This book was a best seller in its day and from some of the reviews on Goodreads, was a life saver for some and life changing in its effects. I must admit from the first few chapters I thought it was a good candidate for Pseud's Corner (Private Eye magazine). I could only see what people saw in it when I reached the chapter about addiction which I could see that people might find helpful.

The basic structure is that the author narrates stories, often based on folk tales, and then analyses them with a psychological approach based on Jungian analysis. The book does tend to go over the same point rather repetitively and to make multiple assertions with no real evidence. Some of these are rather odd. There is some relating to the ways of wolves, hence the title, but that is not a major theme: rather, it is the notion of the Wild Woman which is an archetypal or original goddess figure. The aim is to empower women and also to restore men to a loving and equal relationship with women. There are some interesting points but it is very repetitive and a bit dragged out so, on balance, I would rate it at 2 stars. ( )

This book was very interesting. You don't have to buy into the whole Jungian interpretations to enjoy it. Some of it resonated with me, and some of it didn't, but, as a literature major, I found it fascinating, and I loved the myths/stories alone. I gave it four stars because it was too repetitive at times for my liking. ( )

[b: Women Who Run with the Wolves|241823|Women Who Run With the Wolves Myths and Stories of the Wild Woman Archetype|Clarissa Pinkola Estés|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1433638820s/241823.jpg|981745] by [a: Clarissa Pinkola Estés|901977|Clarissa Pinkola Estés|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1241246818p2/901977.jpg] is a powerful book of the voices of women. I read it many years ago, but will never forget the impact it had on me.

At the time, I was between living the life of a fundamental Pentecostal and a college graduate. I need to read it again. I have been through many changes over the years, and I think I may have a different appreciation of these messages.

Thank you. ( )

Now that I've decided to try to 'review' each book that I have cataloged, there will be books( like this one) where I may recall reading it some years ago, may or may not remember how or why I liked it, but still can recall only a few or maybe no details about the experience. ( )

I read this book whenever I'm feeling feminist/political burnout. I recommend it to all women. ( )

On loan: Bonnie J

I am never going to finish this book . . . . ( )

I no longer recall where I first heard of this book. As the cover proclaims, it has been well-read since it was first published in 1992.

It is a book written by a women for other women. I am apprenticing to the feminine, and to myth, and thought it worth exploring. Also, many of the capacities spoken to in the book are important to all people.

The book is full of so many surprises. Each chapter illustrates an element of healthy feminine development, illustrated by at least one myth. The book starts out by focusing on the attribute of wiliness, canniness, or as Mad Eye Moody might put it, "constant vigilance." This theme continues throughout; although Estés loves magic and mastery, she is very much against naïveté.

The second theme is about intuition. I was doing some writing last year about somatics, so this resonates with me. I've come around to the epistemology that we ultimately must rely on our intuition to determine what cosmologies to trust.

There are many other themes in the book: partnering, mothering, creativity, sexuality, agency.

The final myth in the book, and the longest, focuses on the myth of the Handless Maiden. I happen to have recently read Martin Shaw's "Smokehole," and he also focuses on this myth. I've also been reading other versions of it (the South African, the Italian, the Russian—both Shaw and Estés focus on the German).

This is a long book. At times, Estés' interpretations of the myths she shares can feel a little too exhaustive. She also rarely shares information about the provenance of the myths she tells (other than a few words on where she heard it, if that). That said, it is still a wonderful and lovely read—but out of the three people I've spoken with that have read some of it, none of them have read it all.

We need more books like this (feminine and mythic)! ( )

Sometimes the universe delivers just the book you need, at just the right time, and for me this is one of those books. Spotted in the non-fiction section at our local charity book sale, I hadn’t heard of this book before, but something drew me to pick it up and take it home. Maybe it was the mythology promised on the front cover, or maybe it was the wolves and Wild Women that I knew hid within. Either way, this was just the transformational book that I needed this year - irregardless of the fact that it took me almost 5 months to read. In each chapter author Estés shares a folkloric tale and then proceeds to examine it in terms of feminist theory, psychology, and for its storytelling mythos. Throughout the stories the emergence of the Wild Woman is prominent, and while the book may begin as a collection of tales and anecdotes it quickly moves into the realm of self-affirming ethos. For me, at this particular point in my life, the book served as a reminder of the Wild Woman inside that was buried for far too long. So now it’s time to collect the bones, rove the world, and most importantly to Howl at what brings me joy.

The reason why I read this book is because several people who meet me tell me that I have the name of one of their favourite writers. I took me several attempts to read this book, as it is quite cheesy, but I finally decided I wanted to get through it. It was surprising how much I ended up by enjoying it. I liked the strong presence of fairy tales in the book, and in the middle of all the cheesiness there are many words of wisdom that helped me. I would advise anyone who feels like I did to fight though the first impressions the book might give you, and try and get to the treasure hidden inside. ( )

Well, I was looking forward to reading this and I really wanted to like it. After getting through introduction and the first chapter, I have decided this is not for me. I thought this would be an academic analysis of the wild woman archetype in myths and stories. Instead the writer is telling stories and then just connects them to women's lives anecdotally. Also, she generalizes women's lives to her own experience.

In addition, the new aginess of the book really disturbs me. I really was looking for academic discussion and hard factual analysis on the subject and not this. I guess I was mislead by the PhD mentioned in the cover of the book... Seems like a cheap shot of credibility here. I feel this could've been an interesting topic for a real discussion, but the writer takes the easy way out. ( )

I really liked this. It made me think about things differently. If you don't go into it with an open mind, it might seem nonsense so take the time to just let it sink in instead of putting up a wall to block the message. It's basically about being true to yourself. ( )

Very interesting but perhaps best taken in small doses. A good fountain of ideas to use in thinking about your own life. ( )

I read Women Who Run With the Wolves for the first time when I was in my early 20's. I highlighted and annotated it to within an inch of its life; so much that I had to buy another copy. Somehow, I forgot all that I had learned during that first reading while the new fresh copy of the book sat gathering dust on my bookshelf. While the book remained immensely helpful to me this second time around, from the perspective of my late 30's self, there was quite a bit of 90's pseudo-folk wisdom nonsense that seemed more like stereotyping of immigrant cultures than beneficial psychology. ( )

$800 mxn

Not really what I expected; I originally slotted it into my "to read" Because I thought there would be a focus on women in myth/folktale in general. It's a little too...head-in-the-clouds for me.

Rajongok érte, mert annyi gondolat van benne, ami egy egész életre elég, sőt még jut belőle bőven ahhoz is, hogy továbbadjam, sőt, ez a lényeg… Mintha saját magamat olvastam volna ki a lapok közül, azt a történetet, amit évtizedeken keresztül nem sikerült megértenem, vagy nem egészen pontosan és azt is, ami most zajlik és ami a többinél sokkal fontosabb és gyönyörűbb élmény. ( )

I’m learning to trust my instincts a bit by finding I’m not the single person on the planet who wanted to love this book but couldn’t. I made it through a couple of chapters and it just felt too dense and like I, who am in my own opinion intelligent, had to think very, very hard to get through a paragraph. There were mixed metaphors and broad, sweeping statements and all I wanted was to get into the possibilities open to a Wild Woman. Instead the walls seemed very close and like I was just too dumb to get it. ( )

A well curated collection of folk tales that speaks to the author's fluency in myth, Jungian psychology, regular-ass psychology. Tends to err on the side of overstatement. Treads into some seriously freaky-deaky territory but as an avid Joseph Campbell reader and Coast to Coast listener I can hang. ( )

This is one of those books that crops up in the bibliographies of other books all the time, so I felt compelled to read it. But I just couldn’t hack it. The analogies and “lessons” the author draws out of the stories she relates seem pulled out of thin air to me. I could see no correlation at all between the folklore and the morals the author perceived in them.

This is one of the very few books I recommend buying and keeping, working through the exercises that she mentions and rereading every year. ( )

This is one of the very few books I recommend buying and keeping, working through the exercises that she mentions and rereading every year. ( )

I bought this book way back when it first exploded the world when it came out, back in the late 1990s. But never got around to reading it. But then my new Bitches with Bookmarks group picked it for our first group read and I was elated that it was something that I already had on my shelves.

I had a lot of feelings about this, and to be honest, I might not have slogged through if it hadn't been for the book club. I understand that she's dealing in achetypes, and that those of course have to match up to stereotypes to a certain extent, but the amount of hetero-, cis- and gender binary normativity here sometimes had me rolling my eyes.

I do, however, believe in the power of stories to help us explain, interpret, and reimagine our lives. I am certain it is more effective in a one-on-one session, as with a Jungian therapist, and it's hard to make a one-size-fits-all interpretation as with this book.

So I tried to read with an open mind and find the things that related to me and brush by the rest. Of course, much of the bits on breaking free from a life that's slowly strangling you and embracing your creativity resonated with me. It was a worthwhile read in the end, in that it prompts a lot of reflection on the authenticity of your life choices. ( )

Could not get into this book after the intro and first chapter. So many added adjectives and repetitive sentences that dragged out way too much.

Read a chapter. Chew on it. Devour it. Sleep on it. Dream it. Absorb it. Continue. This is the best way to read Women Who Run With the Wolves. Each tale brought me a deeper understanding of myself and my journey through this lifetime. ( )