I really know very little about the enneagram so I was interested to learn more with this book. I definitely saw pieces of myself in every chapter and overall enjoyed listening to it. I think it was a great way to introduce someone to the enneagram because so much of it was expressed in poetry and overall feeling rather than getting into the technicalities.

I think the audio was well done and it kept me engaged. This is obviously a very personal topic and the book seemed like a therapeutic exercise for her. And it's made me interested to learn more about where exactly I fit!

In her book, The Enneagram Letters, Sarajane Case uses poetry and personal essays to explore the nine Enneagram personality types. She encourages readers to embrace all nine types within themselves, rather than living inside the constraints of their own type, as each type has something to teach us.

The book is divided into nine chapters, each of which is dedicated to a different Enneagram type. Case begins by addressing the core fear of each type, and then goes on to explore the type's strengths, weaknesses, and potential for growth. She also includes personal stories and reflections.

Case's book is a unique and insightful exploration of the Enneagram. Her goal is to help readers understand and appreciate all nine Enneagram types. She believes that by doing so, we can become more compassionate and understanding people. It is a valuable resource for anyone who wants to learn more about themselves and their personality type.

This was an interesting way of introducing people to the Enneagram. While it does give a brief description of each number, the essays and poems focus more on the feelings of each number rather that outright talk about what each number means. I don't think I would give this to someone that is trying to learn about the Enneagram and discover which number they are, but if someone is a little more familiar with it then this might be an interesting option for them.

Audio might not be the best format for this book but the content is really great. This book is described as an anti-self help book and I think that is an accurate claim. It focuses on looking at the truths of your personality and how they can be strengths instead of only focusing on how you can be better.

Charming, delightful, and easily digestible. Audiobook format is probably not the best for this type of content, but still enjoyable.

Audiobook ARC from publisher via NetGalley, but the opinions are my own.

The issue I usually have with enneagram books is that I barely pay attention during other numbers or rush through them to get to mine and the numbers of my loved ones. Just me? Okay, well, it’s true. What’s nice about this book is that Sarajane is clear that the poetic prose are written with certain numbers in mind but also help all of us with specific situations or parts of ourselves.
I still tended to may more attention to certain numbers than others, I’ll admit.
Also these are “poetic” not necessarily poems like I was originally thinking. So a lot of prose. And that was also hard to tell in the audio form like this one. But she is a great narrator, which is often rare in authors reading their own books.

I'm a bit of a personality type fanatic, an enneagram enthusiast who has read multiple books on the subject. The Enneagram Letters is completely different from anything I've read and there's so much that makes it stand out from the rest. While many other books are academic and informative (typically my jam), this is personal and reflective. A mix of meditative essays, poetry, and calls to action, The Enneagram Letters reads like a (well-written) journal. While other enneagram books focus on "you are one type and only one type and it doesn't change throughout your life", The Enneagram Letters acknowledges that we're human and can relate to and pull from the basic instincts and fears of ALL types throughout life. This is not a book meant to help you determine your enneagram type. Rather, it encourages us to recognize parts of each type in us. This was a freeing message that allowed me to discover more about myself and others while reading. When I approached the book with this exploratory lens my mind opened and my heart softened in new ways.

Each of the 9 core chapters is focused on common thoughts/experiences of a specific enneagram type but calls out "To the part of you that... (insert core fear of that enneagram type)", thereby encouraging us to recognize ourselves in each enneagram number. In each chapter I found myself thinking, "the author must be this type!" only to have the same thought in the next chapter dedicated to another type. It helped solidify its message that we are complex humans and more than any one number. As someone who regularly questions her type, even after tons of research and self-reflecting, I loved this freeing message and was so surprised to receive this in an enneagram book when they're typically so focused on honing in on your type.

I got emotional during readings from multiple types, recognizing my fears and thoughts in its words. I also was able to see parts of myself in types that I've historically struggled to understand because they felt so foreign to me. This was a beautiful way to empathize and see ways that we are all similar, despite different experiences and tendencies. I highly recommend this, especially for those familiar with the enneagram who are looking for a more reflective reading experience.

The Enneagram Letters: A Poetic Exploration of Who You Thought You Had to Be
By Sarajane Case

🎧Narrator: Sarajane Case
4 hrs 17 mins
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️💫

Sarajane Case, the author of The Honest Enneagram and host of the @EnneagramandCoffee Podcast, has written a second book. Taking a unique approach, The Enneagram Letters is a collection of poems, letters, personal reflections, and insights into each of the nine personality types. One of the main tenants of the Enneagram system is that we each make certain accommodations in our approach to others and our self understanding in order to belong. Case states more simply that we settle into one of nine personality types based on the pressure to be perfect (1), likable (2), successful (3), significant (4), capable (5), supported (6), happy (7), strong (8) or easy to get along with (9). But ultimately the path to growth is to experience and incorporate aspects of all nine types and all three centers of intelligence. In her latest book, Case invites the reader to do just that and imagine what it would be like to be their truest, purest, most open version of themself, instead of who they thought they needed to be.

The Enneagram Letters is designed to be an anti-self help book of sorts that stems from the premise, “What if there was nothing intrinsically wrong with you?.” If one begins with this truth, then instead of the focus on fixing oneself, the focus would be on expanding the self. Her letters are at times a call to action, a meditation on the type structure or a challenge/invitation to expand from the structures that are limiting or safe. Case uses her own journals and personal experiences to illuminate the possibilities. This book is not meant to be a starting point for learning the Enneagram, but is for readers already familiar with the Enneagram and who are exploring new pathways of self expression. Sarajane Case narrates the audiobook with the same familiar soothing voice her Enneagram and Coffee fans have come to know and love.

My thanks to @NetGalley, @AndrewsMcMeel Audio and @sarajanecase for the ALC in exchange for an honest review. Now available!

I was granted a copy of this book by Netgalley, in exchange for my honest opinion.
Enneagram is a system of 9 personalities, and knowing them helps you know what overwhelms you, and what are your skills, enhancing your best traits, making you aware of what maybe you can work on yourself, self-love, patience with yourself, making you stop and see that it's okay to slow down and relax, to be grateful for the little things, tell yourself you're doing everything you can and that's okay.
I recommend experiencing the audiobook, which is very relaxing and informative. With simple terminology and wisdom about each of them.
In each chapter, we see one personality type focus so it gets personalized and for the better self know ourselves.
The author Sarajane Case it’s such a down-to-earth human being, she’s the one narrating the audiobook which makes this so much more intimate and relatable, the voice it’s suitable, and feels like we are having coffee with a friend listening to their experiences and seeing ourselves through them.

This was an incredibly interesting read (or listen in my case). As a very typical Type 5, I found myself annoyingly called out but in all honesty I can’t complain. It was interesting to hear about not just my own type, but the other types as well. Books like this are so easy to read for me and I really love them.

Thanks NetGalley for the audio!

I was expecting much more actual poetry and less description of what the Enneagram actually is. I think this would have been a stronger book if it spent less time explaining each type, and more time on its premise.

I have read quite a bit on the enneagram, and this is a new way that is informative but not bogged down in technical speak. It's more like poetry that encapsulates the feelings behind each number, but specifically to that number. As well as introspection essays around each number. She covers all nine parts of the enneagram, so there's something for everyone within these pages., starting with the core fear, introduction, a little bit about that number, and how they typically interact with the world around them. Not as indepth as other enneagram resources, but not one to pass up either.
*I received a copy of this book from NetGalley. This review is my own opinion*

I’m not usually one for poetry and essays. Something about the enneagram is so perfectly expressed this way, though. Maybe it’s easier to express deep emotions through imagery. Maybe essays are good because they personally demonstrate aspects of each enneagram type.

Either way, after listening to this audiobook, I feel a deeper connection and understanding of several enneagram types.

I don’t think this would be a good introduction to the enneagram: the book specifically mentions that “The Honest Enneagram” will go into more detail about discerning factors of each type. Instead, I think this book is for those looking to find more empathy for other types and maybe find a price of those types inside yourself.

Thanks to NetGalley for the Advanced Reader Copy of this audiobook. All opinions are my own.

#TheEnneagramLetters#NetGalley
By: Sarajane Case
Review by: I Love to Read
The Enneagram Letters is a treatment of the nine types of people. Each basic type is examined and explained why the type behaves as it does. This audiobook is pleasing to the ear and informative as the author focuses on each type in depth with insightful probes of how to expect each type to respond to grief, pain, tears, emotional growth, and how to reserve personal time for allowing oneself to examine their emotional developmental journey. An excellent read. I recommend this book.
Thank you #NetGalley# and publisher for the opportunity to read this book in exchange for an honest review.

“Through her poetry and personal essays, Enneagram expert Sarajane Case encourages her readers to embrace all nine personality types within themselves in The Enneagram Letters.“

Husband (E1W9) and I (E7W6) listened to sections of this together, and spent most of the time poking each other in the ribs.

“Did you hear what she said to YOU?”

We’re children.

***

I have a love/hate relationship to the Enneagram.

I love that it has helped me know my favourite people more deeply.

I love that it gives me vocabulary for some of my weirdness and a path to balance.

I do NOT love the idea of being laid bare for all to see.

I had the same feelings with this book.

Mirrors are helpful.

And hurtful.

“Happiness isn’t the only special thing. That sometimes grief holds magic for you just the same. We find ourselves in some of these darker moments. When we fight for happiness above all, we lose the truth of who we are. For me, I believe my seeking of happiness was even the source of much of my suffering. In the pursuit of happiness, I sacrificed things too early out of fear they would bring me down. I made reckless choices, all for the temporary feeling at the expense of long-term stability.”

Ouch, Sarajane. Ouch.

The unique thing about this particular Enneagram book involves Sarajane’s encouragement to ‘live outside your number’.

Less, “Meh, it’s just who I am.” More, “Is this serving me?”

7.5/10

Thanks to NetGalley and Andrews McMeel Publishing and Audio for this revealing ARC.

ENNEAGRAM LETTERS audiobook feels like sipping tea under a weighted blanket with a loved one hugging you and the good feeling after journaling without having to journal.
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I’m a 3 with 6. for 3 the achiever, I learned to stop moving my goal posts for the sake of moving them. for 6 the loyalist I learned that I don’t wanna be the boss but that I wanna choose the boss so it’s someone I respect and can work to impress. correct x2.
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probably recommend reading HONEST ENNEAGRAM prior to ENNEAGRAM LETTERS. either way, SJ Case is a wonderful writer & audiobook narrator.