Rising Strong: Difference between revisions

📘 '''''Rising Strong''''' is a nonfiction book by research professor Brené Brown that sets out a three-phase framework—“the reckoning, the rumble, and the revolution”—for getting back up after setbacks.<ref name="BBsite" /> First published in the United States by Spiegel & Grau on 25 August 2015, it extends Brown’s earlier work on vulnerability into a repeatable, practice-based process.<ref name="PRH2015" /> The book blends qualitative social-science research with personal narratives and case stories from families, teams, and leaders to show how to own hard stories and write a braver ending.<ref name="PRH2015" /> Chapters move through the three stages—reckoning with emotions, rumbling with the stories we’re telling ourselves, and living the learning as a daily practice.<ref name="BBsite" /> On release, it debuted at #1 on the ''Publishers Weekly'' Hardcover Nonfiction list for the week of 7 September 2015, selling more than 30,000 print copies that week.<ref name="PW20150907">{{cite news |title=This Week's Bestsellers: September 7, 2015 |url=https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/industry-news/bookselling/article/67983-this-week-s-bestsellers-september-7-2015.html |work=Publishers Weekly |date=4 September 2015 |access-date=27 October 2025}}</ref> It drew mainstream attention, including an ''Oprah’s Super Soul Sunday'' episode titled “Rising Strong” on 4 October 2015 and selection as one of the Greater Good Science Center’s Favorite Books of 2015.<ref name="OWN20151004">{{cite web |title=Rising Strong with Brene Brown |url=https://www.oprah.com/own-super-soul-sunday/rising-strong-with-brene-brown_1 |website=Oprah.com |publisher=Oprah Winfrey Network |date=4 October 2015 |access-date=27 October 2025}}</ref><ref name="GG2015">{{cite web |title=Our Favorite Books of 2015 |url=https://greatergood.berkeley.edu/article/item/our_favorite_books_of_2015 |website=Greater Good Science Center |publisher=University of California, Berkeley |date=15 December 2015 |access-date=27 October 2025}}</ref>

🖋️ '''Author & writing'''. Brown is a research professor at the University of Houston; the book grows out of her long-running studies of courage, vulnerability, shame, and empathy.<ref name="PRHAuthor">{{cite web |title=Brené Brown |url=https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/authors/2021739/brene-brown/ |website=Penguin Random House |publisher=Penguin Random House |access-date=27 October 2025}}</ref> As a grounded-theory researcher, she developed the rising-strong method from stories gathered across settings—from Fortune 500 leaders and the military to artists, couples, teachers, and parents—and frames it as a daily practice.<ref name="PRH2015" /> She introduced the project on 9 April 2015 as “a book about what it takes to get back up” and about “owning our stories of struggle.”<ref name="BBNews2015">{{cite web |title=I Love Big Book News and I Cannot Lie! |url=https://brenebrown.com/articles/2015/04/09/i-love-big-book-news-and-i-cannot-lie/ |website=brenebrown.com |publisher=Brené Brown, LLC |date=9 April 2015 |access-date=27 October 2025}}</ref> The published model formalizes three phases—reckoning, rumble, and revolution—that guide the chapter flow and reader exercises.<ref name="BBsite" /> Around publication, national outlets discussed its relevance for work and leadership, including a ''Washington Post'' On Leadership Q&A and a ''Time'' interview that explored why “failure has to hurt” to produce learning.<ref name="WP20150820">{{cite news |title=Brené Brown’s guidance for the negative thinker in all of us |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/on-leadership/wp/2015/08/20/brene-browns-guidance-for-the-negative-thinker-in-all-of-us/ |work=The Washington Post |date=20 August 2015 |access-date=27 October 2025}}</ref><ref name="TIME20150910">{{cite news |title=Brené Brown: “We’re spit-shining failure.” |url=https://time.com/4029460/brene-brown-were-spit-shining-failure/ |work=Time |date=10 September 2015 |access-date=27 October 2025 |last=Aneja |first=Arpita |author2=Belinda Luscombe}}</ref>

📈 '''Commercial reception'''. ''Publishers Weekly'' reported that ''Rising Strong'' opened at #1 on its Hardcover Nonfiction list for the week of 7 September 2015, with more than 30,000 print units sold in its first week.<ref name="PW20150907" /> Nielsen data on the PW site show the book on the Hardcover Frontlist Nonfiction list for at least 12 weeks that fall; for the week of 12 October 2015 it recorded 8,541 units that week and 166,336 year-to-date, with Highest Rank: 1 (7 September 2015).<ref name="PWNielsen20151012">{{cite web |title=Publishers Weekly Bestseller Lists — 12 October 2015 (Hardcover Frontlist Nonfiction) |url=https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/nielsen/hardcovernonfiction/20151012.html |website=Publishers Weekly |publisher=PWxyz, LLC |date=12 October 2015 |access-date=27 October 2025}}</ref> The publisher also lists the book as a #1 ''New York Times'' bestseller.<ref name="PRH2015" />