Heartbreak by Florence Williams was such an interesting read. Walking through the author’s heartbreak as she experienced it was incredibly moving and intimate. She is a skilled writer and I went through wanting to know how ended.

This is the book we have been looking for for years, but never existed. A accessible, scientific (and personal) explanation on why heartbreak feels the way it does and how we can get to the otherside. I love how Williams threaded her own personal heartbreak through the story. This is going to be my go-to recommendation for friends in need.

Heartbreak is a journey into the science of loss that is bookended by Florence's adventure into the wilderness for healing after a 30 year relationship ended. The majority of the book dives into various studies on how heartbreak impacts not only our emotions, but our physical bodies as well. This book would be perfect for anyone interested in science or in someone in the midst of a major loss— romantic or otherwise.

Unfortunately, despite the good bones, this book has more personal anecdotes than scientific inquiry. This book follows the narrative of many science-oriented biographies but doesn't stand out to me.

Such an important and ground breaking book. Part memoir, part scientific exploration and investigation, this book revolutionizes the way we think about heartbreak.

The month of February is a great month to focus on love, but what about its opposite - heartbreak? That's the focus of Florence Williams' new nonfiction book Heartbreak: A Personal and Scientific Journey.

Much like Lori Gottlieb's Maybe You Should Talk to Someone, Heartbreak follows the author's emotional breakdown after her 25-year marriage ends in divorce and the research she does to try to understand what heartbreak is, how it affects those suffering from it, and how to make it go away.

It's not just a mental thing. Heartbreak manifests itself in physical ways. Williams herself developed diabetes. Other men and women have had heart attacks, depression, and PTSD.

So is there a cure for heartbreak?

You'll have to read Williams' book to find out. She turns herself into a guinea pig, trying everything from solo outdoor adventures (nature as catharsis) to tripping on mushrooms. I loved reading about her experiences, and though I have not experienced a divorce, I've certainly been heartbroken before, and probably most of us have at some point and for whatever reason. That's why I think this book will resonate with so many readers.

Heartbreak is published by W.W. Norton Company and is available to purchase now. I received a free e-ARC in exchange for this review.

I love this kind of book that is part memoir, part research.

When Florence Williams's marriage ends without warning, she is understandably heartbroken. As she attempts to recover and understand her new identity, she investigates the science behind the social, emotional and physical responses she is having. Not limiting her research to the topic of heartbreak, she also explores adjacent feelings such as loneliness and alienation through experiments and experience.

Williams shares cringe-worthy dating interactions as well as outdoor adventures on her road to recovery while also uncovering her learnings along the way, some well-known, some more obscure. (In a moment of emotional suffering, has anyone ever told you to seek heat? Evidence says they should.)

Thank you to NetGalley and W.W. Norton & Company for the opportunity to read an advanced copy of this enlightening book.

A beautiful memoir of heartbreak of coping with the emotional hurt when the authors husband decides he is leaving.Feeling the shock ,sadness losing twenty pounds she a scientist decides to study what heartbreak from a scientific and emotional reality is.So moving so well written a book that stays with you .Will be recommending.#netgalley #w.w.Norton

Florence Williams invites us into her shattered world as she explores the physiology and psychology of heartbreak first-hand and through interviews with other sufferers or heartbreak and various trauma. This well-researched memoir explores several topics while we see our author-narrator navigate her own path toward healing. A kind of Grieve, Learn, Forgive journey of self-discovery that will leave you smarter and more empathetic to those who need help processing trauma. A great read whether you are trying to figure out your own heartache or help a close one wrestle with theirs. Heartbreak has a little bit for everyone; drama of trying to mend broken heart and the latest science on bonding and emotional loss. I couldn't put this gem down.

Florence Williams explores the fascinating, cutting-edge science of heartbreak while seeking creative ways to mend her own.

When her twenty-five-year marriage unexpectedly falls apart, journalist Florence Williams expects the loss to hurt. What she doesn’t expect is that she’ll end up in the hospital, examining close-up the way our cells listen to loneliness. She travels to the frontiers of the science of “social pain” to learn why heartbreak hurts so much and why so much of the conventional wisdom about it is wrong.

Searching for insight as well as personal strategies to game her way back to health, Williams tests her blood for genetic markers of grief, undergoes electrical shocks in a laboratory while looking at pictures of her ex, and ventures to the wilderness in search of awe as an antidote to loneliness. For readers of Wild and Lab Girl, Heartbreak is a remarkable merging of science and self-discovery that will change the way we think about loneliness, health, and what it means to fall in and out of love.

I really enjoyed this book. It was hard to put down as it drew me in immediately and before I knew it I was in the middle of the book!

When an experienced science journalist has her heart broken, she turns her curiosity and smarts toward figuring out what's really going on. A beautiful combination of personal memoir and hard-nosed reporting from Florence Williams, one of the best.