This book was not what I expected and that is probably completely my own fault. A lesson has been learned about requesting books from Netgalley without fully researching the book first.

I love self-help books. Reading other peoples ideas about how to improve oneself is a hobby in its own right but this is not a self-help book.

While very well written, I am not the audience for a book that appears to be aimed at academics rather than the person in the street. These days, a book that requires me to read other articles, books, and studies in order to grasp the fundamentals of what it is about leaves me cold.

I can see many positives in this book but it just didn't work for me.

The pursuit of happiness is a common goal in life but something that remains elusive for so many of us, despite attaining the material evidence/trappings of it - house, career, relationship. Emily Esfahani Smith explores the idea that it's not happiness that we need to seek in our lives, but meaning. Rather than focus what makes a happy life, the author encourages us to think about what makes a meaningful life instead - our relationships to others, our contribution to society, how we make sense of our experiences (good and bad) and feeling a connection to something bigger than ourselves. All in all the book is a nice combination of research, anecdotes and personal history, and certainly worth a read if you're in need of a different approach. With thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for an ARC.

The Power of Meaning won't change your life but it is an interesting if somewhat scattered combination of pop posi-psych (refreshingly not focused on happiness) and anecdotes of people who formed what they articulate as meaningful lives.

Perhaps I've been reading too many self-help books lately, but I found little to take away from Emily Esfahani Smith's book - yes, we should divert our attention and goals away from external pleasures and look to create meaning. Forget happiness, even, it is in meaning that we find the good life. If you are in any way familiar with Stoicism or any of the Hellenic philosophies, it is likely that this book is repetitive; but perhaps for newcomers it will be more of a paradigm shift.

Read from 10/07/17 to 13/07/17

The Power Of Meaning

In this book Emily Eshfani Smith explores the meaning of life. She writes with a discursive prose, and discusses the different themes which contribute towards a more meaningful, more fulfilled life. She dismisses the common idea that only happiness is significant, rather she introduces the idea that a deeper life comes from more than instant gratification or even just long term happiness. It comes from meaning. She delivers the core message that there are four pillars which amount to meaning: belonging (connections), purpose (identity), storytelling, and transcendence (humility, and an appreciation that there exists a world beyond and greater than oneself.)

This book will save you from browsing journals, researching, or listening to complicated philosophical discussions in your attempt to figure out how best to accomplish a meaningful lifestyle. Smith writes concisely, delivering a wide array of research from the field of science, philosophy and ethics -Kant, Aristotle, Viktar Frankl- and psychology and also religious perspectives - Sufism, Ghandi, the Buddha. As someone who studied Psychology and religion,  I appreciated Smith's thorough exploration of topics including grief, legacy, death, suffering and ultimately, love and compassion. Also having studied William James and religious experiences, I already had an interest in mysticism and the meaningful lives that result from such experiences.

I found Smith's research to be impressive, and the lessons drawn from said research were easily understood. Though this is evidently a scholarly piece of work, you do not need to be a scholar to understand it as the language and terminology was defined.

In the Western world, we live such busy, distracted, lives. We often blindly obey, believing our choices to be made for us, or we just follow everyone else. We conform. Thus, we don't always get the chance to appreciate the questions which demand deep thought or we deliberately avoid such questions. This book takes you on that personal journey, guiding you and helping you answer the questions that so often lie dormant at the back of your mind.

I received this book through NetGalley.

Enough science to make me feel smart for reading it, but also very accessible and understandable. Interesting points of view well expressed, definitely made me think more about the topic. I finished this over a weekend and found myself enjoying it throughout. Would recommend for sure.

This is a hard book to describe to someone. Saying it's sort of positive psychology meets self help does it an injustice but I can't come up with a better elevator pitch. It isn't going to change your life but it might make you reconsider what life is actually about. Why are the richest people more prone to suicide? Why do people with nothing happily give things away? The start of the book with the Sufi temple is fascinating and I loved the little aside about how her father admired the scarf of a visitor. The man immediately took the scarf off and gave it as a gift. Ms Smith's father told the family never to complement anyone in that way again... There is philosophy, psychology, sociology and other ologies mixed in with anecdotes. It's a book that you read easily while learning a lot and that is an accolade to the skill of the writer. I enjoyed it and I will read it again. The author believes meaning is built on four pillars - belonging, purpose, storytelling and transcendence and provides enough evidence in each of the four sections to support her thesis. Recommended if you're a little jaded with life but don't like the "normal" self help books.

I was given copy of this book by Netgalley in return for an honest review.

Disappointing. Great idea but lacks intellectual rigour required to make its messages meaningful.

I have to admit that I’m not really a great fan of the whole idea of ‘self-help’, mainly because I feel it over-simplifies complex mental health issues and trivialises them. However, I was intrigued by the premise of this book.
It is very well-written and there is a great deal of very interesting stuff here. The idea of a life that means something being far more important that a fruitless search for happiness did strike a chord with me. I found the opening chapters, with the inclusion of ideas from many psychologists, philosophers, and thinkers the most interesting and though-provoking part of the book.
The idea here is that it is important to find meaning in whatever you do, and that connections to others are vital to living a life that means something. The author backs up this theory with lots of research and references and also with anecdotal evidence.
The book lost it for me though when it went on to discuss the four pillars central to a life of meaning, and to look at real-life examples. For me, the references to religion, while not the central theme here, left me cold, and I did feel some of the accounts were rather biased and one-sided. It was a little simplistic.
This book was very well researched and referenced, and the premise is a strong one - being part of a community and feeling that you matter, and connections with others certainly are good for mental health and well-being and these ideas will help people. However, living with mental health issues is much more complex than this.
So this didn’t work for me. I found some of it very interesting, and the idea of a meaningful life is one that does resonate, but on the whole, this wasn’t for me.

It's taken me three months to get into this book as I started it many times and just couldn’t get involved enough in it to make me want to read on. A couple of days ago I decided to persevere and was surprised to find it got a lot better and was actually quite a short book. It finished at 68% on my Kindle as the remainder was notes.

I struggled with the Introduction which was about the author's early life where her family ran a Sufi meetinghouse. Sufism is the school of mysticism associated with Islam. There was talk of darvishes, aka dervishes, and it put me off as I thought this would be a recurring theme in the book. I got beyond that a couple of times and then got bogged down in tales of mythology, philosophy with reference to many academic works and latin vocabulary around the subject. Once I got past all this and as far as chapter one a couple of days ago I didn't look back and read the book quiclly. It all got a lot more interesting as many real life situations were recounted together with research from the past centenary backing up the points made.

Emily Esfahani Smith, devotes a chapter each to the four pillars that she believes brings meaning to people’s lives. These are belonging, purpose, story-telling and transcendence. It all made a lot of sense to me, especially when I read it while thinking of those who've experienced bouts of very poor mental wellbeing. A lot of what Emily talks about is achieving better mental health by having positive relationships with others and thinking of others instead of yourself. It's not about being rich or being up-to-date with social media activities. In fact the latter work against our mental wellbeing by increasing our sense of isolation in general.

A later chapter was entitled 'Growth' and addressed the issues surrounding trauma and why some people grow as a result of trauma and some don't. As with any book there are many generalisations that doubtless critics will pick holes in but I believe the underlying message that Emily Esfahani Smith gets across in this book is very important.

It's rare that I finish a book and think 'one day I will ready that again' but I did think that with this book. It all makes good sense to me but sometimes you have to remind yourself of that sense when in the thick of life's chaos and ups and downs.

The Power of Meaning
Emily Esfahani Smith

This book explores the things that make for a contented life; arguing that money and possessions don't always make us feel happy. The author, utilizing personal experience and academic sources, argues that, in order to live a contented life, a person needs to live a fulfilled life connected to a close knit community.


This book didn't blow me away. Much of the argument seemed obvious. But, it's a pleasant read and could be a great primer for those new to the subject.

An interesting read for anyone struggling with living a meaningful life. Explores how we find meaning from suffering and difficult situations.

Thanks to NetGalley and to Penguin Random House UK, Ebury Publishing for providing me with an ARC copy of this book that I voluntarily chose to read and review.
I don’t read many inspirational books so I cannot share a deep analysis of how original the book might be or where it sits in regards to the topic. The book covers a variety of subjects, and it is classed under psychology and health, philosophy and self-help, and I agree it does touch on all those.
I’m a psychiatrist and I must admit I have never studied Positive Psychology as part of my degree but this book doesn’t require an in-depth knowledge of any of the disciplines to benefit from it.
The author opens the book by introducing herself, her background, and questioning the current focus on happiness. Is happiness sufficient to lead a satisfying life? She goes on to discuss many of the studies that show that having a sense of meaning can make a big difference to the outcomes of people at a time of crisis, be it a life-threatening illness or students going through exams, and grounds the readers in the subject. She uses one of the pillars she identifies as important to creating meaning, story-telling, to hook the readers into the topic of the book. If somebody came to you and asked you to give him (her) a reason not to kill him/herself, what would you say? That’s what happened to Will Durant and what set him off asking his colleagues and trying to understand what brings meaning to people’s lives. From there, and using positive psychology, Emily Esfahani Smith, defines the four pillars that bring meaning to people’s lives: belonging, purpose, story-telling and transcendence. The author illustrates each one of these topics with individual stories that help make the points more accessible. We have a young man who was only interested in money, became a drug dealer, and when he went to prison discovered his lifestyle was literally killing him. There he changed his habits and ended up not only becoming fit but also helping others to become healthier. We have a woman who loves animals and finds her purpose in looking after the animals in the zoo, ensuring their lives can be interesting there too. I learned about dream directors who help young people find purpose and meaning; I read about projects that help people in the final stages of life to find a purpose, other projects that help individuals tell their stories and record their experiences, groups that bring people who’ve lost somebody together… The author achieves this and more, all the while providing sources for her findings and reminders of how the issues discussed relate to philosophers and historical figures past and current. We might discover belonging by joining a society that enacts battles or find transcendence walking in nature or attending a special service at church. Ultimately, this is not a prescriptive book, and the process of discovery of meaning is an individual one.
I loved the stories, which go from individual experiences to projects that have grown and become important to many people, and the theoretical reflections that underpin the concepts, which are clearly explained and will also encourage readers new to the topic to explore further. The author succeeds in preserving the unique voices of the people whose experiences she shares and her own writing is seamlessly and beautifully achieved. The book made me think and rethink life and its priorities and I suspect it will have a similar effect on many people.
A book on an important topic, written in an easily-accessible manner, illuminating and inspiring. Although I read it quickly for the review, this is a book that can be savoured and returned to as needed, and it will provide new discoveries and insights with every new reading.
A final note: Although the book appears quite long, the notes at the end occupy a 33% of the e-book (although they are easily accessible) and it does not feel like a long read.

The Power of Meaning is a lot of waffle and very little in the way of constructive advice.

Rather than searching for happiness, Emily Esfahani Smith suggests that we should be looking for meaning, and the way we create meaning in our lives, she argues, is by finding a sense of belonging and purpose, and comprehending human existence through storytelling and transcendence.

In support of this argument she cites philosophers, psychologists, historians and novelists. She reflects on astronomy and the value of casual social interactions. She visits hospitals and churches, and encounters medieval re-enactors, a zookeeper and a former drug-dealer turned legitimate entrepreneur. This variety is very much one of the book’s strengths.

The sections on belonging and purpose are convincing, the sections on storytelling and particularly transcendence slightly less so, but it’s a well-written, stimulating and engaging exploration. The Power of Meaning certainly isn’t a self-help book, but it nonetheless contains many helpful ideas for anyone who wants to live a ‘good’ life, and is a worthwhile and indeed meaningful read.

I have been someone who has gravitated to books that talk about happiness so I was intrigued to read one that focused on meaning instead. I found it to be a highly enjoyable book that was well worth reading.

Excellent - well worth reading. Really helped me see things differently and put things into perspective.

Well written and thought-provoking book that I felt was too long and hard to read fully because of its length, which is a pity since the subject is one that should be relevant to us all. Arguably, the digital age is reducing our attention span whilst giving the 'meaning of life' increased significance!

This book was not what I expected it to be and I think it is aimed more at academics and professionals rather than someone who just wants some advice.

I really found the beginning of the book difficult to read as it was very heavily referenced. I found once I got into the book more it is divided into four pillars being Belonging, Storytelling, Purpose and Transcendence. I could relate to the Storytelling pillar most as this is something I have used and I think it works too.

My advice would be if you want to really gain an understanding of this work then this book is for you, and it has evidence to back up the theories. If you want more of a self help book then maybe this is not for you.

I'm giving this book 3 out of 5 stars. My thanks to Netgalley for a copy of the book to review.

This is a well-researched book and ultimately a profound and enjoyable read. Very thought provoking and informative