From the publisher: After decades of failed relationships and painful drama, Donald Miller decided he’d had enough. Impressing people wasn’t helping him connect with anyone. He’d built a life of public isolation, yet he dreamed of meaningful relationships. So at forty years old he made a scary decision: to be himself no matter what it cost.
From the author of Blue Like Jazz
comes a book about the risk involved in choosing to impress fewer
people and connect with more, about the freedom that comes when we stop
acting and start loving. It is a story about knocking down old walls to
create
a healthy mind, a strong family, and a satisfying career. And it all
feels like a conversation with the best kind of friend: smart, funny,
true, important.
Scary Close is Donald Miller at his best.
Having read a couple of his
previous books, I was looking forward to reading Donald Miller’s new
book, Scary Close. I have to say, I wasn’t disappointed. Scary Close is
an easy, yet extremely informative look at intimacy in relationships
(both romantic
and platonic) told through the lens of Miller’s engagement and eventual
marriage. His confessional, conversational writing style is very
disarming and makes the ideas easy to process. Miller is very open
about his failings (early on he talks about his visit
to Onsite, a sort of therapy retreat) and uses them, along with his
triumphs, as encouragement to others who struggle with intimacy and
relationship issues.
Each chapter details another
step in Miller’s quest for true intimacy and healthy, honest
relationships. Interspersed throughout each chapter are anecdotes
involving friends of Miller’s, books he read, seminars he attended, and
interactions with his fiancé
that tie in to the main idea and help guide him on his journey.
Several of the topics covered include: The Distracting Noises of Insecurity, Everybody's Got a Story and It's Not the One They're Telling, Performance Anxiety in Real Life, The Risk of Being Careful, Great Parents Do This Well, Do Men Do Intimacy Differently?, and You Will Not Complete Me, amongst many others. Don looks in depth at many of the hang-ups and excuses surrounding relationships and addresses them with his trademark self-deprecating humor (he actually addresses this, too).
I highly recommend Scary Close.
It will appeal to Donald Miller’s previous fans, and will be a helpful
tool for anyone looking to engage in a healthy relationships at home, at
work, or with friends. It is a quick read, but is full of ideas that can be processed slowly in order to fully digest them.
I received a preview copy of this book as part of Thomas Nelson’s BookLook Bloggers program in exchange for an honest review.
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