Goodreads 

First Person • NonFiction • Narrative Style • 224 Pages

About the Book (Backcover Blurb):

In a culture that bombards women with “thinspiration” messages and pressure to “do it all” while wearing the mask of perfection, women are left feeling alone and overwhelmed. How can they stop comparing themselves to others? How can they live out who they really are?

Lee Wolfe Blum offers stories from everyday women who have answered these questions with their lives—and found true beauty in the process. In Brave Is the New Beautiful, Blum weaves reflections from her own journey with inspirational stories from everyday women who chose to take off their masks and live authentically. Through call-to-action questions and ideas, she encourages readers to be brave enough to be who they really are and the beloved that God knows they are.

Why I Choose this Book:

The title and cover of the book drew me right in because I think they are both beautiful. Other than that, I think the reason I chose the book was because I figured it would help me be able to relate to others better. I’ve never been someone who’s been overly worried about how I look, and so I thought reading a book about it would be useful.

What I Thought about this Book:

This book was not what I was expecting. It wasn’t really focused on outward beauty at all – not even about how to view it the correct way, etc….  Instead, it was more about the beauty of handling hard situations with God’s grace. The book was, for lack of a better word, simply beautiful.

I began reading the book at the airport while waiting for a flight. By the time I was on the second page of the introduction I was beginning to have second thoughts about reading the book in public because I had a feeling it was going to be a rather deep and somewhat emotional book. But, I kept reading and was nearly instantly sucked in. The writing style is one that can only be described as art. Reading the words themselves was wonderful – like each sentence had been poured over and each word chosen with care. It reminded me of gracefulness and beauty and art and life all combined.

The content of the book…. Each chapter was about a different lady’s life, and how they bravely dealt with a horrible situation in life that they faced. Each of the stories was indeed filled with bravery which was beautiful. Each story was inspiring to me, and even though I couldn’t relate to most of the circumstances, I felt like I could relate to the ladies themselves because they were so human.

Near the end of the book there were some chapters that had me fighting down tears. And, since I was reading the book while in an airplane full of strangers, I did fight the tears. If I would have been alone though, I probably would have been outright crying. All that to say, the book wasn’t depressing. It didn’t put me in a downcast mood. It talked about REALLY hard situations, but each one of them was talked about with the tone of hope, and that’s what made the difference.

I finished the book just several hours after I started it, because it was one of those books that I didn’t want to put down. I am thankful indeed to have read it.

Conclusion:

This book wasn’t light in fluffy. It was hard, and real, and brave, and beautiful. I recommend it a lot. But, because of the content in the book, I’m not sure what age I would recommend it to, I guess each person will have to decide that for themselves.

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