Everybody, Always | Book Review & Giveaway!

You may have seen on my Instagram stories here and there that I was reading this book, Everybody, Always: Becoming Love in a World Full of Setbacks and Difficult People by Bob Goff.  One of my sweet friends gave it to me about a month ago, and I couldn’t have loved it more.  Very rarely have I finished a book and wanted to just flip back to the beginning and start over…pretty much the only books that I can think of that even fall in that category for me would be the Harry Potter books and this one.  Soooo…it’s a pretty exclusive club.

(Drinking a glass of wine while reading is encouraged but not required.)

About the Book:

What happens when we give away love like we’re made of it?

In his entertaining and inspiring follow-up to the New York Times bestselling phenomenon Love Does, Bob Goff takes readers on a journey into the secret of living without fear, constraint, or worry. The path toward the liberated existence we all long for is found in a truth as simple to say as it is hard to do: love people, even the difficult ones, without distinction and without limits.

Driven by Bob’s trademark storytelling, Everybody, Always reveals the lessons Bob learned–often the hard way–about what it means to love without inhibition, insecurity, or restriction. From finding the right friends to discovering the upside of failure, Everybody, Always points the way to embodying love by doing the unexpected, the intimidating, the seemingly impossible. Whether losing his shoes while skydiving solo or befriending a Ugandan witch doctor, Bob steps into life with a no-limits embrace of others that is as infectious as it is extraordinarily ordinary. Everybody, Always reveals how we can do the same.

(source)

I want to give a quick overview of the book so you get an idea about what it’s like, why I think you should read it, and then (as you may have guess by the title of this post) I’m going to be doing a giveaway!  Because I loved this book so much I am going to give two copies away, so stay tuned til the end to get all the deets about how to enter.

Everybody, Always | My Review

What I loved so much about this book was how simple yet powerful it was in delivering its message.  Also, I enjoyed how extremely easy it was to read.  Bob Goff is an extremely talented writer & tells a story in such a relatable, humorous, raw, and real way that I had a hard time putting the book down.  I was so torn over wanting to make it last and wanting to consume it all as quickly as possible.

It is a Christian-based book and all of the chapters are essentially little stories about Bob’s life that are so perfectly tied back into how Jesus loves us and how He calls us to love one another in that same way.   That makes it sound cookie-cutter, but it’s not.  Far from it.  I lost count of the times I was actually laughing out loud while reading and a handful of other times was brought to tears.  It really is a hilarious book.  Side note–I took the book with me to an appointment I had at the Apple Store to get my laptop fixed, ya know in case I had to sit there for a while.  I had not one, but two episodes of having to hold myself back from crying in the middle of the Apple Store because I was reading this book.  If you’re not someone that enjoys feeling things that make you cry, fear not, Bob is able to deliver the story that may make you cry but he will very quickly turn it around and make you laugh. It’s like he knows what he’s saying is sad or difficult, and he instantly lightens the mood without lessening the gravity of the story.  And sometimes you’ll be crying happy tears simply because some of the stories of the people he’s met in his life are so touching, they have their own pain of course but at the root of the story there is goodness, hope, and love.

I actually lost it when I got to the Be. Not. Afraid. chapter.  I almost want to get that tattooed on my arm or something.  You’ll know when you get there in the book.  You’ll get it.

Throughout history, God has spoken three words more often than any others when the people He loved were scared or confused, lost or lonely, paralyzed or stuck.  In those times, He usually didn’t make a big speech.  He just said to His people, Be. Not. Afraid.

-Bob Goff, Everybody, Always

“Don’t be afraid, for I am with you. Don’t be discouraged, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you. I will hold you up with my victorious right hand.” -Isaiah 41:10

Everybody, Always gives such good perspective and thought into how we can be better Christians and better human beings by becoming love and sharing that love unconditionally with our fellow humans.  And not just those close to us, but rather our “enemies”.  Jesus said to love our enemies.  Bob Goff explains he interprets this that Jesus “meant we should love the people we don’t understand.  The ones we disagree with.  The ones who are flat wrong about more than a couple things.” While we are in a time in our world with so much discord, anger, disagreements, and even hate…I wish I could give this book away to everyone because I truly think that it, and the lessons it shares, would be able to help us all change this world.  We need more compassion.  More understanding.  More love.

So that being said, I don’t want to give TOO much away and ruin you just reading the book for yourself.  So let’s get going with this giveaway 🙂

Giveaway Info

To enter the giveaway, you must:

1. Leave me a comment below telling me why you’d like to win the book!
2. Follow me on Instagram (and leave me a separate comment saying that you did!)

For additional, optional entries (leave me a comment for each that you do so I can count you!):

1. Like my blog page on Facebook
2. Subscribe to my emails
3. Repost my Instagram picture & caption about the giveaway on your Instagram and tag me!

That’s it! Winners will be announced on Monday, August 20th! Good Luck <3

xo,

Bess