Review: Maybe You Should Talk to Someone

Alright, so I’m NERDING out right now to tell you guys about this book I just finished.

Seriously, I got five pages in and decided I needed to read it as fast as I possibly could so that I could write this post and tell you all about it (sans spoilers, of course).

Now, post all-that-speed-reading, where to start?

I’m actually giddy to be writing about this book because that is how much I loved it. I completely stumbled upon it on the NYT Nonfiction Bestsellers List (a super casual and low key operation; you’ve probably never even heard of it). Intrigued by the title and my (constant) need for new literature, I ordered it. (Link included below for you to do the same!)

Maybe You Should Talk to Someone is written by Lori Gottlieb, who is A LOT of things. She’s an ex-TV producer, ex-med student, current therapist/journalist/author/mother/daughter. And, most relevantly to all of us readers out there, she is an incredible storyteller.

The book kicks off with therapist Lori getting dumped (for no immediately obvious reason) by Boyfriend and needing a therapist herself. Her personal reactions and consequential interactions with her friends are so instantly relatable, heartfelt, and hilarious. He is a Kid-Hater, obviously! A sociopath, clearly! (I must say, I still don’t fully disagree with these conclusions. Ahem.)

So, the incredible, funny, intelligent Lori gets dumped out of a clear blue sky and now it’s time to function as a therapist while she’s reeling with the exact type of devastation that she helps others navigate on a daily basis. And, thus, she decides to sneak her way into therapy.

My favorite thing about this book is that it’s littered with factoids about the human psyche and still reads like a page-turning novel. Lori immediately exposes us to the stories of four of her own patients (via aliases, of course. Because the law) who are possibly so captivating because they are so human. They make bad decisions and have to process real trauma and look ok on the outside when they’re working so hard to handle things on the inside, and – by the end of the book – you can’t help but root for and care about even the least redeemable of the bunch. Legit, I cried.

I CRIED, PEOPLE.

And, maybe even just as impressively, Lori shares her own story, revealing a humanity and vulnerability that somehow never makes you question her capabilities as a therapist. I don’t know about you, but I think of therapists as superhumans. Totally rational beings who can impartially listen to any story and only ever take a single mint from that dish at the restaurant hostess stand. I know that’s completely irrational in and of itself. (But, in support of my own argument, that’s why I’m not a therapist!)

Lori manages to fully and completely reveal her humanness while increasing my faith in her point of view with every turn of the page.

I hope at this point I’ve convinced you what a completely worthwhile read this is for anyone. (But if you get a little extra fuzzy about self-growth, life in all its unpredictability, and being ok, this book might even be slightly more worthwhile for you.)

SO, you can buy it from Amazon here!

And, lastly, I feel the need to explain the image of the quote I included at the beginning of this post.

I’m sure it is not a surprise to anyone who knows what a book is that this one has a ton of lovely nuggets. Some pose as one-liners, others as paragraphs, all just as lovely as their surrounding gems.

And one of my favorites came towards the very, very end of this book, when Lori suggests to us that: Maybe happiness is “sometimes.”

And what she means is this:

“Sometimes evens us out, keeps us in the comfortable middle rather than dangling on one end of the spectrum or the other, hanging on for dear life. It helps us escape from the tyranny of black-or-white thinking…[because] it’s not either/or, yes or no, always or never. Maybe happiness is ‘sometimes.'”

So, I hope you read this book and find comfort in your “sometimes,” in knowing that nothing is always, in finding the beauty that there is an in between, that everything doesn’t have to be good or bad, hot or cold, right or wrong. That life isn’t as clear as that, and that’s ok. That ‘neither’ is a choice, and that it can be yours.

And within your acceptance of ‘sometimes’ may be your very own happiness.

Remember: reading is soul food ❤

Xo Charlene

Pssst! This post contains an affiliate link, which means that – if you order this book here – everything with Amazon stays exactly the same for you, and I make a tiny bit off the sale.

P.S. Despite already meaning everything I said in the post above, the author of Maybe You Should Talk to Someone sent me the below after she read my review.

So, now, I extra, extra mean it. Xo