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

Hilarious! I don't know how Curtis Sittenfeld is able to tackle so many different topics/'real-life' people with perfect pitch - my other favorite by her was American Wife, supposedly about Laura Bush. This one is supposedly about Saturday Night Live and as a long-time watcher, I was definitely trying to pinpoint characters. The narrator, Sally Milz is a hard-working, talented, Emmy-winning behind the scenes writer (I'm thinking Tina Fey in the early years before she nailed the Sarah Palin character) The whole vibe of the late-night comedy show, the Night Owls or TNO, feels like SNL and the peek behind the scenes of a show week schedule was fascinating - and stressful by osmosis! Sally writes a sketch called The Danny Horst Rule which show more exposes how totally sloppy, dorky, unattractive men on the show manage to date really famous, attractive women. Danny Horst is a co-writer/actor (think Pete Davidson) who is dating gorgeous, glamorous, if vapid, actress Anabel (think Arianna Grande) Sally maintains that this 'rule' never has a reversal where totally hot male stars/actors date the funny, if homely women like herself. She gets the opportunity to test this rule when show host AND musical guest Noah Brewster - top pop star and hearththrob musician - headlines one of the TNO shows. She is pleasantly surprised when he wants to write a sketch himself and then asks her for advice, which she provides masterfully, making the sketch a viral hit. The two have a couple moments, which Sally second-guesses because of her own belief in her made-up rule, and ultimately ruins because she is scared and lacking in dating confidence. Then the pandemic hits. Sittenfeld also captures this with spot-on description - can't believe I forgot the angst of those early days and pre-vaccine protocols, but there it is brought back to life in vivid detail. Noah and Sally begin corresponding via email - the kind of sharing only bored, shut-in people with tons of time on their hands engage in. Romance starts to grow, but with it all of Sally's doubts and misgivings about herself and about fame on a grand scale in Noah's shadow. Paparazzi, for example - something she has not encountered personally. Will it ultimately keep her from falling for Noah? It's a super-sharp, back-handed satire with a peppy premise and just plain fun. Definitely SNL caliber writing! show less

I love the funny realism this is told with and was fully absorbed in the story. The challenging inner self moments of the main character dealing with her doubts and navigating interpersonal relationships adding a great textural layer. This definitely made me feel things as the story moved along in a very natural way and felt completely satisfying in its conclusion.

I just finished listening to Atlas of the Heart, by Brene Brown. It is a valuable and cogent book.

Brown has a great deal to say about language and emotions, nearly all based on her extensive studies of how people use particular words to express emotions. Her ideas were nearly all new to me, and while I would not say I agree with her on everything, it is all interesting and worth considering. I listened to an audio book version in which she is the reader, and she adds asides to the text during her reading. I am going to let the ideas rest for a few weeks then will read it again as an ebook or paper book — something I don’t do often.

As someone who likes words that “indicate precisely what you mean to say” (to borrow a line from the Beatles song “When I’m 64”), I really liked this book. It digs into 87 different emotions and explains why it’s important to have a rich vocabulary to describe your feelings. The more tools you have at your disposal to describe how you’re feeling, the easier it is to figure out why you’re feeling the way you are and channel or resolve the emotions as necessary. The book contains short comics by Gavin Aung Than that tell stories to emphasize the points being made. I liked this enough to want my own copy to flip through.

This is a difficult book to read cover to cover as it essentially amounts to a dictionary of emotion and experience. The research is complex and layered and each entry is a lot to digest.

Still, this book is full of wisdom and insight. I found it challenging and illuminating. It's also not meant to be read through and then relegated to the shelf. I expect to find myself coming back to it for a refresher on different terms and concepts.

My one criticism is that it's an extremely unwieldy book. It's heavy and glossy and oversized. A lot of that is due to the big quote splash pages with unnecessary art repetitive pull quotes. I think this was designed to a coffee table book, which was maybe the publisher's idea but is pretty unhelpful for a show more book that's meant to be a practical resource.

I wish someone would publish a paperback pocket version that would be easier to reference. show less

Atlas of the Heart by Brene Brown was an introduction to emotions, a full range that gets beyond the "happy, sad, mad" that most people mention when asked to describe their various emotions. There are some 90 or so, grouped together in families of 5 to 10. Brown uses her extensive data sets to tease out the similarities but, more importantly, the differences between emotions like jealousy and envy or happiness and joy. Her final grouping is the most jarring as it traces how hatred can be turned into disgust which, when focused on other groups of people, leads to dehumanization. The book takes an upbeat approach with comic strips, hand illustrated charts and full page pull quotes.

I have only read one other Brown book--The Gifts of show more Imperfection--and I enjoyed her irreverent style of presenting her research. She is a qualitative researcher who love to tell the stories she encounters. But, she is also able to take all the data and organize it in a way that supports the bigger picture.

I have a couple other Brown books on the shelf and may move them closer to the top of the TBR. show less

I enjoyed this book. I am an emotional person and find joy in talking about our feelings. The book discusses so many different emotions. Having a wide range of vocab to describe your feelings can help you understand why you feel the way you do. It can help others understand as well. The book give you tools. Brene Brown sets us up with a framework to help and guide us to create meaningful connections and being our authentic self.