A review by soupstix
Speaking from the Heart: 18 Languages for Modern Love by Anne Hodder-Shipp

informative

1.75

i appreciate what this book is trying to do and i think the dialogue it opens up about how we express love throughout our platonic, romantic, familial, and just general interpersonal relationships is very worthwhile. however, i just feel like there were too many categories, many of which had overlap, and what each category entailed just didn’t feel as intuitive as the more popular categories of “physical touch, words of affirmation, gift-giving, quality time, and acts of service.” if someone told me their primary love language was “solidarity” or “bestowing,” even after reading these descriptions, i feel like i would need to ask questions to further understand what that looks like for them and what exactly that means. although it is an interesting examination of the way we express affection to people in our lives, the categories in this book don’t hold up as tools for understanding myself or others.