Emotional intelligence is HARD, but being able to identify where your emotions are coming from and actually having the language to identify those emotions (and the differences between them) can help.

This book was read via audiobook by Meredith Lewis, the (mostly) Orange County Campus Librarian.

Title: Atlas of the Heart: Mapping Meaningful Connection and the Language of Human Experience

Author and Narrator: Brené Brown

Genre: Psychology, Social Science, Self-Help/Awareness/Mindfulness

Read Great Things 2022 Categories: A happy or hopeful book; Blast from the past: A book that will help you with your self-care (2021), A social science book (2019)

Why did you choose to read this book?

Quite simply, I needed an audiobook to listen to while I was doing some work with my hands.

I’m not always great with audiobooks; I get confused listening to high fantasy without being able to see some of the words, and with other genres, I tend to just zone out depending on the narrator. I’ve used familiar audiobooks to fall asleep so often that sometimes they just make me sleepy.

I picked this book up (digitally) because I know a lot about Brené Brown but hadn’t actually read anything by her before. I only read about one self-help-y book a year (strangely, around this same time each year– last time it was Wintering by Katherine May, also partially by audiobook). I’ll be honest: I didn’t expect to listen to more than an hour or so–it was just meant to be noise company–but Brown’s engaging narration style (it’s like a very long podcast) and the actual content of the book kept me interested. I’m very interested in emotion science and emotional intelligence since it has so much to do with how we navigate the world and how we react to conflicts or stress.