Book Recommendation: Untamed by Glennon Doyle

By Morgan Wright

New York City, New York

Untamed is Doyle’s story of fully finding herself (Photo Credit: The Seattle Times)

Untamed by Glennon Doyle is an empowering, captivating and thought-provoking read. It is a memoir that will leave you constantly thinking about family, love, life and what it means to be a woman. Doyle’s ideas fly off the pages, and, though her writing is concise, her ideas have unimaginable depth. Relatable and funny, she includes many anecdotes that hook readers in. Doyle’s sparkling wisdom can apply to anyone and everyone, no matter how old or young, no matter what gender or walk of life you are. She examines some of the hardest moments of her life and how she came out of them with a smile on her face and more enlightened than ever before. She balances serious topics with a comical tone. Doyle truly puts readers in her head and offers many pieces of advice anyone could find useful. This book is essential to anyone who wants to seriously learn something. Without knowing it, Doyle will make you look at your life as well, and reflect upon it, and begin to ask yourself deep questions. 

Untamed is an uncensored, raw story of Doyle’s life after realizing she was in love with her now-wife, Abby Wambach. It tells the story of how she learned to put herself and her own needs before those of others. Doyle refutes the idea that a mother needs to be selfless and provide: she pushes that in order to be a good mother, you need to work on yourself and provide your kids with your truest, most authentic version of yourself. 

Glennon Doyle has written many other memoirs that completely contradict Untamed’s idea of motherhood. Love Warrior and Carry on, Warrior were both featured books on Oprah. They discuss instead how to be a good wife and a giving Christian mother. She has since remarried after getting divorced from her husband, who cheated on her. In Untamed, Doyle acknowledges her growth as a person and her major change of mindset. She expresses that she no longer feels the need to fit into this cookie-cutter idea of what it means to be a good wife and mother. 

Untamed is Doyle’s story of fully finding herself. She starts off by examining her deteriorating marriage after being cheated on, after which Doyle and her husband decided to divorce. Although she discusses her desire to stay together because of her kids, she and her husband decide a divorce would be for the best. She then falls in love with Abby Wambach, a retired soccer player and Olympian. Doyle discusses how hesitant she was to introduce Wambach to her three children, but today, they are happily married and live together as a family. 

Though Doyle discusses very specific scenarios in her book, there are many themes that female readers can relate to. There is a heavy focus on beauty standards and how women have been forced to conform to them throughout history. Doyle gives readers a background on her history with eating disorders such as bulimia and her abuse of alcohol and drugs. She also gives readers insight on how she overcame these bad habits that had such a profound negative impact on her life. 

Doyle discusses what it means to be truly happy and how she was not able to achieve happiness until she took the time to discover her raw and real self. Overall, this memoir is heartfelt and inspiring, and anyone can learn something from it.