3 Stars from me
Let me say from the outset that I am huge fan of Brené Brown’s work. I read all of her books, listen to her podcasts, watch her talks on Netflix and Youtube and I even have some of her inspiring quotes (there are quite a few!) up on my wall.
With this book, the design is great and the pages are lovely and thick, with photos, sketches and a pleasing colour palette.
This book though disappointed me. Perhaps I had misunderstood what this book was going to be. Usually BB’s work gives me an understanding or insight into how to change what I’m currently doing to ensure I’m a better person: a better worker, friend, family member. Here though, I felt belittled. The premise of the book seems to be that we are unable to correctly name our emotions and therefore we are unable to heal. I agree with that premise: we have to be able to talk about our emotions with detail and clarity. Early in the book, a survey of over 7000 people is referenced in which “the average number of emotions named across the survey was three. The emotions were happy, sad and angry.” I just can’t believe that the average person, or at least the average purchaser of a BB book, would not be able to name more than 3 emotions and that after all that work that they would not be able to talk in detail about shame, vulnerability, awe, disgust and many of the other words that are defined in this new book. Because that’s essentially what it is: a beautiful dictionary of emotions and nothing more.
Perhaps this book is intended more as a foray into this work? It certainly won’t challenge those of us who have been on the journey so far.