Rising Strong by Brené Brown

Rising Strong by Brené Brown
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Some good stuff in this one regarding shame. Science doesn't necessarily agree with Brown that you should never retaliate against bad actors though (and it hardly seems fair that someone else's bad behavior always reflects negatively back on your own shame somehow). Civilization is largely built on social consequences for bad individual actions.

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Daring Greatly by Brené Brown

Daring Greatly: How the Courage to Be Vulnerable Transforms the Way We Live, Love, Parent, and Lead by Brené Brown
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I didn't love it. I wanted to love it. I've been reading a lot of scientific research on mindfulness, self-compassion, self-improvement, and happiness lately, and this just doesn't stand up to a lot of the other material that I've been reading. (If you're curious just look at mindfulness list.) I think that if this were the first or only such book I read I would have appreciated it more.

This one is mostly just about self-compassion and self-love. The way to convince yourself that you are worthy of love is by engaging in courage, compassion, and connection. Hard.

Update 1/2018: I read it again and liked it much better this time. I'm not sure why. Maybe I wasn't considering each of her points separately and completely before. Maybe because I've read more feminist writing since then? Technically, this isn't specifically feminist because she discusses how the same issues of vulnerability, fear, and shame corner men, but it still resonates with feminist themes. (And expecting men to act in gender-conforming ways is also part of what feminism opposes.)

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