We’ve all got imperfections, flaws, and limitations – it’s the nature of being human. And we’ve all been knocked sideways by what author Emily Ann Peterson calls “life’s dream-crushing restraints” including illnesses that rob us of our livelihood, death of a loved one, a lover’s rejection, a friend’s cruelty, car accidents, broken bones, arthritis, anxiety, depression – you name it, you’re going to experience it if you live long enough. But life hands us something else, too: the courage and resilience to use our vulnerability and our fear to imagine, create, and move forward into exciting new adventures in our lives. In her memoir Bare Naked Bravery, Emily Ann draws on real-life experience to write with honesty, intelligence, and pluck about how to overcome adversity by facing our fears, flaunting our mistakes, and becoming our authentic selves. In the end, it is not just for ourselves that we need to develop a strong skill-set of courage and resilience. “You need to be brave,” she writes, “because someone out there needs you to be brave.” Bravo!