is that mix of self help and memoir. It does read/listen more as blog posts, just an FYI.
I read her first one and I liked this one much better. It has way less churchy preachy in it but still some parts I liked way better than others. It also talks about issues white ladies don't like to talk about ie aboration, sexisim, the parchicy society we live in and controls us, and racism. Along, with the big one we hate white privilege. Really like the parts about women getting back to their childhood freedom and self with creativity and not caring so much.
lina973's review against another edition
4.0
It took me a while to get through this book. At first I thought there was unnecessary sections that seemed repetitive. However it wasn’t until I came away from the book that I realised how all of it was needed. It brings so many things to light that at first seem obvious and then afterwards seem to change your whole outlook. Would recommend !
lovelyday2day's review against another edition
3.0
A lot of good with this book. I loved how it came through so clearly that the author knows herself. Very powerful and inspiring.
Many of the stories were ones I have already thought so much about since reading and know I will continue to do so. At the very end she retells a story from her previous book about going to yoga class. I had found it very moving in Love Warrior and liked this too.
My complaints were around tone in some sections - gets deeper into motivational speaker type language. There are some really short stories or sections that I would have loved fleshed out; some longer ones I was ready to end sooner.
And Abby Wambach plays rec league soccer.. was not expecting this. Now I am really wondering how many other elite athletes do this.
Many of the stories were ones I have already thought so much about since reading and know I will continue to do so. At the very end she retells a story from her previous book about going to yoga class. I had found it very moving in Love Warrior and liked this too.
My complaints were around tone in some sections - gets deeper into motivational speaker type language. There are some really short stories or sections that I would have loved fleshed out; some longer ones I was ready to end sooner.
And Abby Wambach plays rec league soccer.. was not expecting this. Now I am really wondering how many other elite athletes do this.
jennc0720's review against another edition
2.0
Probably against the majority here but this book didn’t so it for me at all. I felt like the author was just talking herself up and raving about how wonderful she was the entire time.
saralynn95's review
emotional
funny
inspiring
fast-paced
4.5
okay i was really hesitant before reading this but it was REAALLY worth the hype