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azureyoshi's review against another edition
2.0
I liked her first book (Self-Compassion) more. This one feels like an awkward mishmash of various concepts, including Buddhism, feminism, and uncomfortably personal stories about her autistic son. The ideas aren't bad, but I wish the execution was better.
time4tori2read's review against another edition
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
4.0
This book came to me at the right time when I needed to work on being the "mama bear" for myself and be fiercely self-compassionate. I appreciated the reflection questions/exercises throughout the chapters to practice and study as a way to connect Neff's points to ourselves. I will be returning to those exercises to center my journaling.
han_reardonsmith's review against another edition
1.0
I really didn’t resonate with this one. Lots of junk science and really reductive stuff on something that is actually deeply complex. It’s a book that’s focussed almost entirely on convincing you that you need to be more self compassionate and the how is oversimplified into a few fairly hollow feeling exercises. This isn’t the route to greater self compassion for me.
nil033's review against another edition
Lacks self awareness, big autism mom vibes
cherrie_bluhd's review against another edition
2.0
I wanted to like this book more than I actually did. I think much of her analysis of feminism felt surface-level and limited to her own (white, cishet, middle class) values and perspectives. It was hard to not feel like the book was a little out of touch sometimes with its goals and intents in that respect (For example — her use of ‘transsexual’ in the book was cringe-worthy at best). Many of the exercises in the book appear helpful and I would like to try them myself, but I feel as though they would have been even more impactful and profound if they were rooted in a more in-depth understanding of contemporary intersectional feminism and it’s issues. It appears as a useful toolkit in need of much adaptation for my own purposes and best serve relevant political forces. bell hooks’ “All About Love” stands out to me as much more thorough, thoughtful, and useful, in comparison to this text. However, I am a big fan of self-compassion itself and think it’s uses do outweigh some of the flaws I felt in the book.
olsen1022's review against another edition
hopeful
informative
reflective
slow-paced
5.0
Read slowly to process all the complex concepts
angelamichelle's review against another edition
3.0
I think often now of this concept of balancing my fierce and compassionate parts. For me, and for women in general, it can be hard to balance the two. I can tend to overplay my compassionate, gentle side and then swing wildly to my fierce side. I’m learning that everything works better when I hold both in balance together.
corrye_11's review against another edition
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
4.25