This is Undaunted Life a man's Podcast. I'm your host Kyle Thompson. Let's get into it. Melissa Doherty, welcome back to the show, and I just got to tell you, every time you come on the show, you understand the audience. Last time you had the camo on. Today, you got the skillet shirt. We got a lot of skillet fans in the audience. So who taught you how to do that?

Because for most people, it doesn't come naturally. No, I don't know. Maybe it's my good taste in fashion, common sense. Yeah. Normally people look at skillet merchant think high fashion. That's exactly what we're going to go with. And that's certainly what John Cooper would say. But hey, we're here to do a little bit of business today because if guys, if you listen to my show in order, the podcast that just came out before this one, I give you my 2,025 books of the year. Used to I would have like different categories. Like this was the best book of the year, worst book of the year, most entertaining book of the year, most, you know, thought-provoking book of the year. And then I just said, screw it, I'm going to actually rank these things. So the last couple of years I've been ranking them, which is so difficult to do, especially this year, because I normally get a stinker or two, like some of them are like diarrhea stinkers, but this year I just didn't have one. But if you listen to last episode, you know that this book right here. Happy lies by the one and only melissa doherty i have named the 2025 book of the year at least as it pertains to the books that i read for the podcast and i'll tell you why i chose it and then we'll talk a little bit more about the book for the audience because i don't really do gut feelings like if you're a, I'm like, I'm just going to go with my gut.

It's like, yeah, we didn't get the gut in the book of Acts, right? That didn't rain down from heaven. We didn't get the gut. We got the Holy Spirit. And so last year, when I was reading Vody Bacchams, it's not like being black. About halfway through that book, I was like, this is the book of the year. Like, and it was May or June. And I'm like, there's just not, there's not something that's going to have the same level of substance and also be supremely readable unless I'm going to be absolutely shocked and surprised. And I wasn't shocked and surprised. And so that was my book of the year for last year. But for this year, it was the same exact thing. So I don't know, do you remember when we did our first interview? When was that?

Well, like April and May. Something like that. Earlier this year, yeah. So it was early. And I was probably a third of the way through the book. And I knew at that moment, I was like, this is unique enough for my audience. This is going to have enough red meat for my audience. You know, we'll see how the interview goes because at that point we had never met. I was like, we'll see how that goes. But I just had a feel. I was like, this is just going to be the book of the year. And we've had some fantastic books that we've read. I mean, guys, go go back and look at our top five or so books. But that's the reason behind it. So I know you've gotten a lot of accolades in your career, Melissa,

but this one's got to be up there. I mean, come on. Is this on your like Mount Rushmore of things you've accomplished in your, maybe your entire life? Yeah, totally. This is the hardest thing I've ever done ever was write this book. No, no, I don't, I don't mean about any of that. I mean about getting the book of the year for this show. Like that's not, I mean, yeah, not the book thing.

Not like motherhood being a life. None of that. I mean, like getting this accolade. Okay, yes, I'm going to, I will play that. Yes, totally, 100%. I was, I was really surprised because this is actually how you and I, you know, got acquainted is you very enthusiastically. I've had a few people do this where they're so enthusiastic about the book and their mind is blown. And I was so surprised because you were one of them and you reached out and wanted to interview me. And I remember you mentioning this. You're like, I don't know if it's your book. But at the end of the year, I do this book of the year thing. And I'm like, oh, I hope it's me. And I remember you mentioning this. You're like, I don't know if it's your book, but at the end of

the year, I do this book of the year thing. And I'm like, oh, I hope it's me. But I mean, we had the

whole year left. And so it's just your enthusiasm around it was part of what makes this so much

better, like being chosen, like the book being chosen from Kyle. You know what I mean? It's pretty cool.

Well, Melissa, the enthusiasm came from, because, you know, I'm a goofball and I like to have fun and, you know, lots of energy flowing in all different directions at all times. But it was stuff that I had never heard of before and hadn't heard of put in the way that you were putting it because, you know,

I've dug into, you know, Carl Truman's books and those can get really, really deep, you know,

our mutual buddy John Cooper, his latest book last year, yeah, I believe it was last year. And so I think

there's wimpy week and woke. There's a lot of books like that that have some things that

were related.

But I had heard a new age, but I was like, wait, new thought. Did this author just make this up to be like kind of kitsy and like, you know, the guy that wrote Atomic Habits, which has been the best selling book in nonfiction for like five years in a row. The book should be called How to Be an adult, a basic guide, because nothing in there is, you know, like astonishing or world shattering.

But I think that was. The book should be called How to Be an Adult, a Basic Guide, because nothing in there is, you know, like astonishing or world shattering.

But I think that was why it was because of the subject matter that you covered in the way that you covered it.

And so just to go back even just a little bit, why make this the book?

Because you could have written, you know, hey, you know, some random Christian womanhood book

and here's how to, you know, affirm yourself in the mirror every day. But you just basically

went after it's super gangster style from the beginning. Yeah, yuck. No, there's, there was nothing

in peeling about writing a book at all. And this was one of those topics that was so personal

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