"Why We Play by Joanna Fortune is a fascinating exploration of the importance of play in our lives. This book delves into how play is not just for kids but a vital part of human development and emotional well-being for people of all ages.

Joanna Fortune, a psychotherapist with years of experience, offers insightful and practical advice on incorporating play into daily routines. She explains how play can help improve relationships, reduce stress, and boost creativity. The book is filled with engaging anecdotes and actionable tips, making it both informative and enjoyable to read.

Why We Play is a reminder that it's okay to have fun and be playful, even as you grow older. It encourages readers to embrace their playful side and shows how doing so can lead to a happier, healthier life.

If you're looking for a book that combines psychology with practical life advice, Why We Play is a great choice. It's perfect for anyone curious about the science of play and its impact on our lives."

The best, and also the most fun, way to heal your inner child is to play. When did we become too grown up to assemble lego sets? To watch cartoons? Who determines when you are too old? Perfect book for those who just want life to sometimes be a little less serious. It’s supposed to be fun! The audiobook was clear and easy to listen to, while playing with clay or lego!

Work hard play harder, This book and the ideas in this book should be understood and practiced by everyone. I believe we would live in a much happier world if people knew it was acceptable to play. Even to play at work. I would not survive my life if I couldn't joke and laugh and be a human in the hardest parts of my life. After my grandmother died, I remember my whole family sitting in the lobby of the hospital and we were all just laughing hysterically (and cry of course) at our memories. I don't really think there's an inappropriate time for play. I think play is how we survive the hardest things of life and when we don't allow ourselves to because of propriety or societal norm, we devastate ourselves. This book is a really good way to teach you healthy ways to allow yourself to play while respecting your responsibilities. Definitely worth a read. Thank you #netgalley for the chance to read this book in advance.

This book seems okay depending on what the reader needs. This book argues for that adult needs to play and gives the readers ideas for adult play. While I appreciated the first part of the book containing this information, I wasn't expecting the book to spend so much time outlining precisely how to play. Some people may need instructions laid out to get into a playful space, but I didn't find it necessary.

4 therapeutic stars
“Will you take a risk on risk taking?”
“Play is for life.”

Fortune is coming from a therapeutic point of view. From the publisher: “Drawing on over twenty years of neuroscientific research and clinical practice, psychotherapist Joanna Fortune has discovered that play is central to the human experience - and is the key to living a happier, joyful life. With life-changing insights, tips, and exercises, she shares her proven approach.” Fortune suggests play activities for people who did not get to play much as a child and discusses learning to self-regulate emotions through play. She poses many questions about one’s childhood and parents regarding play.

Why We Play has much to offer, but I think the title is misleading. It is more about ACTIVITIES and QUESTIONS to find joy and meaning. I wasn’t expecting so much therapy with questions about alcohol, sex, drug use, and money. What she writes is important, the activities and questions are good, but because of Fortune’s (sometimes wordy) therapeutic viewpoint, the book has a serious nature to it. “Approached playfully, boredom is a mindful experience.” In my opinion, the book tries to do too much and the casual reader could be overwhelmed. It would be an excellent introduction and resource to play therapy for students going into that field!

Fortune includes many practical ideas for creating more fun/ play in your life. Some require simple toys such as a jump rope, chalk, ball, or hula-hoop, many others are word games that require imagination, paper, and pen. The resources section at the end includes many more creative play suggestions using simple or no materials.

“I hope you have read this book as an invitation to play. I wanted to provide practical ways in which you can flex your play muscles and get play-fit again by taking a chance on a new and sometimes silly way of doing things because play is spontaneous, chaotic, messy, relational … enables mistakes and stretches us a little beyond our so-called comfort zone.”

The author’s voice was warm and encouraging, easy to understand. I think the activities would be easier to follow in a print version, where one does not have to constantly pause the narrative to mentally answer the excellent questions posed. A print version can also be highlighted easier with activities one wants to come back to.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for providing an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

This was an absolutely fascinating listen. It really made me think and take a second look at certain aspects of my life from a different perspective. Especially when you're a Mum you can sometimes find it hard to focus on anything other than being responsible and this gave me the reminder that I needed to remember that fun and playfulness can still exist along side the more serious stuff, balance is everything and sometimes we could all do with a little help.

I received an ARC of the audiobook and found it absolutely fascinating. The author is a psychotherapist and explains how we as adults can incorporate play into our daily lives and why this is so important. She gives many tips and some more generalised lifestyle advice relating to work, relationships, parenting and so on. The audiobook is narrated by the author and I enjoyed her gentle, calm voice.
Very interesting and worthwhile book.

This book had a really interesting premise, but for some reason I found it hard to follow on audio. The narrator seemed fine, but in hindsight it seemed like it was missing a spark. I think I would have enjoyed this more had I read it in ebook or paper form, sometimes I wanted to go back to past chapters to reference something which is difficult to do on audiobooks. The general ideas about play and the exercises were interesting, but again I think for me this would have been better in paper form so I could revisit things since I listen to audiobooks a lot while I'm driving or otherwise occupier in some way.

I really like this book, but wish it had been longer. As an avid consumer of play science, I was excited since there are rarely new books published that focus specifically on play in adults. I really enjoyed the author’s work and the practical applications provided but wish there had been a couple more chapters to go further in depth. If you are at the beginning of your play journey or haven’t read a lot of literature on the subject this is a good place to start. If you are already well versed in the science of play I would say this is probably not essential reading for you.

This book was a "how to" book about how adults can play. Some of the ideas were great and helpful. I was really hoping for more of the science behind play but this book focused a lot of excercises to do to incorporate more play in your life. I found the narrator (which I believe is the author) a little hard to follow. The quality of the audio was also distracting-kind of computerized sounding. This might have been better in print and something to reference back on.

I found this book to be incredibly interesting. I assumed it would be geared towards a parenting perspective, which it touched upon, but more it aimed at encouraging play in adults. I found her insights helpful. intriguing, and thought-provoking. I listened to this book on audio but would love to read it in print to take advantage of the "play break" prompts and worksheets included. Play is invaluable and I will take these lessons with me as a mother and as an individual.

A necessary book for those aiming to improve their day-to-day lives through something as easy as PLAY!

I picked out this book because I was interested in reading about how to be more playful in day to day life. While the book covers this it goes far deeper and looks at the psychology of play and made me think a lot about my childhood and early development. As someone who had a relatively happy childhood this was quite pleasant but I can imagine this may be a tricky read for anyone with unhappy childhood memories.

The book does a great job of making a case for bringing playfulness into your life and explains why play is important even for adults. This was an idea that I was already sympathetic to but even if I wasn't, I think the ideas and examples provided in the book would have changed my mind. I think the "play breaks" suggested are less helpful though as many of them are suggested activties that I would feel very awkward carrying out myself. They are just suggestions but an example I can remember was spinning on the spot three times every time you see a red car when walking about town. This seems like a quick way to get yourself sectioned and I would feel far too self-conscious to carry out that activity. Others are less awkward but still not the kind of thing I would find an enjoyable type of "play".

While I have reservations about the suggested play activities, I do agree with the general idea within the book that we should all play more and that it will provide us with all sorts of benefits to our wellbeing.

I thought the writing was good on the whole, it was easy clearly written and easy to follow. I didn't follow every suggested activity as I read along but after reading it I think I have had a more playful midset as I have gone about my day and I have felt the benefit of that.

This is a great book by a psychotherapist, in which she shares with us how play is the best tool we can use to help us live a happier and more meaningful life. She goes over topics such as practicing moments of joy, embracing wonderment, finding fun in our everyday life, using storytelling, nurturing a holiday state of mind and utilising relationship techniques. She shows us how we can look at everything we are doing each day, and being more playful like a child, rather than feeling so stressed. Children know how to play, and we can look to them to show us how we can connect with our own inner child, in order for us to be more playful, and therefore we can feel more joy and wonder in our lives.

I really enjoyed this book a lot, and I have already used some of the techniques from it, which worked well for me. I loved the narrator's accent (she is also the author), and her voice was so lovely.

I highly recommend this book, which will appeal to anyone who wishes to better themselves.

Many thanks to the author, publisher, narrator and NetGalley for this book.

I listened to the audiobook of Why We Play. I was interested in it at the start to hear about the science behind play. The more I read, the worse it got. I almost abandoned this when they said to purchase a toy or doll that was your favorite growing up and start to play with it again. This book would be better if focusing on non-gimmicky ways to add fun (rather than play) into your daily life. It could be as simple as telling a joke rather than playing with legos.

This was an interesting concept for a book. I don't think a lot of adults even think of play anymore. They think that grown men and women have to be serious and work all of the time. I liked the content of the book. There were several exercises and ideas throughout the book to help spark playfulness. I think it's important for everyone, children and adults alike, to keep their playful nature. to help keep life worth living.

I really enjoyed this audio book-perfect for my field in teaching but I saw it’s use for my second field of coaching/counselling-we don’t do enough to relax and the pandemic has put paid to that so many people cleave do
Many fears- I found myself doing the exercises and going back to them to help me relax.
The authors voice is super relaxing and at the same time authoritative and I will use those activities going forward and definitely recommend this book to others

I struggled with this one and ended up not finishing it. The audiobook narrator is a bit dry for me. I think this may have been a case where having someone aside from the author reading it may have actually been a benefit. I think the topic is interesting and the description caught my attention but unfortunately at least in the audio format I wasn’t able to connect with this one.

Why We Play is not my usual kind of book, but I thought it would be good to try something a bit different and this appealed to me. I found this book to be a fascinating insight into 'play', including the science behind it, why it is important and HOW we can go about implementing it into our everyday lives.

Firstly, I always love it when an audiobook is narrated by the author, as it gives it so much more meaning. I found Joanna to be passionate and knowledgeable about her subject and with a voice that was very easy to listen to. I really liked that the book was a good balance between science, case studies and suggestions. I feel that this may be better as a physical book as there were some exercises to do that I struggled with as I was listening whilst driving for example.

Overall, a really interesting read and I am looking forward to adding some more 'play' into my everyday!

My thanks to NetGalley and the Publishers for sending me this ARC in return for an honest review.

This is a review of the audiobook version of this book.

I received an ARC of the audiobook of "Why We Play" by Joanna Fortune. The audiobook is read by the author, which I usually love because it gives an extra dimension to the reading as its their own work. However, in this situation, I don't feel that it added any value to the text. Joanna spoke slowly and her accent was often distracting to me. When I listen to audiobooks with a slower speaking narrator, I typically increase the playback speed, however, when I increased from 1x speed to 1.25x speed (the only next level available), I got a terrible echo on the playback that made it even more difficult to listen to the narrator.

I might have a different/higher rating had I read the text version of the book or had the opportunity for more flexibility with the playback speed (i.e. some audiobook programs allows variable speed adjustments so I might have been able to increase to 1.1x or 1.15x speed and not gotten the echo).

Overall, the concept of the book was great. There are a lot of exercises that Joanna walks you though during the book that I think I might have gotten more value from had I read the physical book (rather than listening to the audiobook as I typically listen to audiobooks while at work, driving in my car, or working out at the gym.)

I really enjoyed this book.

It serves as a reminder of what play is, and how it can look for different people - it's not just one thing. I realised a lot of things I do in my life *are* playful activities or could be seen as play. I liked the tips and "play breaks" and reassurance of how there is no right/wrong when it comes to play.

I enjoyed hearing the case studies included, and examples of play in real life - I would have loved for more of these to be included.

The narration was wonderful, the author reads it herself and does a brilliant job. Her voice is soothing and calm and I want her to read more assurances and self-help tips for me to listen to whenever I need a boost.

I'd recommend this to those who worry they might be "too serious" or those who have a specific idea of *what* play is and knows that isn't for them. You won't use or want to use all the tips and ideas in the book - some you may scoff at or think are cringe, others will light a bulb in your brain in realising that *that* type of play is something you want to try.