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madelinedalton's review against another edition
3.5
Minor: Eating disorder, Alcoholism, Drug abuse, and Infidelity
teatality's review against another edition
4.5
Minor: Eating disorder, Drug abuse, and Infidelity
emilinaballerina's review against another edition
4.75
Moderate: Addiction, Misogyny, Drug use, Eating disorder, Self harm, Alcoholism, Alcohol, Body shaming, Drug abuse, Infidelity, and Mental illness
thewellbitch's review against another edition
4.5
Moderate: Infidelity, Religious bigotry, Eating disorder, Homophobia, Racism, Alcoholism, and Drug abuse
jennabeck13's review against another edition
5.0
Moderate: Alcoholism, Addiction, Body shaming, Misogyny, Sexism, Eating disorder, Hate crime, Alcohol, Drug abuse, Gun violence, Infidelity, Racism, Drug use, Lesbophobia, Police brutality, and Religious bigotry
cinderrunner's review against another edition
4.5
Graphic: Alcoholism, Drug abuse, Grief, Eating disorder, Addiction, Infidelity, Lesbophobia, and Religious bigotry
swetha062's review against another edition
4.0
Minor: Alcoholism, Eating disorder, Mental illness, and Drug abuse
fenouil's review against another edition
2.75
Moderate: Drug abuse
thequeengeek's review against another edition
4.5
Now, I'm a little self conscious about the practice and about the material. Is it contributing to white woman nonsense? Am I somehow perpetuating privilege in a negative way by taking on this worldview? Is this all stuff I already paid to learn by a parade of very good therapists and group therapy and and and? Probably. Probably all of it.
HOWEVER hearing someone tell you that it's okay to listen to yourself and not please someone else and that you don't need to live in a little armored bubble fueled by shame and guarding against rejection is, in fact, nice. It's validating.
Enter this book. This is a more memoir-based version of the research based Brown's work. It tells stories about learning the hard way why "whole-hearted living" helps us and changes the course of our lives. It gives advice to stop asking for advice and polling and researching to make decisions and sit deep inside ourselves. It talks about stop living for the way you are supposed to be and start honoring who you are. Just more sobbing shower material.
I make fun of this, yes, but I do think that for a white middle class woman who struggles with unlearning the upbringing of the 80s and 90s, this is a good book. I want my friends to read it. I want to talk about it. And, honestly, it felt good to cry along with it. I did not always agree with her conclusion. I think that's okay. I did like hearing how she totally changed the order of her life and survived. It's a good reminder about parenting and expectations and honoring our children and our families.
This book isn't really about the content, though the content is good if you need it. But it's about the vibe. Sometimes she seems self indulgent, and sometimes a little unhinged, and sometimes you may think that what she says is completely selfish or won't lead to good choices. But I think that doing even a little bit of what she suggests could uncage us all.
I also read this book at the same time as When Women Were Dragons and the themes were so spot on that it felt like it enhanced my reading of both. I was happy that I was exploring rage, and social expectations, and making yourself small at the same time I was reading a modern book asking the same questions but directly AT me.
Look, I like this book. I'm couching it in all these caveats probably because I'm not just owning my feelings. Please read it and let me know when you are down shower crying so we can talk about it.
Graphic: Eating disorder, Drug abuse, and Alcoholism
kelly_e's review against another edition
4.0
Author: Glennon Doyle
Genre: Non Fiction
Rating: 4.00
Pub Date: March 10, 2020
T H R E E • W O R D S
Digestible • Reflective • Empowering
📖 S Y N O P S I S
Four years ago, Glennon Doyle—bestselling Oprah-endorsed author, renowned activist and humanitarian, wife and mother of three—was speaking at a conference when a woman entered the room. Glennon looked at her and fell instantly in love. Three words flooded her mind: There She Is. At first, Glennon assumed these words came to her from on high. Soon she realized that they came to her from within.
Glennon was finally hearing her own voice—the voice that had been silenced by decades of cultural conditioning, numbing addictions, and institutional allegiances. This was the voice of the girl Glennon had been before the world told her who to be. She vowed to never again abandon herself. She decided to build a life of her own—one based on her individual desire, intuition, and imagination. She would reclaim her true, untamed self.
💭 T H O U G H T S
I read Untamed in small weekly sections along with a handful of other women as part of an online group, and I am not sure if I would have picked it up otherwise. Reading and discussing it with other women really enhanced the experience as a whole and I definitely got more out of it than I would have had I read it along.
I decided the best way for me to consume this book would be by listening to the audio, which is read by Glennon herself. While I couldn't relate to many of the chapters and topics, the ones that I did relate to really struck a chord. Part memoir, part self-help, part essay collection, it is written in a way that is easily digestible. However, there really isn't a consistent timeline or flow to how it is organized. I didn't mind this, but I know it will not work for some people.
After listening to Untamed there is no doubt in my mind Glennon is an incredibly powerful activist and speaker. I could see how this book could easily rub some people the wrong way, yet for me there were parts which were empowering. I have since started listening to Glennon's podcast, and I would consider reading something else she writes in the future.
📚 R E C O M M E N D • T O
• Brené Brown fans
• book clubs
🔖 F A V O U R I T E • Q U O T E S
"She said this: 'I've spent the past week considering your question. I can imagine a thousand easier stories about mothers and sons. I can think of a million happier ones. But I cannot imagine a single story truer or more beautiful than the heartbreaking one I'm living now, with my boys.'"
"The truest, most beautiful life never promises to be an easy one. We need to let go of the lie that it's supposed to be."
"Perhaps the only thing that makes grief any easier is to surrender completely to it. To resist trying to hold on to a single part of ourselves that existed before the doorbell rang. Sometimes to live again, we have to let ourselves die completely. We have to let ourselves become completely, utterly, new."
"Depression and anxiety are not feelings. Feelings return me to myself. Depression and anxiety are body snatchers that suck me out of myself so that I appear to be there but I'm really gone. Other people can still see me, but no one can feel me anymore - including me. For me, the tragedy of mental illness is not that I'm sad but that I'm not anything. Mental illness makes me miss my own life."
Graphic: Addiction, Drug abuse, Eating disorder, Alcoholism, Mental illness, and Body shaming
Moderate: Sexism, Racism, Police brutality, Homophobia, Misogyny, Infidelity, and Religious bigotry
Minor: Vomit, Grief, and Pregnancy