Braving the Wilderness

Author: Brene Brown

One-sentence summary: Brene unpacks the concept of belonging and shows us what it really means and how that affects all parts of our lives.

B.A.D. Girls Book Rating: 9

Our favorite thing about it: We pretty much loved everything about this book. It was truth-telling, punchy, and an eye-opener.

Our least favorite thing about it: That we couldn’t have read it 10 years ago. (There were no things we didn’t like)

Main Topics of Discussion: Suffering, community, authenticity, vulnerability, disagreement, lonliness, hate, fear, anger (so, pretty much everything...)

Our favorite quote: “Belonging to ourselves means being called to stand alone – to brave the wilderness of uncertainty, vulnerability, and criticism.”

Notes: We all personally rated this book 8 and above. We universally loved it. The best thing, besides the overall message, was that we felt it was a perfect length to deliver the strong message Brown was trying to get across. Any longer and it would risk being repetitive and lose some of it’s power. Other thoughts:

• We loved that it was methodical and logical in the presentation of what belonging truly was. It was very easy to follow the “argument” or thought process.
• We loved the message of being yourself, don’t conform. For anyone or anything. This was a strong message.
• We loved reading about the bullshit phenomenon and the false dichotomy that comes up SO much in our lives. (You’re either for me or against me = fallacy)
• We loved her characterizing anger as ok – when it is a catalyst. Walk through the anger, pain, and fear, but don’t stay there forever.
• She touched on the idea of dehumanization and the “other” – all of it was SO good.

There is so, so much more I could write that we discussed. We highlighted so much in this book because the whole thing was perfectly concise and powerful. Almost every sentence was quote-worthy.

Memorable Meeting Moments: We had to go back to a Monday night (our old meeting night) for this month due to schedules. And Lindsay took us to a Korean restaurant for dinner!

What We Ate: Korean Food! We had tempura shrimp and steamed dumplings to share for an appetizer, and then we ordered lots of things – fried rice, beef bulgogi, pork bulgogi, Jap-che, rice.