Embarking on reading This Book Will Make You Kinder I knew extraordinarily little. I could not say I was familiar with its author and illustrator, Henry James Garrett although his visual work is what he is most known for. I had spotted ASKReview’s review (which must be how it ended up on my to read list), but that was pretty much it. But at some point this winter, I plunked it on my library requests list without too much thought other than, I could, in fact, be kinder.
On the whole I feel pretty good about my kindness level re: humanity. I learned a long time ago that kind is better than nice and have embraced it. (Not directly related, but a few years ago a friend moved from the East Coast to the West Coast of the U.S. and the viral post about East Coast Kind and West Coast Nice often comes to mind and was something we talked about A LOT until she moved to the Chicagoland area.) But I’m a very fallible human and I have a temper. So, a book that unpacks what kindness is, and its relationship to empathy and metaethics from a philosophical point of view sounded good to me since I’m on the lookout for ideas on how to apply more empathy to everyday life.
Overall, did this book do as advertised? Yes, by unflinchingly elucidating the mistakes that can be made that limit our empathy and reminding us that we are responsible for doing our best to make those mistakes less often. It started strong, and then the meat of the first half took some slogging through for yours personally, but it picked back up again. It certainly did not hurt that Garrett’s illustrations are used to great effect throughout to highlight points and give the reader a laugh break.