Brene Brown, DARING GREATLY: HOW THE COURAGE TO BE VULNERABLE TRANSFORMS THE WAY WE LIVE, LOVE, PARENT AND LEAD

The title is taken from Roosevelt's "Man in the Arena" speech; the book is about vulnerability and the power we can find when we fess up to our fears and challenges without numbing ourselves to the anxiety they can create, or defaulting to "coping strategies" like perfectionism, which, as she points out, is a hustle. She explores differences in the way that shame feels to men and women; describes a practice that she calls "Wholehearted parenting;" and even discusses (my own personal soapbox) the cruelty that attends binary (Viking/victim) thinking. (She even brings up Derrida!) I liked this book--found it inspiring, thought-provoking, big-hearted, compassionate--and will look for her others. Thanks to my friend Nicole for sending me this one!