What Looks Like Bravery, Laurel Braitman
What Looks Like Bravery, Laurel Braitman
List: $24.99 | Sale: $17.50
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What Looks Like Bravery
An Epic Journey Through Loss to Love

Author: Laurel Braitman

Narrator: Laurel Braitman

Unabridged: 8 hr 3 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 03/14/2023


Synopsis

A true story about the ways loss can transform us into the people we want to become.

“What Looks Like Bravery is a gorgeous, tender, and beautiful book. I'm in tears with the happy-sad truth and beauty of it. Laurel is a magnificent writer.” —Cheryl Strayed, New York Times bestselling author of Wild

Laurel Braitman spent her childhood learning from her dad how to out-fish grown men, keep bees, and fix carburetors. Diagnosed young with terminal cancer, he raced against the clock to leave her the skills she’d need to survive without him. This was one legacy. Another was relentless perfectionism and the belief that bravery meant never acknowledging your own fear.

By her mid-thirties Laurel is a ship about to splinter on the rocks, having learned the hard way that no achievement can protect her from pain or remove the guilt and regret her dad’s death leaves her with. So, she determines to explore her troubled internal wilderness by way of some big exterior ones—Northern New Mexico, Western Alaska, her Tinder App. She finds help from a wise birder in the Bering Sea, a few dozen grieving kids, and a succession of smart teachers who convince her that you cannot be brave if you’re not scared. Along the way, she faces a wildfire that threatens everyone and everything she cares about and is forced by life to say another wrenching goodbye long before she wants to. This time she may not be ready, but she’s prepared. Joy in the wake of loss, she learns, isn’t possible despite the hardest things that happen to us, but because of the meaning we forge from them.

About Laurel Braitman

Laurel Braitman is the New York Times bestselling author of Animal Madness. She has a PhD from MIT in the history and anthropology of science and is the Director of the Writing and Storytelling Program at the Stanford University School of Medicine. Her writing has appeared in The New York Times, The Wall Street JournalThe GuardianWired, and a variety of other publications. She lives between rural Alaska and her family’s citrus and avocado ranch in Southern California. She can be reached at LaurelBraitman.com.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Mary on December 24, 2022

This book is definitely outside of my worldview - and included choices and actions I would not make. If you are a Christian, be aware that this author writes about abortion and spiritual practices that you will not agree with. I had to have a little chat with myself after the first hour of the book......more

Goodreads review by Jennifer ~ TarHeelReader on April 30, 2025

RTC I received a gifted copy.......more

Goodreads review by Stephanie on December 15, 2024

If this isn't on your radar, it should be. Wow. Honestly this book broke me. I cried so many times reading it, I'd lost count. Laurels journey through loss and grief is raw, unfiltered devastation. Just thinking back on it is bringing tears to my eyes...again. She has such a tremendous capacity for......more

Goodreads review by Stefanie on January 21, 2023

So good I didn’t want the story to end even as I raced to finish it. Beautifully written and unsparing. Dr. Braitman’s ability to make the reader feel like a close and trusted friend makes this book one you will recommend to all of your best friends.......more

Goodreads review by EmG on April 08, 2025

An incredibly tender and well-written tale of personal love and loss.......more


Quotes

"Laurel Braitman has worked hard to get to a place of peace and self-awareness after years of ignoring the grief of losing her father to cancer. That knowledge imbues every word she speaks, resulting in a performance that further elevates her story. Even when she’s making lousy choices and oversharing them, her authenticity draws the listener in. Braitman has a fine voice and beautiful pacing, and she captures emotional depth like a professional. Her memoir is a love letter to her parents, both of whom are quirky, loving, and resolute. As an adult, Braitman volunteers at a center for grieving children, and those children are full of wisdom. She concludes that maybe there isn’t a happy-ever-after in life, but if you can get to happy-sad, that’s a pretty good outcome."