3.75✨ this is essentially a book on active listening which allows you to deeply connect with others. It’s narrated by Brooks who can sound monotonous at times, but overall is a strong storyteller & conveys his messages well. As someone who has done a lot of self work + unpacking of ego via therapy & other modalities, most of what was shared wasn’t new. However, I appreciated the individual stories shared and the new perspectives I gained. This is one of those books that I think if we made it required reading, people would move even a lil bit differently & make society a more empathetic space.

“Therapists are essentially story editors. People come to therapy because their stories are not working, often because they get causation wrong. They blame themselves for things that are not their fault, or they blame others for things that are. By going over life stories again and again, therapists can help people out of the deceptive rumination spirals they’ve been using to narrate themselves.”