Maybe You Should Talk to Someone by Lori Gottlieb

This was one of my favorite books that I read in 2019.  Gottlieb is a therapist who decides to go to therapy herself after her boyfriend breaks up with her (when she was expecting a proposal).  She chooses Wendell, a cardigan wearing older man whose therapy techniques are sometimes unconventional.

     While Gottlieb is sharing her therapy journey with us, she also shares stories about some of her patients: the newlywed diagnosed with terminal cancer, a seemingly self absorbed TV producer, a single woman threatening suicide on her birthday, and a young woman who is attracted to the wrong men again and again.  Lori begins to realize that the problems that she can see in her patients are the same ones that Wendell sees in her, although she didn’t see them in herself. 

     The general insights she shares about therapy and therapists are interesting, and I came to care about the patients she was describing.  And I was reminded that you don’t know what “that abrasive person” is going through.  Yes, maybe that’s just their personality, but maybe they are deeply hurting.  Like I said, one of my favorite books last year.   5 Stars!