The New Loneliness by Cindi McMenamin

 

 

Do you ever feel lonely? I imagine many of us have those moments when we feel lonely from time to time. The New Loneliness by Cindy McMenamin is a book designed to "nurture meaningful connections when you feel isolated."

The New Loneliness is divided into three parts:

The first part is Reconnecting with God. This section focuses on realizing that God is always with you, that He always loves you, and the you are created for a purpose.

The second part is Reconnecting with Your Heart. This section is all about having a better mindset. It encourages the reader not to enter into comparison, to make time and space for friends and not strive for busyness, learning to be yourself and more transparent to others, and learning to love again after you have been hurt by others. 

The third section is Reconnecting with Others. This section is encouraging Real Life connections with other people and less on-line connections. The author definitely shows this book is up-to-date for our modern world with statistics and information on connecting on-line versus real-life connections. She also talks about the consequences of living through a pandemic from a social perspective. She then ends this section by talking about how people today need to focus less on themselves and more on others. 

The book ends with a focus on being who God made you to be and thinking about the direction you want to take after reading the book. There are also additional resources in the back including a self-assessment test, how to be assured of God's presence, and struggling with anxiety, depression or other mental illness.

All in all, The New Loneliness could be a helpful book if you are first of all a Christian. The book includes Bible study and there are many, many references to God. If you are not a Christian, I don't think much in the book will be meaningful to you. Now, having said that, I'm not sure I agree with everything she said but there is a lot of good information in the book. As someone who has been in abusive relationships in the past that has affected my friendships, I do like that she also talks about the importance of boundaries and of not living with toxic actions without speaking up. I especially think that this is and important topic, and while it was mentioned, I think she could have given a little more time to this struggle as I know from talking to people that many people have struggled with boundaries and past trauma. Outside of that, the book is modern and addresses our world in a way that takes into account modern living including artificial intelligence. For example, she shares a story about a lady whose spouse passed away and she relied on artificial intelligence to be her friend for awhile. I would recommend The New Loneliness to other Christian women who are struggling with loneliness. There are Bible verses and study questions at the end of each chapter too.

I received a copy of this book from the publisher through Just Read Tours. All opinions within this review are my own.