Untamed/Doyle - 3 stars (barely)

[Anita]

I am not sure I've ever read a book that has stirred more contradictory feelings in me than this one. It makes it very hard to give it a rating. The sole reason I read it was that it was one of the few books on my shelf that fit this month's tag of leadership . . .

On one hand, I really liked Glennon's writing style. She drew me in with her anecdotes, her self revelation, and her sense of humor. I whipped through the book in no time, and I was definitely motivated to turn the page to see what (fill in a word here - outrageous, ridiculous, narcissistic, selfish, woke) thing she was going to say next. I actually really want to read her other two books now, so I give her kudos for being a great marketeer and an intriguing writer.

On the flip side, I am hard pressed to agree with much of Glennon's philosophy of life, and make no mistake, this book is more philosophy/self-help than it is a memoir. Her ideas seem to conflict. She a lot about paying attention to your "Knowing" which is some kind of inner compass (gut feeling?), but at the same time, she struggled with bulimia, alcoholism, and ended up leaving her husband for a soccer star after making three kids with him. I'm not a big believer in using your feelings to steer your every action . . .we have intellect and the capacity for rational thought for a reason. Honestly, if I go through all of the areas where I disagreed with her propositions, I'd be revealing the entire book to you, but at the end of the day, I think she's pretty narcissistic and anxious to signal what a brave, generous, free-spirited person she is now . . .I think her lens is just warped. She's the type of person who is willing to surrender any values because she has "evolved", and now her "Knowing" is steering her in a new direction. And she looks into the rear view mirror, and admits that her desires steered her wrong in the past, but somehow the readers are supposed to discern between "knowing" and some less productive internal feelings (the ones that lead to say, addiction). Okay. I think a lot of people do what they feel like doing, but they don't write a whole book devoted to getting other people to do the same . . .if feelings were a great guide to life, we wouldn't need therapists.

At any rate, individual readers will need to see where they come out on Doyle's messaging; she definitely has a gift for writing and persuasion, I will give her that. Somehow, I had fun hate reading this book so I'm giving it three stars even though I honestly see Doyle as mostly a hypocritical narcissist.