Bob Goff's first book, Love Does, sold on the strength of a former lawyer telling absurd, joyful, occasionally reckless stories about chasing down whatever felt like love in the moment -- storming a castle, adopting kids informally, flying to Uganda on a whim. Everybody, Always, published in 2018, narrows that same voice onto a harder question: what do you actually do when love means dealing with people who are difficult, annoying, or outright hostile toward you? It became Goff's second New York Times bestseller and currently sits at 4.44 out of 5 on Goodreads from roughly 47,000 ratings, an unusually strong number for the crowded inspirational-nonfiction shelf. This review works through what critics and everyday readers actually said about it, including the parts that landed less well, so you can decide whether Goff's brand of relentless optimism is the book you need right now or one that will wear thin by chapter ten.
What Everybody, Always Actually Is
This is not a memoir with a single continuous arc, and it's worth saying plainly up front because it shapes how the book should be read. It's a collection of short, self-contained chapters, each built around one real encounter from Goff's life -- a scam artist who kept calling his office, a teenager he mentored who kept making disastrous choices, homeless men he invited to dinner, a difficult family member. Each chapter runs a few pages, ends with a small, punchy takeaway, and moves on to the next story rather than building toward one sustained argument. The organizing idea, stated early and returned to throughout, is Goff's claim that Jesus's instruction to "love your neighbor" was never qualified by whether the neighbor deserves it, which Goff renders as a directive to become love for everybody, always -- including, and especially, the people who make that hardest.
About Bob Goff and Why He Wrote This
Goff practiced law for roughly 25 years, founding the firm Goff & Dewalt as a construction-defect litigation practice, before eventually stepping back from that work to write and speak full time. He also serves as the Honorary Consul to the Republic of Uganda, a real diplomatic appointment, not a symbolic title he uses loosely in his stories. In 2003 he founded what started as Restore International and is now known as Love Does, a nonprofit human-rights organization that has worked on child-protection and legal-advocacy cases in Uganda, India, Nepal, Somalia, Afghanistan, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and elsewhere. That background matters for reading this book honestly: many of Goff's stories involve international travel, direct access to government officials, and the kind of flexible schedule that comes from decades of financial and professional freedom most readers don't have. He's been transparent that the book grew out of watching his own instinct to write off difficult people, and deciding that instinct itself was the thing that needed to change.
How It Compares to Love Does
Love Does is broader and more scattershot -- stories about adventure, risk, and following through on love as an active verb rather than a feeling, loosely organized around the idea that love isn't real until it does something. Everybody, Always takes that same anecdotal, chapter-per-story structure and applies it to a single, harder-edged question: not "what does love do," but "what does love do when the other person is genuinely difficult to love." If you found Love Does inspiring but a little unfocused, Everybody, Always is the more disciplined follow-up. If you found Love Does's constant momentum exhausting, know that this book keeps the same rhythm and the same voice -- it doesn't slow down.
What Critics Actually Said
Rather than inventing a verdict, here's what was actually published about it:
“Goff laces together lively accounts of his casual and intimate interactions with people all over the world in this primer on becoming the essence of love.”— Publishers Weekly
Publishers Weekly's notice also framed the book's central move accurately: to Goff, "becoming love" functions as an operating principle that directs his choices and how he treats the people in front of him, rather than an abstract theological claim. Beyond that trade review, the book's reception has been driven overwhelmingly by reader response and pastoral/ministry endorsement rather than a wide sweep of major literary outlets -- consistent with how Goff's other books have been covered, since he writes for a Christian inspirational audience first and a general nonfiction audience second.
And the aggregate reader picture, for what it's worth:
Where Real Reviews Pushed Back
A specific and recurring criticism shows up across independent reader reviews, and it's worth passing along directly rather than softening: several readers have described Goff, in their own words, as writing from a position of extreme privilege that makes his examples hard to apply -- not everyone can drop everything to take a godson up Mount Kilimanjaro, or fly across the world on short notice to sit with someone in crisis. Reviewers have also pointed to individual stories they felt were more clever than genuinely instructive, including one frequently cited example in which Goff lets his teenage son land a small plane under his direct supervision and coaching, which some readers argued undercuts the analogy he draws from it about trusting others without instruction. A second, separate complaint concerns density: several reviewers noted there's "too much Bob" relative to the actual lesson in a given chapter, and that the anecdote-heavy structure starts to feel repetitive well before the book ends. None of this erases the book's strong reader rating, but it's a real, consistent pattern worth knowing before you buy.
On Choosing People Who Are Hard to Love
The book's strongest material, by most reader accounts, is the section dealing directly with people who are actively unpleasant -- the scam caller, the critic, the family member who keeps causing pain. Goff's argument here is specific: that loving difficult people isn't primarily an emotional exercise, it's a series of concrete decisions repeated over time, and that most people quietly give themselves permission to write off anyone who costs too much energy to love well. He pushes back on that permission directly, arguing that the instruction to love your neighbor was never conditioned on the neighbor being easy, likable, or even willing to receive it.
On Whimsy, Risk, and Following Through
A second recurring thread carries over from Love Does: the idea that love is a verb that requires actual follow-through, not just intention. Chapters here describe Goff showing up in person rather than sending a message, committing to something before he's fully thought through the logistics, and treating spontaneous decisions as a discipline rather than recklessness. Readers who connected with Love Does's high-energy, say-yes-first ethos will find the same engine running here, applied specifically to relationships rather than adventure for its own sake.
On Faith, Practicality, and the Anti-Intellectualism Question
A smaller but recurring critical thread concerns the book's relationship to theology: some reviewers with a more academic or doctrinally rigorous bent have raised concerns that the book leans so heavily on personal anecdote and practical application that it risks reading as anti-intellectual, favoring good works and warm feeling over sustained doctrinal or scriptural argument. Goff would likely say that's the point -- that he's writing for people who need a nudge toward action, not a seminary course -- but readers who want their inspirational nonfiction grounded in deeper theological reasoning should know that's not what this book is trying to do.
Key Takeaways
- The instruction to "love your neighbor," in Goff's reading, comes with no exception clause for neighbors who are difficult, unkind, or unwilling to receive it
- Loving difficult people is framed as a repeated series of concrete decisions, not a feeling you either have or don't
- Goff's stories are drawn from a genuinely unusual life -- decades as a lawyer, an actual diplomatic post, and a nonprofit operating in multiple countries -- which is worth factoring in when deciding how directly to apply his examples
- Showing up in person and following through, even imperfectly, matters more in Goff's framing than getting the sentiment exactly right
Who This Book Is Actually For
Readers who already connected with Love Does and want the same storytelling voice applied to a sharper question, plus anyone in a Christian or faith-adjacent inspirational-nonfiction audience looking for short, quotable chapters that work well for individual devotional reading or group discussion. It also suits readers currently dealing with one specific difficult relationship who want encouragement to stay engaged rather than a clinical framework for how to do it.
Who Should Read Something Else Instead
If the documented privilege critique above is a real dealbreaker for you -- if you want examples that map onto an ordinary schedule and bank account rather than international travel and decades of professional flexibility -- this may frustrate more than it inspires. And if you're looking for structured, evidence-based guidance on managing difficult relationships rather than anecdote and encouragement, a book grounded in conflict-resolution research will likely serve you better than Goff's storytelling-first approach.
Pros and Cons
Pros:
- Genuine second New York Times bestseller from Goff, following Love Does
- Exceptionally strong 4.44 out of 5 Goodreads rating across roughly 47,000 ratings
- Short, self-contained chapters that work well for devotional reading or small-group discussion
- Positively noted by Publishers Weekly for its storytelling and its "becoming love" central principle
- Goff's humanitarian and legal background is real and documented, not an invented narrator persona
Cons:
- Multiple independent reviewers describe the examples as drawn from an unusually privileged, hard-to-replicate life
- Anecdote-driven structure reads as repetitive to some readers by the second half, per reader reviews
- Leans heavily on personal storytelling over sustained theological or evidence-based argument
Frequently Asked Questions
Do I need to read Love Does before Everybody, Always?
No, it stands on its own. Love Does introduces Goff's storytelling style and worldview; Everybody, Always narrows the focus specifically to loving difficult people, so reading Love Does first adds context but isn't required to follow the newer book.
What's the actual Goodreads rating for Everybody, Always?
4.44 out of 5 from roughly 47,000 ratings as of this writing, an unusually high average for the inspirational nonfiction category. Check the live number yourself, since it will keep moving.
Is Bob Goff's Uganda work real, or just a storytelling device?
It's real and documented. Goff practiced law for roughly 25 years, serves as Honorary Consul to the Republic of Uganda, and founded the nonprofit now known as Love Does (originally Restore International) in 2003, which works on child protection and legal advocacy in several countries.
What's the most common criticism of this book?
That Goff's stories come from an unusually privileged, well-connected life, which makes some of his examples hard to translate into an ordinary reader's circumstances -- and that the anecdote-driven structure can feel repetitive by the second half. Both are recurring points across independent reader reviews, not isolated complaints.
Sources & Further Reading
- Goodreads — Everybody, Always (aggregate rating, reader reviews)
- Publishers Weekly — Everybody, Always review
- BobGoff.com — official author biography
- Love Does (lovedoes.org) — nonprofit organization founded by Bob Goff
- PositiveLifes.com — free inspirational and life-changing PDF books
Final Verdict
Everybody, Always delivers exactly what its Goodreads number suggests: a warm, quotable, story-driven case for extending patience to people who don't make it easy, backed by a Publishers Weekly notice and an author whose humanitarian work is genuinely documented rather than invented for the book jacket. The privilege critique from readers is fair and worth sitting with before you buy, and the anecdote-heavy structure won't be for everyone. But for readers who want short chapters they can return to individually, built around a genuinely disciplined idea -- love without an exception clause -- it holds up as one of the stronger entries in its category.
Buy Day rating: 7.9/10