Braving the Wilderness: The quest for true belonging and the courage to stand alone by Brené Brown
I think I’ve read all of Brene Brown’s books by now, and while they all start to run together, I think of them in aggregate as a “how to be a better human” required reading list. Or, listening, in my case, as I got it as an audiobook, read by the author. This one starts with an anecdote of when Brown didn’t make a cheer squad that she’d wanted to join as girl, and how much it hurt to feel like she didn’t belong. The general theme is that to belong everywhere, you have to stop trying to fit in and be true to who you are, to be true to your own values.
While there were several times listening to this book I felt the need to rewind 30 seconds to really grasp what Brown was saying, I think that this is going to be one of those books I have to listen to over and over again to really get it. Main takeaways are “talking smack about other people is fun but not a good way to make real friends” and “funerals and live concerts are good for the same reason–shared emotional experiences.”
The best thing about all of Brown’s work is that it’s based on actual research which she did herself. Also, she doesn’t suck as a writer or as a speaker, so she’s able to successfully convey the information she’d gained from this research. This book, like many of them, isn’t easy to hear, but it’s easy to listen to.
