Finding YOU and Living Your Own Story is a collection of short essays that explores what it means for women to search for identity, push back against cultural expectations, and claim a life that feels truly their own. Author Carolyn Gregov Ph.D. blends personal stories, social critique, humor, and reflection as she moves through themes like authenticity, patriarchy, shame, relationships, agency, biology, and the complicated legacy of religion. Across chapters, she pulls readers through her own experiences, from convent life to marriage to academic study, and uses them to highlight how hard and how necessary it is for women to define themselves in a world that insists on defining them first.

I was pulled in by her voice. It’s direct and warm and sometimes almost mischievous, like she’s telling you the truth she wishes someone had told her decades ago. I found myself reacting emotionally to her stories, especially when she described the conflict between wanting to remain obedient to the structures that shaped her and wanting to honor the questions that arose inside her. I saw courage in her willingness to say she didn’t believe what she had been taught to accept. I also felt real frustration, because so much of what she recounts about patriarchal norms and expectations still echoes loudly today. There were moments when her honesty was very emotional, and other moments where her humor made me laugh, even though the subject was painful.

What struck me most was how she positions identity not as a fixed truth waiting to be uncovered, but as something alive and shifting. Her stories show how identity is shaped by culture, family, power, shame, and biology. They also show how identity breaks open when a woman finally says, “Enough.” Her writing made me think about my own assumptions and how much of what women are asked to carry isn’t really theirs at all. I loved how she challenges big systems without drowning the reader in theory. She stays grounded in real life. Her language is clear and relatable.

Carolyn Gregov doesn’t pretend the world has changed as much as we wish it had. But she still urges women to claim their agency, their story, and their voice. I would recommend this book to women who are wrestling with self-definition, to anyone questioning old beliefs, and to readers who appreciate memoir mixed with reflection. It’s also a meaningful read for men who want to understand the inner landscape women navigate every day. It’s honest, sharp, funny, and heartfelt, and it invites you to rethink what it really means to live your own life.

Pages: 113 | ASIN: B0FPNPHFPD