I appreciated the topic of this book and many of the authors insights. The timing of this book is also very appropriate. I wish the research being pulled from was more clearly traceable in the work. Overall, I enjoyed this book.

A very grounded and much needed book, i highlighted so many passages that i thought were poignant. I love the way this book shifts the way i see and operate in the world, using examples from my very biology. I appreciate the author’s tangible effort to make the book a safe space for as many readers as possible. Whenever she put this effort in, i really felt reassured. I only gave it less stars due to how it didnt captivate me as actively as i expected. I kept rereading sentences when i’d open it. The pacing felt really slow. I dont know how to remedy that, because the book’s goal is to help us remember our bodies’ natural way of existing, and that is a process that requires slowing down, breathing, feeling. Maybe it wouldve worked better for me as a physical book rather than an e-book. I imagine, with a physical copy, I could’ve been more contemplative, meditative. I may have even kept it with my journal so I could sip tea, write, and read. This seems like the perfect book for that kind of atmosphere

This was difficult to engage with, seemed repetitive, and didn’t have many sources to cite despite having footnotes for explanations.

Returning Home to Our Bodies by Abigail Rose Clarke reads like a soft love letter to the body.

Some people might enjoy reading this gentle, repetitive, though somewhat condescending, science-lite, fluffy, self-help book on somatic experiencing.

Thank you to NetGalley and Publishers for access to this ARC. All opinions are my own.

I really struggled with this title. It was hard for me to read as a white-passing person of color, who recognizes my own skin color privilege, and I found it hard to relate to the author. I also found it incredibly frustrating that she had footnotes for definitions but no citations anywhere for her “studies” that she did not specify.

I am still learning about somatic therapy (which is highly contested, and still controversial) soI had a harder time following along because I did not feel like her book for clear for the layman. I understand most other therapy models, have taken psychology courses, and am schooled in philosophy using Freud, etc. I am not a novice but somewhere at beginning intermediate understand.

I cannot in good conscience recommend this to anyone. It seems more like rambling thoughts from an altered state of consciousness than actual advice.

This was my first nonfiction novel I decided to pick and read and I am so glad I did! This novel teaches you how our bodies and the earth and our surroundings all work together! Such a cute read and very educational!

I requested the arc for this book honestly because the topic interests me. I wish I could say I grasped all that was written, but what I did understand I deeply enjoyed. I believe I now I have ideas of what books to start off with to then circle back around to this one. I believe it has a lot for me to learn in it. I really enjoy the practice of being fluid like a body of water because we are a body of water. That practice resonated with me.