Resisting a return to pre-pandemic normal
Brown argues against returning to the old normal after the pandemic and racial reckoning, stating that the prior status quo only served a select few at the expense of others.
Brené Brown
American
Born 1965
Casandra Brené Brown is an American academic and podcaster who is the Huffington Foundation's Brené Brown Endowed Chair at the University of Houston's Graduate College of Social Work and a visiting professor in management at the McCombs School of Business in the University of Texas at Austin.
On LuvemBooks, we've reviewed 3 of Brené Brown's books, including Rising Strong, Daring Greatly, and The Gifts of Imperfection.
3
Books ReviewedIn Brené Brown's own words
Brené Brown joins CBS This Morning to discuss the 10th anniversary edition of 'The Gifts of Imperfection' and wholehearted living.
Uploaded by CBS Mornings, 2020 · Watch on YouTube ·
Also in conversation
Prioritizing getting it right over being right
Brown explains her personal motto when facing difficult conversations: focusing on getting things right rather than proving she is right, which requires listening, learning, and unlearning.
Progression across her books
Brown outlines the progression of her books: The Gifts of Imperfection teaches readers to "be you," Daring Greatly is about "be all in," and Rising Strong is "fall, learn, get up, and do it again."
Bravery guarantees falling
Brown recalls how reading Theodore Roosevelt's "Man in the Arena" quote changed her life by making her realize that choosing courage guarantees failure along the way.
Also in this interview
Brené Brown books in order
8 books; 3 reviewed on LuvemBooks. Dates and covers from Amazon.
2007I Thought It Was Just MeAmazon ↗
2012Our review →
2015Our review →
2017Braving the Wilderness: Reese's Book ClubAmazon ↗
2018Dare to LeadAmazon ↗
2020Our review →
2021Atlas of the HeartAmazon ↗
2025Strong GroundAmazon ↗
Rising Strong
4.7/5
reader rating · 11,434 ratingsRising Strong is a self-help book by social scientist Brené Brown that delivers a structured, research-grounded process for recovering from failure, disappointment, and heartbreak — arguing that the act of rising after a fall is where courage is truly forged. A New York Times bestseller rooted in Brown's grounded theory research across leaders, artists, parents, and military figures, it stands as the culmination of her trilogy on vulnerability and wholehearted living.
Reviewed Jul 22, 2026
Daring Greatly
4.7/5
reader rating · 31,308 ratingsDaring Greatly is a self-help book by Brené Brown, PhD, MSW, rooted in twelve years of research, that argues vulnerability is not weakness but the truest measure of courage — a New York Times bestseller that has sold more than two million copies and shaped how readers across personal, professional, and parenting contexts think about shame, worthiness, and authentic engagement.
Reviewed Mar 1, 2026
The Gifts of Imperfection
4.7/5
reader rating · 44,193 ratingsBrené Brown's The Gifts of Imperfection — originally published in 2010 and reissued in a tenth-anniversary edition — is the self-help work that launched a cultural movement, arguing that courage, compassion, and connection are the daily practices required to let go of perfectionism, shame, and the need for approval and to live what Brown calls a "wholehearted" life. A New York Times bestseller that has sold more than two million copies across thirty-five languages, it remains the essential entry point into Brown's body of work and the foundation from which her subsequent books and podcasts grew.
Reviewed Feb 14, 2026
Ask LuvemBooks about Brené Brown
Brené Brown is a research professor and podcaster whose three books reviewed on LuvemBooks draw on her academic work in social work to examine vulnerability, shame, and resilience — subjects she explores through a mix of personal storytelling and qualitative research findings. In Rising Strong, for instance, she builds a structured framework around how people process failure and get back up, grounding self-help advice in years of interview-based fieldwork. With three titles reviewed here spanning Non-Fiction and Self-Help, her work offers a consistent and research-rooted perspective on human emotional experience.
- Where should I start?
- If you're new to Brené Brown, The Gifts of Imperfection is the natural entry point — it's her most foundational text, introducing her core ideas about letting go of who you think you should be and embracing who you are, written in a warm and accessible register that doesn't require any prior familiarity with her research. It lays conceptual groundwork that her later books, including Daring Greatly and Rising Strong, build directly upon. Starting here means the progression through her body of work will feel cumulative rather than disjointed.
- What's their writing style?
- Brown writes in a conversational first-person voice that blends personal anecdote with findings from her qualitative research — she'll often open a chapter with a story from her own life before connecting it to patterns she's observed across thousands of research interviews. Her tone is warm and candid, and she doesn't shy away from describing her own struggles with shame and vulnerability, which gives her self-help writing an unusual degree of lived-in credibility. She tends to coin and define her own terminology — 'wholehearted living', 'the arena', 'the reckoning' — and then use those terms as scaffolding across entire books.
- Books we've reviewed
- LuvemBooks has reviewed three of Brené Brown's books. The Gifts of Imperfection (Non-Fiction) is her foundational work on wholehearted living and self-acceptance. Daring Greatly (Self-Help & Personal Development) makes the case that vulnerability is a source of courage rather than weakness. Rising Strong (Self-Help & Personal Development), rated 4.7/5 from over 11,000 Amazon ratings, focuses on how people process failure and reclaim their footing after a fall.
- How do her books compare?
- The three reviewed books share Brown's signature blend of personal narrative and research-backed argument, but each has a distinct focus. The Gifts of Imperfection is the broadest and most introductory, centred on the concept of wholehearted living. Daring Greatly narrows its lens to vulnerability specifically, drawing on Theodore Roosevelt's 'man in the arena' metaphor to reframe courage. Rising Strong is the most practically structured of the three, laying out an explicit process for recovering from failure — making it the most action-oriented entry in the set.
- What genre does Brené Brown write?
- Brown's books sit primarily in Self-Help & Personal Development and narrative Non-Fiction, with a strong grounding in social science research. Her work doesn't fit neatly into either pop-psychology or traditional self-help — it's closer to research-backed memoir, where her own experiences serve as case studies for broader findings about human behaviour. Readers who enjoy writers like Gretchen Rubin or Daniel Pink tend to find her work familiar in register.
- What should I read after Rising Strong?
- If you've finished Rising Strong and want to continue with Brown's work, Daring Greatly is the most natural next step — it covers complementary ground on vulnerability and courage, and many readers find it pairs well with the resilience focus of Rising Strong. If you'd prefer to branch out, authors like Daniel Siegel (on the neuroscience of emotional regulation) or Kristin Neff (on self-compassion) cover adjacent territory with a similar research-grounded approach.
Who is Brené Brown?
Where should I start?
What's their writing style?
Books we've reviewed
How do her books compare?
What genre does Brené Brown write?
What should I read after Rising Strong?
Who is Brené Brown?
Casandra Brené Brown is an American academic, author, and podcaster who holds the Huffington Foundation Endowed Chair at the University of Houston's Graduate College of Social Work, where she has spent over two decades studying vulnerability, courage, shame, and empathy. She is also a visiting professor in management at the McCombs School of Business at the University of Texas at Austin. She is best known for her bestselling books and her widely viewed TED Talk on vulnerability, which helped bring her academic research to a broad general audience.
Follow up
What is Brené Brown's academic background?
Is Brené Brown known for anything outside her books?
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