My favorite kinds of non-fiction books are the ones that read like fiction and open my mind to a new way of seeing things. Anne Bogel’s book, Reading People: How Seeing the World through the Lens of Personality Changes Everything, is just that kind of book. And after reading it, it’s one of my favorites. I’m new to the world of personality frameworks, but fascinated by any kind of information that helps me know myself better. Reading People is a real asset to anyone who wants to go more deeply into personality typing, but isn’t sure where to start and how to proceed. Bogel covers 8 different frameworks, including a few I was familiar with (Love Languages, Myers-Briggs, Enneagram) and some that were completely new to me (Keirsey’s Temperaments, Clifton Strengthsfinder). Bogel’s unique voice guides the reader through the frameworks as if you were just friends discussing them over coffee. I would especially encourage anyone who is skeptical of personality frameworks to pick up this book. Not only does Bogel provide evidence for how useful these frameworks can be in our work and personal lives, she shows the reader that seeing ourselves more clearly has the opposite of effect of limiting what we can accomplish. She says, “I’ve found that understanding my personality helps me step out of the box I’m trapped in. When I understand myself, I can get out of my own way.” Finally, in the realm of things that don’t necessarily matter but make a big difference: the book is beautiful. Leave it out on the coffee table, encourage others to pick it up themselves, and see how your relationships can change for the better by diving deeper into what makes us tick.

I have been a fan of Ann Bogel for years. First with her blog The Modern Mrs Darcy and recently with her podcast What Should I Read Next. I have to be honest and say I struggled with this book. I was halfway through and wondering to myself what I was going to walk away with. Well, let's just say the end did it for me. A realization that knowing myself, the good and the bad, better will only help me. The better I am the better my kids are, my relationship with my husband is and the better I am at my job. (less)

Book covers can say a lot about what is inside them. They can hook you and can cause an auto-reflex I call, have-to- have-this-in-my-hand syndrome, or H2H <em>(Have to have). </em>I walk through a bookshop on a mission. I must. Those pesky covers can stop me cold in my tracks, even if I have walked in with force of mind to go directly to the item of want. The fear of the book police (my wife) compels me to get out before my primal bookish urges cause me to divert, and ultimately walk out more poor in cash, but rich in literature (Do you really need more books?). Having read the digital copy of the book, “Reading People: How seeing the world through the lens of personality changes everything”, I had firm ideas as to what I would write in this review. Then I received the print edition, I found that, although I had already read it, I was compelled to hold it, stare and… smile. This work of non-fiction By Anne Bogel, displays a glass dome at its center containing a rose, set against a blue green backdrop and a gold spine on its edge. The cover sparked additional thoughts and reflections.

Now, having discussed covers, this brings to mind another type of book that hooks. One that can give us some insight into ourselves through tales of others:
<blockquote><em>"The rose she had offered was truly an enchanted rose, which would bloom until his twenty-first year. If he could learn to love another, and earn their love in return by the time the last petal fell, then the spell would be broken. If not, he would be doomed to remain a beast for all time."
―Narrator. Beauty and the Beast</em></blockquote>
Anne Bogel shares her story of learning about herself, from her initial attempts as a teen, later as she matured into a young adult and into the present day as a wife and mother of four. I found her story to be not unlike many. <span class="pull-right"> <em>A big part of learning about personality is learning to make peace with who we are.
- Anne Bogel, Reading People</em></span> She expresses that in our youth, we think we know who we are and what the world is all about. However, as we engage life <em>(Or it engages us)</em> and meet its challenges, we face the reality of a world not so easily navigated. Some of the ideas she had about herself were not correct and weaknesses were exposed later. In this way she helps the reader understand, perhaps we did not know everything about the world we live in or, more important, everything about ourselves. There are epoch moments in life that can alter our perspectives and give us a paradigm shift. This book is one that can assist you with navigating those shifts. It is suggested that around your thirties is when best to start a deeper dive into this subject matter and if we wish to slay the beast that has caused error, the author suggests, we need to get real with ourselves. The rose Anne Bogel offers is one that will, help you better understand your personality, lead you to perspective on why you are who you are <em>(and perhaps not who we think we are). </em>That rose is delivered in the form of personality frameworks and it is an offer difficult to refuse.

Just like the beast of the fairy tale, we've had to learn to love as well as several other life skills.  We cannot do this well without getting to know and understand ourselves first. The Beast had to learn how to confront issues from his past, get to know his true self, grow within his strengths, and understand his weaknesses and how they impact each other. In the fairy tale, once he did work through these things, not without hard work and trial and error, the spell was broken. The author of Reading People shares that this process in real life can be messy. <span class="pull-left"><em>Thales of Miletus, one of the sages of ancient Greece, put it plainly: "The most difficult thing in life is to know yourself."
- Anne Bogel, Reading People  </em></span> Mrs. Bogel further explains, personality frameworks are steps you can take toward a better understanding and knowledge one's self and, even better, she guides you through the weeds of the processes, so to speak. Each framework, The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, StrengthsFinder, and Enneagram are just a few of the toolboxes unpacked. They all are delivered in a manner that easily digestible. If just one of these frameworks are applied honestly and correctly, it is suggested, one can slowly open their eyes into windows of possibility for themselves. As each framework is discussed they are broken out in chapters and you are given further resources to dig deeper.

The Reading People book is not a cure for all that ails you. It is a reference guide of some of the many tools the author has uncovered and used herself, after years of effort. As she explains each, she does so with passion. Anne Bogel is an Author, Blogger and Podcaster. She is well known for her blog, <em>Modern Mrs. Darcy</em>, a Book Club and the podcast, <em>What Should I Read Next.</em> In her podcast she does, “Some literary matchmaking” or as I would describe it, she is a book whisperer. She patiently listens to readers, gains insight into who they are and what makes them tick. She will then suggest titles they might read next. The Reading People book ties neatly with her ability in book matching. Only now instead of helping mediate readers towards getting to know what best suites them in literary pursuits, she mediates in the form of personality frameworks.

Previous to this reading, I had never given much thought to personality frameworks. As you weave your way through this book you begin to see yourself differently, strengths and weaknesses appear in your mind. You may see applications toward resolution to some silly conflicts with a wife or your kids, friends or co-workers. How I respond to criticism, for better or worse is tied to my personality type in the case of the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator. Things started to click. As for myself, I've started thinking before I reacted to external input. I began looking into my own personality type (INFP). <span class="pull-right"> <em>I know this much: when it comes to understanding yourself and others, wishful thinking will get you nowhere. If personality information is going to help you, you're going to have to get comfortable with the true self that lies deep within you.'
- Anne Bogel, Reading People </em> </span> I've started researching some of the literature offered as a further resource. I have begun to learn more about myself so I can, perhaps, be less of the beast I know I can be at times. I've started a blog as a creative outlet, suggested by my personality type and its needs. Anne Bogle has written a guidebook to help you understand these personality frameworks and practical applications. It is waiting for you, if you are ready. This book is proof that by reading and reflecting on it, we just might deliver new versions of ourselves. The more I have pondered its content, the more the message has resonated.

- Be Well

<em>Reading People: How seeing the world through the lens of personality changes everything. By Anne Bogel will be released September 19th, 2017 from the publisher,</em> <a href="https://bakerbookhouse.com/products/reading-people-how-seeing-the-world-through-the-lens-of-personality-changes-everything-9780801072918" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><em>Baker Books</em></a>. <em>You can Pre-Order your copy today for bonus content at</em> <a href="https://www.readingpeoplebook.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><em>www.ReadingPeopleBook.com</em></a>

Reading People is one of my favorite works of nonfiction I've read in a long time. It tackles complicated information and presents it in a comfortably conversational way that makes it accessible to all readers. As an educator, I have found it particularly useful in understanding the diversity of my students and their varied needs. I will use the information I gleaned from this book to create an even more inviting environment for my students. As an extreme extrovert (and a very loud one at that), I didn't realize just how overwhelming I may be to both introverts, and HSPs, but Bogel has helped me understand and make minor changes to create a less hostile environment for them. I am so glad I had the opportunity to read this book and apply it to my personal and professional experiences.

I can't stop talking and thinking about this book. I've always been interested in personality frameworks and (thought I) know my MBTI, Love Language, Enneagram, etc. But Reading People has brought them together for me, and introduced me to so much more. The MBTI Cognitive Frameworks chapter is my favorite section because I'd never really understood what this means. I've gone down the rabbit hole now, and she also inspired me to take the StrengthsFinder 2.0 assessment. I have so much more to learn!

Anne's explanations, anecdotes, and connections are what make Reading People unique. Her voice (familiar from Modern Mrs. Darcy and What Should I Read Next?) comes through clearly and passionately. I can't wait to read more from her. Friends, readers, check out this book!

I am so excited to be part of the launch team and receive an ARC of the book. This is my honest review.

“Personality is the tool that makes it possible to get where you want to go” - Anne Bogel
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What a joy for me to finish reading Reading People By Anne Bogel. After I finished reading the book I was so pleased to know more about myself and my personality. There were many personality frameworks I had not heard of and I was very interested in learning about those new to me frameworks. Anne lists so many books titles for further reading that I could spend the next several months reading only on the topic of personality and still feel like I had only scratched the surface. I am a devoted follower of Annes blog Modern Mrs Darcy and I know that I can trust her book recommendations 100%. I highlighted every single title so I can go back and and request some of them at my library.

The thing that I appreciated most about this book is that Anne does not claim to know everything about the topic of Personality. She became fascinated with personality frameworks when she was a teenager and since then has spent quite a lot of her time studying the different personality frameworks so she could understand herself and how she can relate to the world around her. Anne wrote Reading People as a resource to introduce readers to 7 different personality frameworks. She basically did all the leg work for you to make this topic much easier to approach. THANK YOU ANNE! She introduces the topic in such a friendly way. She is honest about the journey she went on to understand her personality better. She writes about the time during her life where she had herself thinking she was a different personality type because that was what she thought should be her personality type instead of the personality type that she actually is. She shares many stories about how she handled situations based on her personality both negative and positive. All of which resonated with me because after reading her book I feel like Anne and I are Kindred spirits because all of her hiccups over the years are very similar to my own personality. (hello introvert tendencies!)

I've long been a fan of personality assessments, learning about styles and relationships, and understanding what makes people tick. There's a ton of information available, much of it scientific and/or confusing. Reading People makes the information accessible.

Anne Bogel is not a scientist, but she has a passion for personality that explodes from her writing. With personal anecdotes and data, she weaves information together in a way that allows the reader to easily follow along and understand the various personality frameworks.

This was a really helpful book for me, one that I will use as a reference and revisit for years to come.

So, the beautiful book that has me so excited and already using tons of exclamation points like an amateur writer, is called Reading People. What Anne has done is taken a myriad of personality frameworks and put them all into one easily digestible book that reads like a good chat with a girlfriend. The conversational tone and her easy demeanor translates so well into this book that it makes even the most confusing of topics (cognitive functions anyone?!?) easy to understand.

If you've ever clicked on one of those quizzes shared on Facebook that claims to tell you how your 10 favorite GoT or Disney characters can enlighten you about your inner personality...this book is for you. If you've ever been curious what exactly that Myers-Briggs test you took had to do with ANYTHING...this book is for you. If you're a fan of Gretchen Rubin and her Four Tendencies Framework...this book is for you. Or if you're just interested in delving a bit into the inner workings of yourself and how/why you tick the way you do...this book is for you.

I unashamedly can't pass up a FB quiz...and have always been curious of why I am the spazz that I am. So I devoured this book, and it left me begging for more (and texting my sister to discuss it, which is a sure sign I LOVED a nonfiction book!). Some of the tests discussed in the book I was already familiar with, but the way Anne describes them and the different types of people was just new enough to keep me highlighting like a mad woman.

There is a chapter on: Introverts and Extroverts, (10 points if you can figure out which one I am!) Highly Sensitive People (of which I am not, but it helped me understand friends who are), Love Languages (I am words of affirmation and my husband is acts of service), Keirsey's Temperaments, Strengths Finder 2.0, The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (ENFP here!), MBTI Cognitive Functions, and The Enneagram (Type 4 here). Plus insight galore.

I think one of the best things I can say for this book is that when I finished it, I immediately went on a quest to learn even more. She packs a lot of information into this book, but there's no way she can give you everything you ever wanted to know about all of these frameworks. But she does a great job of giving descriptions that really speak to you, and that make it easy to pick yourself out of the crowd. So, for me what it did was give me a topic to research for a little while...and I learned from her book that I'm a woman who LOVES to research!

So this book gets 5 stars from me. It's one I will pick up and read again. I've already copied some notes into my journal. I purchased a book on the ENFP personality type so I can learn a bit more about that...and another one about my Enneagram type. I did the Strengths Finder 2.0 quiz so I could do a little focusing on my strengths instead of weaknesses for a change. This book has me fired up!!

Reading People by Anne Bogel is the personality book I've always wanted to read but didn't know it. She breaks down several of the most popular and well-known personality frameworks to the nitty gritty, making them easy to understand and made me eager to try each of them. This book reads like fiction, but really gets to the heart of why understanding the makeup of our own personalities can help us live the life we really want. I highly recommend this book to anyone who has ever been curious about the different frameworks or wants to find ways to learn more about themselves.

An interesting read if you enjoy understanding personality traits and what makes up a person's actions and behaviours. Anne relates some of the traits to characters in books, resulting in wanting to read those books more closely! Anne has made great recommendations for titles to pick up, and I was hoping there would be more mention of books in this one that related to "all" the different personalities.

I am part of the launch team for Reading People and I just need to say that I loved this book! While Anne has cultivated a digital presence as Modern Mrs. Darcy and host of the What Should I Read Next? podcast, this book focused more on personality psychology, while still connecting to beloved books and characters as she discusses the different frameworks. Each chapter focused on a different personality framework, which was nice to have all of these tools discussed in one place, so you could see them in relation to each other. I have long been fascinated by personality psychology and love learning more about myself and those I love and work with through these tools, so I was already interested in the subject. The way Anne describes each framework makes it easy to understand, and I felt she was able to provide a new way of looking at some of the frameworks, while writing like a conversation with a dear friend. This book was really enjoyable!

This book definitely isn't for everyone. If you don't find personality typing remotely interesting, you're gonna wanna skip it. However, if you are into that sort of thing, this book functions kind of like a crash course for different personality frameworks, and Anne does a good job of taking an overwhelming amount of information and making it feel not only intuitive, but actionable in real life. I enjoyed some chapters more than others, but thats the beauty of a book like this; you can pick and choose what feels applicable and helpful to you. It's a quick read; Anne comes off as approachable and human, and provides many interesting and amusing anecdotes to illustrate her points. If you're a fan of her blog, or are curious about personality typing, this book is definitely for you.

I received an ARC.

This book was really eye-opening for me during a time when I'm trying to "find myself" and figure out what the heck I'm doing with my life. Early in my career, I've taken the StrengthsFinder test, but there's a lot to knowing your personality and understanding the styles of other people. You can't improve until you understand yourself. And knowing ourselves isn't a cake walk as we might expect it to be.

I'll be referencing my hard copy again and again. Great resource!

Personality tests! They’re as old as click-bait on the internet…okay, they’re hundreds of years older than that actually. In Anne Bogel’s Reading People, she goes over some of the best-known personality theory frameworks and from where they come. She also shows how understanding them, and thereby yourself, can be translated into practical application and self-improvement.

Reading People serves a great introductory book to the different frameworks. It does not really delve into any of them in depth, but instead, contains numerous reference to where you can learn more about each one should it spark your interest. She discusses the difference between extroversion and introversion, the Keirsey Temperaments, Myers-Briggs, Enneagrams and much, much more.

If you already know a lot about personality theory, then you may find this book too basic. Often, it left me wishing that it did have greater depth. However, for those who are new to this topic, this book is a wonderfully simple overview. Anne holds the reader’s hand through the confusing jumble of letters that make up types. I really appreciated that she also delves into the cognitive functions behind the Myers-Briggs 16 types, which helps a lot of people clear up their mistyping problems.

And even though I felt very familiar with much of what Anne covered, I did learn things. My favorite chapter was the one that discussed Highly Sensitive People. I had heard that term before, but had never really taken the time to look into it, only to discover that I fit the description exactly.

Anne writes her book as if she’s having a conversation with a friend, sharing personal stories from her life that illustrate the point she is trying to make. Her positive tone helps readers focus on how they can use what they learn to better themselves and their relationships. I loved her last chapter on how we’re all capable of change and growth.

Yet, at the same time, sometimes I wished she would shorten her personal story and get straight to the point of her explanation. Also, her constantly reassuring the reader that understanding personality types is a noble endeavor that will improve their life seemed redundant after a bit.

Recommendation: I would highly recommend this book for anyone absolutely new to the world of personality theories and who wants to understand their basics.

I was super honored to receive this book as part of the Reading People Book launch team.