Reviews tagging 'Suicidal thoughts'

Tiny Beautiful Things: Advice on Love and Life from Someone Who's Been There by Cheryl Strayed

16 reviews

waytoomanybooks's review against another edition

challenging emotional funny hopeful inspiring lighthearted reflective sad fast-paced

5.0

Love love love this book. It’s cliche, but it really did make me both laugh and cry. This memoir came to me at exactly the right time and place in my life. I only ever hold on to books I rate five stars, and this one has earned its place. Sugar/Cheryl kindly, lovingly, and patiently gives advice, which stems from stories from her own personal life. She is as vulnerable with her readers as her readers are with her. It feels like I’m reading a conversation between two friends.

There are two quotes towards the end of the memoir that I feel capture the essence of the advice Sugar/Cheryl gives:

“It was a becoming that I would not have dreamed was mine” (323)

“Your life will be a great and continous unfolding” (351).

I highly recommend this book. And if you like this one, then you will also love How to be a Person in the World by Heather Havrilesky/Ask Polly.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness and Grief

Moderate: Death, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Homophobia, Infertility, Misogyny, Drug abuse, Medical trauma, Transphobia, Sexual harassment, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Toxic friendship, Body shaming, Child abuse, Addiction, Alcoholism, Child death, Cursing, Pregnancy, Racism, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, Terminal illness, Injury/Injury detail, Miscarriage, Sexism, Violence, Pedophilia, Panic attacks/disorders, Rape, Abandonment, Drug use, Eating disorder, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Bullying, Dysphoria, Infidelity, Physical abuse, Abortion, Chronic illness, Classism, Fatphobia, Medical content, and Suicide

sreddous's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad fast-paced

5.0

It's so satisfying when you find an author who writes in a way that really clicks in your head. I love advice blogs like Dear Sugar and Captain Awkward and so I was eager to just grab a book format of Dear Sugar's columns.

I LOVE the way Sugar writes. The balance of sweet and gentle but also firm makes so much sense to me. There are some gorgeous, highly-quotable moments here. There are some heartbreaking stories. I felt gut-punched by a lot of these stories and questions. I believe Sugar knows just when to use long, flowery sentences and short, hard-hitting ones.

I see some other reviews saying that the advice doesn't work for them because a ton of these answers/columns involve Sugar telling her own stories as comparison -- this is a fair critique, but for me personally, it really really works. My brain likes to see a "similar yet different" story that also "tells the same moral/arrives at the same conclusion", so if your brain also works similarly, I definitely recommend this. But, I can see why Sugar's "here's a story that happened to me that's kinda relevant" format might not work for everyone. Still, it worked like heck for me.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault and Child abuse

Moderate: Emotional abuse and Drug use

Minor: Suicidal thoughts

jessmbark's review against another edition

emotional funny hopeful inspiring reflective fast-paced

4.25

This book made me cry real tears three times as someone who lost their parents and as a twenty-something woman. 

That said, sometimes it felt like Strayed told a lot of her own story instead of addressing the writer's. If you like those podcasts or TikToks that discuss Reddit AITA posts, you will like this book. Many thanks to the mentor who recommended it to me. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Toxic friendship, Adult/minor relationship, Sexual assault, and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Religious bigotry, Abortion, Addiction, and Xenophobia

Minor: Terminal illness, Abandonment, Suicidal thoughts, Fire/Fire injury, and Murder

readbyroska's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring lighthearted reflective relaxing fast-paced

5.0

Read it if any of the following applies to you, and you can’t find your peace:

you’re feeling lost, hopeless, not good enough, deserving but unlucky, regretful, guilty, ashamed, disempowered, confused, heartbroken, lonely, isolated, alone, misunderstood, underachieving. 

Read if you are a partner, wife, husband, mother, father, boyfriend, girlfriend, daughter, son, child, friend, fuck buddy, teacher, student.

Read it if you don’t have anyone in your life who can love you and know you but still tell it to your straight. 

You will find something here for you, so sift through and find it.

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Content Warnings

Minor: Child abuse, Suicidal thoughts, Sexual content, Miscarriage, Infidelity, Dysphoria, Alcoholism, Toxic friendship, Sexual violence, Abandonment, Death, Domestic abuse, Pregnancy, Pedophilia, Mental illness, Homophobia, Gaslighting, Alcohol, Suicide attempt, Panic attacks/disorders, Emotional abuse, Cursing, Toxic relationship, Self harm, Child death, Classism, Car accident, Religious bigotry, Bullying, Abortion, Incest, Addiction, Cancer, Transphobia, Rape, Grief, Fire/Fire injury, Death of parent, Sexual assault, Physical abuse, Eating disorder, Drug use, and Drug abuse

koplomps's review against another edition

hopeful inspiring sad medium-paced

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Infidelity, Incest, and Sexual content

Moderate: Alcoholism, Body shaming, Car accident, Child death, Rape, Suicidal thoughts, Homophobia, Miscarriage, Cancer, Child abuse, Pedophilia, Toxic friendship, Abortion, Bullying, Grief, Addiction, Abandonment, Chronic illness, Cursing, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, and Infertility

blue_skye's review against another edition

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault, Sexual content, Child abuse, Sexual harassment, Violence, Suicidal thoughts, and Sexual violence

absolutely_court's review against another edition

emotional hopeful inspiring reflective fast-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Minor: Death, Death of parent, Grief, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Child abuse, Drug abuse, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Addiction, Gaslighting, Homophobia, Mental illness, Pandemic/Epidemic, Physical abuse, Rape, Self harm, Sexual content, Ableism, Abortion, Child death, Cursing, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Toxic relationship, Incest, Infidelity, Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, and Toxic friendship

bootsmom3's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

3.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Dysphoria, Cursing, Domestic abuse, Infidelity, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Suicidal thoughts, Addiction, Child death, Homophobia, Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, Cancer, Sexual content, Death, Death of parent, Drug abuse, Drug use, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Grief, and Terminal illness

questingnotcoasting's review against another edition

emotional reflective sad fast-paced

4.0

This isn't the sort of book I normally read but after re-reading Wild last month but I thought I'd try it because I really like Cheryl Strayed's writing. This isn't traditional self help because Strayed includes stories from her own life in her answers which is what I enjoyed most about it. It meant I could understand where her advice was coming from. Fortunately I can't relate to most of the problems in the letters but her advice still feels valuable because of the way she writes about universal human nature. I listened to the audiobook and it felt particularly special because she narrates it herself. Some of the letters were really heart-breaking and her advice was sometimes the opposite of what I was expecting and altogether it made for a really fascinating reading experience. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Mental illness, Pedophilia, Violence, Miscarriage, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Terminal illness, Abandonment, Grief, Homophobia, Infidelity, Death, Drug abuse, Child abuse, Child death, Death of parent, Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, Medical trauma, and Suicidal thoughts

iamnita's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring lighthearted reflective relaxing slow-paced

5.0

This book was suggested by a friend, and I couldn't thank her more for the recommendation. It is told in a series of letters to the people writing in, and they describe issues they're dealing with and Dear Sugar responds. The responses are sometimes long-winded before you understand why that story was told, and that made it more endearing. I absolutely plowed through this book given that it reads quite fast, and the individual letters don't take too long before you want to read another. Just a gem. A definite to have on the shelf and flip through from time to time.

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Content Warnings

Minor: Addiction, Cancer, Cursing, Alcoholism, Grief, Infertility, Physical abuse, Emotional abuse, Toxic relationship, Suicidal thoughts, Stalking, Sexual assault, Rape, Pregnancy, Child death, Death, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Eating disorder, Infidelity, Mental illness, Toxic friendship, Terminal illness, Murder, and Miscarriage