Courage and Confidence: A Bold Guide to Unboxing Who You Were Created to Be

Life coach Salmon debuts with a sincere call for women to embrace a “created self” shaped by God rather than “social and familial influences.” For the author, doing so begins with evaluating relationships and habits, casting off ones that no longer serve them well, reworking limited beliefs, and mining past experiences for life lessons. The goal isn’t to achieve perfection, she notes, but to reflect “God’s image” and tap into “all the unique elements of our individual temperaments, abilities, and gifts.” In prose that never gets preachy, Salmon weaves in candid anecdotes about her mother’s death from cancer, her pregnancy at age 19, and the financial strain she experienced early in her marriage, detailing how each “storm” revealed “new things about myself and God” and promising readers they will emerge spiritually stronger from their own trials (without which “you and your experience in Him would remain shallow and small”). While not all of Salmon’s spiritual observations are easy to put into practice—readers are told that evaluating habits and relationships requires “the objectivity of the Holy Spirit,” for example—her deep religious devotion and emphasis on progress over perfection make a persuasive case that self-transformation is doable and worthwhile, if not always simple. This inspires. (Apr.)