Love Warrior: A Memoir
#1 New York Times Bestseller
Oprah’s Book Club 2016 Selection
"Riveting…a worthy investment…this book has real wisdom."
―New York Times Book Review
"Provocative... I adore her honesty, her vulnerability, and her no-nonsense wisdom, and I know you will, too." ― Oprah Winfrey
A memoir of betrayal and self-discovery by bestselling author Glennon Doyle, Love Warrior is a gorgeous and inspiring account of how we are all born to be warriors: strong, powerful, and brave; able to confront the pain and claim the love that exists for us all. This chronicle of a beautiful, brutal journey speaks to anyone who yearns for deeper, truer relationships and a more abundant, authentic life.
Reviews (371)
A good message wrapped in too much psychobabble
Way too much feel good, touchy-feely psychobabble. And I’m a psychologist! I enjoyed the first half of this book and started skimming toward the end. I wish I had read more reviews before purchasing this or that I had borrowed it from the library. The idea of totally accepting yourself and being your true self is wonderful. I just did not care for the delivery. This is Glennon Doyle’s memoir about her difficult adolescence, her battle with bulimia, her substance use, and her unhealthy relationship with men and sex in college. She gets pregnant with her boyfriend and they marry. They have two more children and settle down as a family. She discovers he is into porn then he confesses to serial one night stands since they have been married. The bulk of the book is about how she sorts through her emotions and tries to make a decision about her marriage and her family. Her husband seems genuinely repentant and tries to win her back. They both go to therapy and learn that they have very different communication styles. They both work very hard on their marriage, to an almost unbelievable degree. Ms. Doyle also seeks answers through yoga and church. The title Love Warrior (which I hate!) is made a bit more palatable when you learn that it is in reference to the warrior pose in yoga. I did not realize that the author has parlayed her love warriorship into a website, blog, charity work, and speaking engagements. I probably would not have read the book if I had known. I thought that the writing was excellent and there were some sentences and paragraphs that really drive home her message. I think everyone can identify with the difficulty in figuring out who you are and being true to that. Instead, we try to blend in and be what we think other people will like. What I did not like about the later portion of the book was the author’s focus on being her authentic self. All. The. Time. With the constant introspection and questioning of her thoughts and feelings, I’m not sure how she could be real in the moment. Some of the phrases she uses are too much for me such as “I’m learning to feed my body.” Or in reference to learning to love her body “You are the ship that delivers love from the shore of another being to the shore of me.” If you like that style, you will love this book. If it makes you roll your eyes, you may want to pass.
Thought Provoking
A friend suggested this book, so I downloaded a sample. I read it and it felt like every word described my childhood. My experiences on how to behave...how to display beauty and intelligence when interacting with others. I was curious about the author and started reading reviews prior to downloading reviews. Some praised her and related to her, others dropped off at passages where they felt she was too (insert adjective). Some labeled her a false prophet, some a spiritual guide. I almost didn’t read this book because of one of those labels. One that I just couldn’t identify with at all. But I read on. At times, I thought this woman is a beautiful writer. Her imagery is crisp, uniquely hers, forceful and superb. At other times I felt she was shallow or putting others in boxes as it related to her grief, her experiences, and I couldn’t relate at all. I thought about stopping. But I read on,and realized that she was baring her soul. Opening herself up to criticism and attack on many levels—as a person, a parent, a spouse, a spiritual being, a woman, a feminist, and whatever role or label the reader wanted to ascribe or judge her on. Did I relate to everything she said. Absolutely not. How could I? It’s her experience. Could I relate to some things? Absolutely. Baring your soul is brave. Allowing others to glimpse the lesson that you took from a situation is courageous. And I realized that it was not that she was a guru or guide instructing us how to be, act or feel, but relaying her experiences, how she dealt with them reacted, and re-evaluated her behavior as time passed. So I can’t judge her or find fault if I don’t relate, but I can listen learn and grow from what she has shared with me in her own personal journey. We are all on our own journey, and it is beautiful and painful for many of us. By baring her faults and foibles as well as her successes, she affords you the opportunity to take with you a message, the knowledge that as humans none of us have a perfect life or experiences. There will be good and bad. You will be challenged to find grace is devastating situations, to celebrate the successes of others when you are flailing. And when you are not flailing, when you have grace, you can walk with someone through parts of their journey.
not for those who prefer to stay hidden
This is a memoir. The truth here is unvarnished, which sometimes makes people uncomfortable. some of the negative reviews minimized her experience/story or judged her. I didn't feel that it was voyeuristic, except that aren't memoirs supposed to be somewhat voyeuristic, a first hand account of her experience. As for the reviewers who felt badly for Craig and that it was overly revealing of their relationship...I didn't feel that. And the reviewer that called her a narcissist, i saw her writing from an observers perspective of her own behavior/actions. She calls it the "representative"...the pretty face that she showed the world, which was not her true self. I sifted thru the person who labeled her a narcissist and did not find her to be one...i did find a person who is evolving in all ways. If you are uncomfortable with honesty and candid truth about sex/life/relationships, you probably won't like this memoir. I can see some people with preconceived ideas of what is normal/not normal, and folks from earlier generations being uncomfortable with the truthful nature of her memoir. I related strongly because the social belief system that formed her, also formed me, and the addictions, as well. for those of you who didn't like this, i recommend Danielle Steele romance novels or similar.
One of the worst books I’ve ever read.
Wow this book sucked. Don’t get me wrong, I completely respect her personal story and journey but the way she portrays it in the book is full of cliches that amount to a self-indulgent, pity party. She is the constant victim. She isn’t even smart enough to recognize her hypocrisy. She wants to be seen for her true self but immediately shuts people in her life down and buckets them into generalized categories of how they do or do not serve her. You literally don’t get to know one single character in her book (besides her) because all you see is how they fail her....that’s their only function in the book. They aren’t people to her. I find her epiphanies to be contrive and they carry a huge “duh” factor. Glad you could join the rest of us who arrived to these conclusions around the age of 14. To me, she seems just as clueless at the end of the book. I felt like I was reading a 12 year old’s diary. So dull. And I worry that some women might actually mistake her misconstrued ‘warrior’ antics as something to be proud of. Her epiphanies are immature and underdeveloped. I feel like I got dumber just reading it.
Not what I expected
This book is a lot of story telling. That’s cool. But the title “Love Warrior” suggested to me that the author grew to a place off operating out of love for herself and everyone around her. What I read was vastly different than what I expected. The book begins with thoughtful questions about women and body image and societal expectations of a woman’s physical presence and ends without the reader getting a sense that the author actually came to any sort of resolution around these areas within herself. Every woman has a powerful story, and Glennon’s story is her own — but I found myself, as the reader, at the end of Love Warrior asking myself: what was the point of what I just read?
Beautifully written and touching for those who have had to heal and overcome in the ways of self and love.
Beautiful, touching book. As a woman who has had plenty of body image and intimacy issues, i related to the entire thing. Every time i put the book down, I left with a desire to hold, kiss, and thank my significant other for being in my life despite everything we have overcome. Even though I am not christian, i was still appreciative of her spritual strength. Wonderful book for anyone who has battled trust and intimacy issues and have desired to overcome them to heal their relationships, better their take on sex, and truly open up to the one they love.
I tried, but about midpoint of this book I started skipping so many pages I finally succumbed & let it go
I tried, I really tried, but at about the midpoint of this book I started skipping so many pages I finally just succumbed to my truth and let it go. I am well aware that this a good writer, an excellent writer, and I do understand the genre of "survivor memoirs" and their ability to inspire and empower those for whom the narrative resonates. But for whatever reason, the style of the writing, with its almost breezy stripping of the writer's every thought, making each one as important and essential whether talking about yoga or alcoholism, became wearying to me. The sheer minute-by-minute-by-minute-by-minute account of the writer's marriage and the revelations that arose from it (and other revelation-inducing life events) became wearying to me as a reader. I left her sometime during the yoga section and left without knowing whether or not she and her husband ever had sex again or ever decided to give it a real go again -- and I feel sorta bad about that, as, no doubt, much went into this life and this book -- I just found the mountain of details wore me down too much to care. I'm sorry to leave this review because I applaud anyone who transcends their demons to find a new and more self-preserving life. But maybe I've read too much of this genre at this point. Maybe the revelations and epiphanies that fascinated this writer to the point of microscopic examination have already been covered in other fine books I've read. I dunno. All I know is, she lost me along the way. I wish her well, however it went, and congratulate her on both the success of her life and, is seems, this book. From what I can see it's having quite an impact and that's a good thing.
Okay Read but too much blame pointing
Love Warrior was an okay read. Glennon has certainly been through a lot between drug addiction, alcohol addiction and her battle with an eating disorder. Her relationship with her husband Craig was not built on a solid foundation and inevitably things take a turn for the worst. However I disliked her utter hatred for him. True he cheated on her. True he was a sex addict but they were both addicts when they first got together. It irritated me that Glennon laid all the blame on Craig as if he was the sole person responsible in their marriage falling apart. She made just as many wrong decisions as he did. I actually commend Craig for taking the initiative to begin therapy. If he hadn't much of the truth wouldn't have been disclosed. Every relationship has their ups and downs but laying the blame on the other person doesn't better the situation nor make it right. When you point the finger you've got 3 fingers and a thumb pointing right back at the solution. I really wanted to like this book but it went downhill for me once Glennon started blaming her husband for everything. Chapter after chapter devoted to how much he was to blame. What about when she chose to continue the relationship after the abortion? To me that was low and it was her choice to continue with a dysfunctional relationship. In the end I'm glad that they stayed together and learned a healthier way to communicate and love each other but it was hard empathizing with Glennon throughout this book
One Star
Self indulgent mumbo jumbo.
Not for me. Too self-focused and a little ... melodramatic.
I love Glennon Doyle Melton's Facebook page, and I find her blog writing very inspiring. This book was a slog though, and I gave it away halfway through. It was just a bit too much self-focus for my taste, and I thought her own self-analysis of her childhood missed the mark mightily. I didn't care for it. If you find it inspiring, that's wonderful! :)
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