Y’all……..this packs a PUNCH. I know it’s only February, but this is a strong contender for one of my top 5 books this year.

This is not your typical celebrity autobiography - Union dives deep into so many issues: police brutality, miscarriages/fertility struggles, aging, infidelity, being literally chased by neo-nazis, and passive suicidal ideation. So consider these trigger warnings as well!!

The first chapter is an intense look into her fertility struggles, discussions of miscarriages, infidelity, and the devastating grief that accompanies all of this. It’s a really strong start, so honest and raw. It’s interesting that she had trigger warnings for the chapter on passive suicidal ideation from her hormonal changes but not on this topic where she goes into much more detail.

Favorite essays: Embrace Your Kryptonite, The Audacity of Aging (with Hope), Fuck Balance, Standards and Practices: A Tragedy in Three Acts (this is my fav).

This book has it all: crying at Loved Even As a Thought, feeling attacked (in a good way) in Fuck Balance, and also smiling and laughing at Dance Battle.

After finishing, I am wondering: what is Dwayne Wade bringing to the table here??? This clearly isn’t a book that goes into the joys of Gabrielle’s life but based on everything she described, I’m left unsure of why she stays in her marriage, especially as she specifically says earlier in the book after discovering he fathered a child with another woman in the midst of fertility struggles: “the me of today would not have stayed with him, but would I be who I am now without that pain?…The advice I would give myself now would be to leave.”

For me, with memoirs, I always wonder - how did a person write this and share it with the world??? All of their tender parts and flaws and insecurities, now available for public consumption? It’s not so much the strangers reading it I’d be bothered by but the people I actually KNOW, even tangentially, reading my innermost truths and unflattering thoughts? No thank you.

I simply don’t think I’m brave enough. I greatly admire anyone who writes a memoir, let alone several.

Overall, this was really excellent and I recommend to everyone!!

I wrote down several quotes but I’ll l share this one, the very last paragraphs because I think the imagery is so beautiful and I am real long working on being more vulnerable:
“In my mind, I see vulnerability as a body of water. An ocean, a lake, a river, whatever you see, it is yours…We can move slowly along its banks. Test it out and see how it feels. We'll let the waves of transparency wash our skin to cleanse us, until, as we go along, we can dip in a little more. You can go as slow as you want, but we will be moving forward.
When we cut our feet on sharp objects hidden in the muck by the water, we won't hide the pain for fear of being judged. We'll tend to the wound, and refuse to blame our skin for not hardening into numbness. We are superheroes because we bleed. We are great because we feel and we tell the truth, and in so doing we create community.
We got this.”