Untamed by Glennon Doyle

Untamed by Glennon Doyle
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Yes and no. It's fun and she has some good ideas sometimes but her thinking and writing is a bit of a mess. She contradicts herself a lot and seems to know very little about academic feminism though she styles herself as the greatest feminist ever. I liked it, and I like her, but I can live without her consumerist version of feminism where you can do whatever you want (because it sells stuff). She doesn't even actually behave that way in real life, instead trying very hard to do good and help people through community organizers. To that end, she seems to suspect there's more to feminism but because she hasn't given it any real study, she doesn't realize she's cherry-picking from contradictory feminist camps. I am not an expert either, but I know enough to know her philosophy is flawed. As I said though, I loved a lot of her ideas (possibly the ones appropriated from her therapist but I'll take it). Her type of Christianity is very similar to mine (though not completely) and I appreciate that as well.

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Love Warrior by Glennon Doyle Melton

Love Warrior by Glennon Doyle Melton
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

My review isn't entirely about just this book. I read her first book, Carry On, Warrior: Thoughts on Life Unarmed first. That one shows her sense of humor more than this one, and based on that one I know I like her and appreciate her take on things. This second book is a better memoir, with a better chronology, story, and better writing. However, if you haven't read the first one like I did, you might think she takes herself a bit too seriously. Having read both, I think the tone of this one is more serious both because she's facing a significant crisis but also because she's revealing a lot more intimate detail about both her and her husband. I think this one is a better memoir, but the other one shows more of the real her, or at least in combination with this one shows more of the real her.

One strange thing is that because of her public nature, everyone knows more about the status of her relationship than this book actually reveals by the end.

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Carry On, Warrior by Glennon Doyle Melton

Carry On, Warrior: Thoughts on Life Unarmed by Glennon Doyle Melton
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

More of a collection of essays on accepting yourself and others rather than an actual memoir, though we do learn a lot about the author in her essays. The essays are inspiring and she has some very good points about parenting and religion.

From a memoir aspect, we get an incomplete view of who the people in her life story are. To some extent, we learn about the author herself, but most of the other people are presented as somewhat flat. How am I to resolve who her husband is for example? He models and cheats on Glennon for years without confessing but also agrees to give all their money away to charities twice in their marriage. I just have no sense of who this person is or why he does the things he does. Same for "Sister" and her parents. She wrote a sequel and I think I heard it fills in these blanks more, so I look forward to reading that.

Overall, I agree that her bravery in honesty is probably helping a lot of people.

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