I have never suffered 400 pages of slog for such a small payoff before. I understand what Muir was doing with the deliberate confusion and abstruseness of it, and I appreciate the boldness of that vision. Ultimately, though, I think if you want to share an artistic vision, you have to respect the time and energy of your audience. This... this was not that.

Thanks for 100 pages of a good book though.

Admittedly, I am not the target audience for this book. I am not religious, and even if I were I wouldn't want involvement with the church. What I am, though, is an adult in an increasingly isolated world.

There's a lot of good advice here on how to be a better friend and how to meet people. I found the religious component easily replaceable with any foundational group you identify with and was still sound and thoughtful.

The chapter on (blood) family was a miss for me, though. I think it was extremely invalidating and minimizing of the idea of emotional abuse and generational trauma.

I almost think you need to have experienced some level of mental illness to appreciate this one. I'm in the midst of my own AN relapse and this book has settled on my soul its such a profoundly understanding way.

I know what it feels like to understand what's occurring around you, but only through what you can glean as people withdraw from you because you've stopped making sense to them. I understand the motions and energy of futility. Of people who have parented us physically assaulting us after we realize their love is conditional. I understand wanting it more than anything anyway. I understand those that live you resigning to bitterness and loathing over your mental health failings. And I understand the inability to do something so basic to survival in the face of all that existential futility.

I think I'm saying I'm a bug too, and I get it.