Unfortunately my Amazon account got hacked numerous times and I closed my account. When closing the account, I lost all of my electronic kindle ARCs from netgalley under that email including this title which I am unable to review

Too much self promotion., most of this book is just her promoting Daybreakers, her morning dance, rave company book is not what I expected. I'm not sure what I expected, to be fair, but it wasn't this.

This was a disappointment, but at least it was a quick read. It ended up incredibly surface level, full of gimmicky acronyms/concepts (Red Ego/Green Ego, V.I.C, FYF, FSF, etc.) and page-count-bloating illustrations, while not actually diving into how to create community and connect with people in a more fulfilling way. It felt like her definition of community had more to do with shared activities than authentic connection. She also used her own company (Daybreaker) as an example of community-building over and over again, so it came across as a bit of a commercial (and she ends the book by saying she's starting a consulting business for community building, of course)

I believe this was the first book I requested from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. I wasn't quite sure of the process and didn't read it until now. I enjoyed the book and honestly find it even more relevant in this time where many of us aren't getting much social interaction due to Co-vid. It's basically a "find your tribe" book, explaining how to find the right people to surround yourself with based on your values. The author made some good points about the use of social media and how it lulls us into a false sense of community.

It’s hard to find a community or friends as an adult and I really wanted to like this book. However, I felt it was both overly simplistic with its ideas and complicated with too many unnecessary acronyms. I definitely feel like there are better books out there on the subject.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for allowing me to read and review this book,

Thankyou Workman Publishing and Netgalley for an ARC of this book.

Radha guides the reader, providing tools and ideas into how to make your place in a community. As someone who relocates regularly this was an enjoyable, useful book. Radha highlights the deep importance of having “your tribe” on our overall well being.
This book is super useful for anyone with an impending move, or for anyone who is feeling surrounded but alone in their environment.

Unfortunately, I was unable to get into this title. It just wasn't a good fit for me. Thanks so much for the opportunity to read this title. I will not be posting a review online, in order not to skew the ratings.

Such an enjoyable read. Besides the great writing, there is other great content hidden in this book: the illustrations. I just adored all those little illustrations and doodles that help you visualize a concept and stay on your mind more easily. (At least for a visual learner like me).

"Belong" is a book full advice and activities, or almost like homework, where the author presents you with actionable advice.

This book could be followed to the T and used as a blueprint with the various exercises and actions included in it, or just like a guide and inspiration to know where to start looking for a connection in your life. Personally, I prefer the option of finding inspiration and reading about some else's point of view and advice. I'm a free spirit, and can't always follow blueprints step by step, so I adapt it to my way of life, and of course, so can you.

For whatever reason you might be looking to connect with your community, this book is a great read. Maybe you changed jobs, moved, or started school/college in a new city. No matter the reason, this little book is sure to give you the nudge you need and with great ideas on how to get started.

And although the community building and "belonging" is the main focus of this book, it also has sections on self-awareness, to ask questions about yourself.

The part that impacted me the most is about her acronym D.O.S.E., and how we need a daily "D.O.S.E." of Dopamine, Oxytocin, Serotonin, and Endorphins.

More and more frequently people feel disconnected from the world and from themselves. This interactive book not only inspires but provides a blueprint to find yourself and find your people.

I liked the formatting of this book. It was easy to read and understand. The concepts are good. It could have been more indepth, however, this is a good starting point.

Belong by Radha Agrawal is about connecting with people by joining and building communities. The premise is we all feel happier when we are connected to other people. In fact, Radha says “having weak social ties is as harmful to our health as being an alcoholic, and twice as harmful as obesity” – scary.

The aim of the book is for you to become “aware of who you are and intentional about what you want so that you can go out and build your dream community.” Therefore the book includes sections on understanding yourself and caring for your own wellbeing and energy levels as well as interacting with other people.

I really liked this book. It has helped me understand more about myself, what I can do to build communitities and actions other people have taken to build communitities. For example, eating together and dressing up. During my life, I haven’t been to many fancy dress parties, but I’ve been to two this year and had an amazing time. Probably because as Radha says “life is way more fun when we make excuses to dress up. When you dress up together, there’s a camaraderie that’s created and you feel a deeper sense of belonging.”

The only negative I have about the book is the use of so many acronymns such as FYF (fuck year friend) and FOBLO (fear of being left out). Some of them were used through out the book and I didn’t remember what they were so I had to keep looking back to remind myself.

I highly recommend Belong to people who want a greater sense of belonging or just want some tips on how to build a strong community. I’ll finish with a quote that is my biggest take away from the book “the big secret to keeping community alive is to Give Give Give.”

If you are either feeling like you don’t have enough friends or your friendships aren’t nourishing and supporting you the way you’d like, this book provides guidance on finding friends who will align with your values and interests, understand and accept you, and fill your emotional tank.

If you’re interested in organizing a community, this book offers some practical steps to take and suggests some helpful questions to answer to help you design a sustainable community with a clear goal.

The author provides some amazing statistics and health claims. For example, she noted that a study found that “Having poor social connections is as bad as being an alcoholic and twice as bad as being obese.” Unfortunately, she did not provide a citation for that study, so I was unable to refer to the original source to learn more.

I liked the idea of getting to know yourself better so you can be intentional about choosing compatible friends and community. I love the sections discussing personal and community core values, and how by defining the core values and constraints of a community, “you know if it’s your thing, and if it’s not.” I also liked the idea of selecting your friends and designing your community as an act of “thoughtful energy curation.” I appreciated the helpful reminder that “Expectations are resentments waiting to happen,” as well as the suggestion to turn judgment into curiosity.

I was less fond of the author’s invention of multiple new acronyms, which I had trouble remembering. Also, I think the book will probably appeal more to energetic young extroverts than middle-aged introverts like me who cringe at the thought of saying “F*ck yeah” (a phrase the author is fond of).

I was provided an ARC through NetGalley that I volunteered to review. Because I have not seen the final published version, I cannot comment on the final editing and formatting. However, the ARC had minimal proofreading errors, and the quirky formatting and graphics added charm and helped the book stand apart.

Belong opens up with Agrawal's own discovery that she was surrounding herself with the wrong community. She then guide her readers to become introspective and to delve deep on what they really want from the community they are in and how they can be better versions of themselves in order to attract and contribute to that community they want. The second part of the book gives the readers the advice and tools they need to create the community they want to belong to; how to deal with conflict, how to plan events, etc.
Agrawal not only gives her readers the tools to building their own community, she also periodically stops that readers to offer engaging exercises. Very relevant points are made on the false sense of community that social media offers its users and the negative effects a toxic community can have. There are valuable lessons to be learned and all readers can gain knowledge on how to create a healthy self and community.

This is an amazing primer on building your own supportive community .I liked the authors layout of the story and how they approached the topic.

Looking forward to building a stronger sense of community with the help of this book. A fun mixture of text and graphics and sections that allow for self-reflection and tasks to incite actualization.

3,5 stars

I chose this book mainly because of the cover and the title, so I didn't know much about what to expect.
The first few chapters really got my attention, especially because they focused on paying attention to ourselves and to what we are feeling. It got me thinking about myself, and the few exercises the author suggests are helpful to help you analyze the good and bad things about your current situation.

Another positive thing about this book was the fact that it had several illustrations that helped to explain the author's message and made the reading less boring and more enjoyable.

However, towards the end, I have to say that I lost some interest in reading this, and it was probably due to the use of several abstract definitions created by the author. Seeing all those made up terms that, to me, were a little unnecessary, made me kind of zone out once in a while.

Overall, it was an interesting read, but nothing Iife-changing.

Simplistic advice about connecting to others in person and not just via social media. Author gives suggestions on widening your circle of support and how to engage others in your community.

As a digital native, this book hit close to home. There are very few people in the real world I consider friends, especially people who are geographically close to me. But online, I have made communities and connections that have turned into "real world" friendships. This was a thoughtful exploration of friendships, community and distance.

This book is not what I expected. I'm not sure what I expected, to be fair, but it wasn't this. I think I was expecting another "we live behind our screens and we're the most lonely generation" type book, with the added point of "it's hard to make new friends as adults because we're not in school anymore." This book was kind of that, but not really.

The first chapter irritated me to the extent that I almost gave up. Every page had a different font, font size, color, shape of the text, etc., and it was too ADD for my taste. Then Agrawal decided to rewrite Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs (and name it after herself), which irked me. It's was extremely off-putting and honestly made me think she's a giant egotist, especially given that the book continually talks about how successful she's been at launching a bunch of new ventures. I still think that at the end of the book, especially because the last page is "oh btw, I'm launching an online community" (which I'm sure costs money).

The completely schizophrenic text issues died down a bit in later chapters, much to my relief. However, she continued to bug me. She gives gimmicky names to literally everything, that even though I read it in less than a week, by the end I couldn't remember what "FYF" or any of the other 43 cutesy names she gave to archetypes of people. It was way too "woo woo" in that way.

Even putting the visual annoyances and weird acronyms aside, the content of this books was confusing. I don't think it knew what it was supposed to be. Some chapters really felt like they were more about friend circles, while others really only applied to someone wanting to create an organization. On top of that, none of the advice she gave was profound. It was legitimately just common sense. Overall, it was very shallow, as it didn't really delve into any of the three things the title mentions beyond a very superficial overview of anything you could find in a Medium article.

I'm still giving it 2 stars, because I was able to finish it, and maybe it might be beneficial for someone who is less snarky and cynical than I am. But for me, this is a hard pass.

BELONG by Radha Agrawal is subtitled Find Your People, Create Community, and Live a More Connected Life. Radha describes creating those connections in two broad sections, Going In (discussing Epiphany, Self-awareness and Intention) and Going Out (on Nurturing Community, Friendship Cycle, being a Master Citizen and more). Throughout the text, Radha includes some helpful prompts like the questions to consider after plotting your life history. She shares suggested actions (including 10 ways to nurture your community), offers diagrams (like outlining values, interests and abilities), and creates numerous acronyms to help trigger belongingness. This book, filled with Radha's youthful energy, could have useful insights for our students (including topics like one's own mean girls, labeling and bingeing) – perhaps applying most in advisory (homeroom) or health classes. However, her target audience seems to mainly be people in their 20s or 30s. For example, there is a section promoting an event called “good drinks” which seems at least one suggestion counter to actions we are trying to instill or reinforce at school. Therefore, I am curious to see a print copy of BELONG and to then share it, if appropriate, with teachers.