Braving the Wilderness: Difference between revisions
Content deleted Content added
No edit summary |
No edit summary |
||
Line 43:
🦁 '''7 – Strong back. Soft front. Wild heart.'''
== Background & reception ==
🖋️ '''Author & writing'''. Brown is a research professor at the University of Houston who describes her work as two decades of studying courage, vulnerability, shame, and empathy.<ref name="BrownAbout">{{cite web |title=About Brené |url=https://brenebrown.com/about/ |website=Brené Brown |publisher=Brené Brown |access-date=27 October 2025}}</ref> The book follows earlier bestsellers such as ''Rising Strong'', ''Daring Greatly'', and ''The Gifts of Imperfection'' and aims to reframe belonging for a polarized moment.<ref name="PRH2017" /> Brown presents a mix of research and personal narrative and argues that modern disconnection requires practiced skills rather than slogans.<ref name="PRH2017" /> The framework is organized around four practices of true belonging that the chapters translate into daily action.<ref name="PRH2017" /> Reviewers noted a conversational, pragmatic register suited to general readers.<ref name="Kirkus2017" />
📈 '''Commercial reception'''. In the week reported 20 September 2017, ''Publishers Weekly'' noted that ''Braving the Wilderness'' sold about 42,000 copies, the second highest-selling adult nonfiction title in the U.S. that week.<ref name="PW20170920">{{cite news |title=Clinton’s ‘What Happened’ Sold 167,000 Copies in Week One |url=https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/industry-news/publisher-news/article/74823-clinton-s-what-happened-sold-167-000-copies-in-week-one.html |work=Publishers Weekly |date=20 September 2017 |access-date=27 October 2025}}</ref> It peaked at #2 on ''Publishers Weekly’’’s Hardcover Nonfiction list for the week of 25 September 2017 and remained a strong chart presence through October.<ref name="PWNielsen2017" /> According to the publisher, the book is a #1 ''New York Times'' bestseller.<ref name="PRH2017" /> It was also selected as Reese’s Book Club’s January 2018 pick, boosting visibility with mainstream readers.<ref name="RBC2018" />
👍 '''Praise'''. ''Kirkus Reviews'' called the book “an enthusiastic, practical guide” to cultivating connection across difference (review posted 2 September 2017).<ref name="Kirkus2017" /> ''AudioFile Magazine'' praised Brown’s audiobook narration as authentic and well-matched to the material, highlighting the power of her performance.<ref name="AudioFile2017">{{cite web |title=Braving the Wilderness (review) |url=https://www.audiofilemagazine.com/reviews/read/131622/braving-the-wilderness-by-brene-brown-read-by-brene-brown/ |website=AudioFile Magazine |publisher=AudioFile Publications |access-date=27 October 2025}}</ref> The professional magazine ''The New Social Worker'' described the book as offering “practical stories, lessons, and tools” and spotlighted its four guiding principles of belonging (3 July 2018).<ref name="SocialWorker2018">{{cite web |title=Book Review: Braving The Wilderness: The Quest for True Belonging and the Courage to Stand Alone |url=https://www.socialworker.com/feature-articles/reviews-commentary/book-review-braving-the-wilderness-the-quest-for-true-belonging-and-courage-to-stand-alone/ |website=The New Social Worker |publisher=White Hat Communications |date=3 July 2018 |access-date=27 October 2025}}</ref>
👎 '''Criticism'''. ''Kirkus Reviews'' also judged that the book offers “nothing truly groundbreaking,” tempering its enthusiasm with a call for more novelty.<ref name="Kirkus2017" /> ''AudioFile Magazine'' noted that Brown’s narration “isn’t perfect or polished,” even as it found the performance effective.<ref name="AudioFile2017" /> Writing from a theological perspective, Kristen Padilla at The Gospel Coalition argued that the book’s emphasis on belonging to oneself advances an ideology of a “divine self,” a point she disputes (7 February 2018).<ref name="TGC2018">{{cite web |title=Brené Brown and the Lie of the Divine Self |url=https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/reviews/braving-the-wilderness/ |website=The Gospel Coalition |publisher=The Gospel Coalition |date=7 February 2018 |access-date=27 October 2025 |last=Padilla |first=Kristen}}</ref>
🌍 '''Impact & adoption'''. The title was a Reese’s Book Club selection in January 2018, signaling broad popular reach beyond Brown’s core audience.<ref name="RBC2018" /> Around publication, Brown delivered “Braving the Wilderness” talks at major organizations—including Target (11 September 2017) and Microsoft (21 September 2017)—indicating early corporate uptake of the book’s themes.<ref name="UHCV2022">{{cite web |title=Brené Brown, Ph.D., MSW — Curriculum Vitae |url=https://www.uh.edu/socialwork/about/faculty-directory/b-brown/cv_brenebrown3.23.2022.pdf |website=University of Houston |publisher=University of Houston |access-date=27 October 2025}}</ref> The book has been assigned in university courses such as Social Work syllabi at the University of Texas at Austin (Summer 2024), showing curricular adoption.<ref name="UTSyllabus2024">{{cite web |title=SW f327 Human Behavior and the Social Environment — Syllabus (Summer 2024) |url=https://syllabi.socialwork.utexas.edu/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/SW-f327-87560-Human-Behavior-and-the-Social-Environment-Summer-2024-Bishop_BSW1.pdf |website=Steve Hicks School of Social Work, University of Texas at Austin |publisher=University of Texas at Austin |date=6 June 2024 |access-date=27 October 2025}}</ref> Brown also discussed the book’s ideas on national television, including a ''CBS This Morning'' segment in 2017.<ref name="CBS2017">{{cite web |title=Author Brené Brown on why echo chambers breed loneliness |url=https://www.cbsnews.com/video/author-brene-brown-on-why-echo-chambers-breed-loneliness/ |website=CBS News |publisher=CBS |access-date=27 October 2025}}</ref>
== Related content & more ==
| |||