#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • Over two million copies sold! “Packed with incredible insight about what it means to be a woman today.”—Reese Witherspoon (Reese’s Book Club x Hello Sunshine Book Pick)In her most revealing and powerful memoir yet, the activist, speaker, bestselling author, and “patron saint of female empowerment” (People) explores the joy and peace we discover when we stop striving … peace we discover when we stop striving to meet others’ expectations and start trusting the voice deep within us.
NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY O: The Oprah Magazine • The Washington Post • Cosmopolitan • Marie Claire • Bloomberg • Parade • “Untamed will liberate women—emotionally, spiritually, and physically. It is phenomenal.”—Elizabeth Gilbert, author of City of Girls and Eat Pray Love
This is how you find yourself.
There is a voice of longing inside each woman. We strive so mightily to be good: good partners, daughters, mothers, employees, and friends. We hope all this striving will make us feel alive. Instead, it leaves us feeling weary, stuck, overwhelmed, and underwhelmed. We look at our lives and wonder: Wasn’t it all supposed to be more beautiful than this? We quickly silence that question, telling ourselves to be grateful, hiding our discontent—even from ourselves.
For many years, Glennon Doyle denied her own discontent. Then, while speaking at a conference, she looked at a woman across the room and fell instantly in love. Three words flooded her mind: There She Is. At first, Glennon assumed these words came to her from on high. But she soon realized they had come to her from within. This was her own voice—the one she had buried beneath decades of numbing addictions, cultural conditioning, and institutional allegiances. This was the voice of the girl she had been before the world told her who to be. Glennon decided to quit abandoning herself and to instead abandon the world’s expectations of her. She quit being good so she could be free. She quit pleasing and started living.
Soulful and uproarious, forceful and tender, Untamed is both an intimate memoir and a galvanizing wake-up call. It is the story of how one woman learned that a responsible mother is not one who slowly dies for her children, but one who shows them how to fully live. It is the story of navigating divorce, forming a new blended family, and discovering that the brokenness or wholeness of a family depends not on its structure but on each member’s ability to bring her full self to the table. And it is the story of how each of us can begin to trust ourselves enough to set boundaries, make peace with our bodies, honor our anger and heartbreak, and unleash our truest, wildest instincts so that we become women who can finally look at ourselves and say: There She Is.
Untamed shows us how to be brave. As Glennon insists: The braver we are, the luckier we get.
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I don’t like the idea how she says that we shouldn’t follow societal norms or what other expect from us but then she is telling you what you should do to be like her or it feels like you have to believe and do what she says you should or your wrong which seems to be the opposite of what she preaches.
This book makes you consider and think. So much is in the book and as it is a memoir or autobiography or what have you there are is a lot of personal beliefs and values within this book. This beliefs may not be mine and they may not be yours but it allows you to consider these other thoughts. I liked three chapters of this book enough that they left an interesting impression in me.
Memos, Poems, and Boys are chapters that really made me think and consider. They have me still thinking and wondering more about how I can work on me and my Knowing of this chapters. How can I help myself and the world? I’m not a parent but I am an aunt. I am going to keep working on myself.
The three stars are because of language, lots of strong politics that while she is passionate about it didn’t hit a cord with me, and just overall not my type of book. Would not discourage others from reading, but it is not my recommendation either. I read it for a book club.
Glennon has an approach to saying things in a way that resonates with me. I found she also exposed me to some new perspectives on old ideas. This was a great book that covered many current topics.
This was another book I was super excited to read. I have seen so many people reading it this summer and everyone had so many great reviews about it. I did not think it was that amazing. I mean it was a good book, but it was not outstanding, and certainly not a book I would read again. It did have a lot of quotes in it I liked. She talks about her life and about living your best life and not living for anyone else but yourself. I think I am just disappointed, because I thought it was going to be more than what it was.
I had a harder time getting into this book than with Love Warrior. I don’t know if it was the format or that Doyle seems to contradict things she previously wrote, but it didn’t hold as much of a zing for me. That said, it’s well-written and the woman knows how to tell a story.
Me, and the rest of the world loved this book. Read it right now. Today. Your life will be better just from having read her words.
This book should be required reading for all women. It’s empowering, funny, and relatable and a great read for book clubs.
This was the right book at the right time for me. I have been interested/reading/listening to ideas about the evolution of awareness and this book definitely fit right in. I liked her succinct and witty way of getting her messages across. Really loved it and will look for her earlier books and probably the 2 by Abby also.
A book I can’t stop recommending to others and often even buying for others. I never wanted to read the last chapter and finish reading it but now I can just reread it and be inspired and challenged over and over again. Every woman should read this book.. oh yeah and every man should read this book too
I loved this book! The author delivers powerful soundbites of wisdom in an interesting way that keep your attention. This book has changed my mindset and is changing my life for the good. I will reread this because I want to have it all sink and help me in my life!
I am a goddamn cheetah too! A book that makes you feel all the feels there are to feel. Glennon’s honesty knows no bounds and it makes me love her all the more for it. What a woman, what a wonderful book to empower all women! May we keep on being cheetah’s together…
‘There comes a point where we need to stop just pulling people out of the river. We need to go upstream and find out why they’re falling in.”
When I first heard anything about Glennon Doyle outside of the “Oprah effect” was in an instagram post from Elizabeth Gilbert, and I was intrigued. What I found was even more intriguing, and I put this book on my TBR and my library list. Four months later I read it in 3 1/2 hours, posted quotes from the book and have told everyone I think might be interested to get a hold of a copy. And, it’s sitting in a virtual cart in a well known company.
This is a truly intimate and honest book….looking into the rise failure and discovery of so much more.Some are very uncomfortable when the apple cart gets upset, but when we begin to pick up the pieces and make the cart more equalised we become more authentic, and that’s not easy. Doyle challenges accepted norms and sets up a chance for anyone to live an authentic life. I LOVED this book. Highly Recommended. 5/5
[disclaimer: this was a borrowed library book
A few months ago I listened to the audiobook version of Doyle’s book. As a mother (of a daughter), a life & divorce Coach, as a woman, AND as a human, I found this book to be very important and topical. She tells it like she’s experienced it. And she adds poetry, passion, humour and critical thinking to all her chapters. I printed and posted this passage in my kitchen:
“Our minds are our excuse makers. Our imaginations are storytellers. So instead of asking ourselves what’s right or wrong, we must ask ourselves, ‘What is true and beautiful?’ Then, our imaginations rises inside us, thanks us for consulting it after all these years, and tells us a story.”
This book is doing extremely well and I can see why. I hope my teenager listens to it and finds empowerment and compassion within its passages.
This is a must read for women!!
I LOVE this book! I originally picked this book b/c it is a Hello Sunshine book club pick. This book is inspiring, uplifting, encouraging, and all the things a feminist memoir should be. With that being said, I do not agree on all the things this book said or all the things the author believes in. However, this is one of my top 5 best reads ever. Highly recommend this book. If you are looking for an awe-inspiring read, this is for you. If you are looking for a book outside of the norm, this is for you. If you are a woman, this is for you.
This book is a series of short, first-person essays documenting Doyle’s transformation from being “caged” to untamed. Her articulation of society’s cages was clear and simple and in sometimes obvious, but nonetheless, revelatory. Possibly a case of this memoir finding me at the right time, but it struck a very poignant chord. I listened to the audiobook narrated by the author which I found extra special. I think the book makes a great partner to Brene Brown who writes about vulnerability and shame from a social scientist’s point of view. In Untamed, Doyle portrays her personal struggle out of shame toward self-acceptance and self-love and a place where she eschews labels and categorization.
I recommend this book, a selection of essays mostly written about the last few years of Ms. Doyle’s life, for anyone who’s reached their 40s and are rediscovering who they are supposed to be or wondering why they are the way they are. This book won’t necessarily explain it for you, but you’ll definitely walk away with new insights about how we’re all still growing up even when we’re supposed to be adulted already. I highlighted a bunch of parts that I need to go back and re-read so I’m really glad I bought it.
I don’t read memoir because I usually think most memoirs that aren’t NIGHT by Elie Wiesel are self-indulgent BUT I want to put this book in the hands of every woman I love—no, every woman—and say READ IT. Rawrrrr! We can do hard things.
(The audiobook is fab)
LOVED! So true, so inspiring, my first book by this author, so timely. A must read for every woman!
This was my first read by Glennon Doyle. She’s a powerhouse writer with lots to share on how to empower women. She’s unapologetic in describing her journey from bulimic addict with a desire to fit herself into the smallest space possible to a woman living her truth married to another woman. An interesting, inspiring read full of wit and wisdom about how to live life on your own terms.