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Preview
  • 400 Friends and No One to Call

  • Breaking Through Isolation and Building Community
  • By: Val Walker
  • Narrated by: Ann Richardson
  • Length: 7 hrs and 42 mins
  • 4.6 out of 5 stars (5 ratings)

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400 Friends and No One to Call

By: Val Walker
Narrated by: Ann Richardson
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Summary

We can be well connected, with 400 friends on Facebook and still have no one to count on. Ironically, despite social media, social isolation is a growing epidemic in the United States. The National Science Foundation reported in 2014 that the number of Americans with no close friends has tripled since 1985. One out of four Americans has no one with whom they can talk about their personal troubles.

Social isolation can shatter our confidence. In isolating times, we're not only lonely, but we're ashamed of our loneliness because our society stigmatizes people who are alone without support. As a single, 58-year-old woman who finds herself stranded after major surgery, Val Walker has woven into the narrative her own story. A well-established rehabilitation counselor, she was too embarrassed to reveal on social media how utterly isolated she was by asking for someone to help, and it felt agonizingly awkward calling colleagues out of the blue.

As she recovered, Val found her voice and developed a plan of action for people who lack social support, not only to heal from the pain of isolation but to create a solid strategy for rebuilding support. 400 Friends and No One to Call spells out the how-tos for befriending our wider community, building a social safety net, and fostering our sense of belonging.

©2020 Val Walker (P)2020 Tantor
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What listeners say about 400 Friends and No One to Call

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    5 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Unlike usual self-help books,

The author brings forward the common sense, yet overlooked burdens of personal circumstances, shame and stigma surronding them as defining factors for isolation. Not personality or behavior without context, as many self-help books do. Wish it were more specifc about solutions, but I think this is the best that could be written without alienating too many kinds of listeners or readers.
I hope the author will expand on the solutions part in a subsequent edition.

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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars

Well meaning but heavy on lists and obviousness

Not for me. Full of blindingly obvious ways of defeating loneliness, many felt like little more than clichés. It doesn’t get to the real questions about how you are feeling about yourself, and the inner dialogue that can relentlessly sabotage attempts to break out of loneliness. If it was all as easy as this book makes it sound…there would be no need for this book.

I also find the reading quite grating, no emotion in it at all.

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