True Companions
A Book for Everyone About the Relationships That See Us Through
by Kelly Flanagan
This title was previously available on NetGalley and is now archived.
Send NetGalley books directly to your Kindle or Kindle app
1
To read on a Kindle or Kindle app, please add kindle@netgalley.com as an approved email address to receive files in your Amazon account. Click here for step-by-step instructions.
2
Also find your Kindle email address within your Amazon account, and enter it here.
Pub Date Feb 09 2021 | Archive Date Mar 11 2021
Talking about this book? Use #TrueCompanions #NetGalley. More hashtag tips!
Description
When we quit sabotaging intimacy in our relationships by demanding unconditional love, we discover something much greater—the deeply satisfying, transformational love that is companionship.
In these pages psychologist Kelly Flanagan shows how each of us has within ourselves, exactly the way we are, the gifts that are needed to cultivate the life-long relationships we are longing for, whether it is within marriage or friendship. He shows us how self-knowledge leads the way to growing in love for both God and others. He shows us how understanding our own loneliness can help us relieve the pressure on our companions. And he shows us how understanding our own psychological and emotional defenses can help us to make the choice to love more vulnerably.
More than a marriage book, this is a companionship book. Anyone—from single young adults to elderly married couples, from the divorced to the widowed, from siblings to friends—can benefit from the wisdom it uncovers about what it means to be human and to be true companions.
Groups, couples, and individuals can use the companion study guide for five sessions on how to show up in your most important relationships.
Advance Praise
"Though we often do whatever it takes to avoid feelings of loneliness, in these pages Dr. Kelly Flanagan invites readers to do something else—make friends with our loneliness, attend to it, and even welcome loneliness as a gift. Flanagan is a guide for the isolated soul, showing us that our agonizing longings for deep companionship are actually graces—signposts pointing us toward deeper connection, love, and holiness. And along the way, we discover this gentlest of miracles: we are, none of us, truly alone."
-Aubrey Sampson, church planter and author of The Louder Song: Listening for Hope in the Midst of Lament
"In True Companions, Kelly Flanagan grapples with the joys and risks of genuine connection. With sincerity, wisdom, and deft storytelling, Flanagan dares readers to become more human. In an increasingly inhumane world, his is a dare worth taking."
-Katherine Willis Pershey, author of Very Married: Field Notes on Love and Fidelity
"I know this book will touch many lives. Kelly Flanagan has harvested the rich rewards of true companionship from the everyday struggles of doing real life together—a gift to every couple and every kind of companion everywhere."
-Bob Goff, author of Love Does and Dream Big
Available Editions
| EDITION | Other Format |
| ISBN | 9780830847686 |
| PRICE | $24.99 (USD) |
| PAGES | 240 |
Featured Reviews
Educator 702553
True Companions by Kelly Flanagan is a book sharing the joys and struggles of companionship whether it be through marriage. friendship, or just the relationship with yourself. This book highlights the importance of unconditional love and the power it can have when you start with unconditionally loving yourself and those around you. However the author highlights the importance of true unconditional self love that does not hide flaws or embarrassments which is not a true unconditional love.
The book is broken up into three parts: 1) befriending your loneliness by becoming quiet; 2) embracing your struggle to grow strong; and 3) cherishing your time as you grow old. Interspersed throughout the book are letters to the author's wife at the beginning and end of each section. The writing is conversational and easy to read. I appreciated the vulnerability from the author throughout the book and the author's humility shined through. I think both people in relationships or not would benefit from the perspective of the author which is realistic yet somehow creates a hopeful tone.
Many thanks to the publisher Kelly Flanagan and Netgalley for the ARC in return for an honest review.
Readers who liked this book also liked:
Jodi Picoult; Jennifer Finney Boylan
General Fiction (Adult), Literary Fiction, Women's Fiction
Casey Caston; Meygan Caston
Parenting & Families, Self-Help
Tanis Allen, LMSW, ACSW
Health, Mind & Body, Self-Help
