Reading list

What we're reading together.

A working library, curated slowly, kept short on purpose. Grouped by what the book is actually for, not by genre. If you read one and want to talk about it, the Circle is where to do that.

For the woman who is depleted

For when the problem isn't time, it's nourishment.

  • Burnout: The Secret to Unlocking the Stress Cycle · Emily Nagoski & Amelia Nagoski

    The book I recommend more than any other. The chapter on completing the stress cycle changed how I move through hard days.

  • Rest Is Resistance · Tricia Hersey

    A liturgy more than a self-help book. Read it slowly. Underline a lot.

  • How to Do Nothing · Jenny Odell

    Less about productivity hacks, more about reclaiming attention as a moral practice.

For the woman becoming a mother (again, or for the first time)

Honest, never saccharine. The kind of writing about motherhood that doesn't pretend.

  • Matrescence · Lucy Jones

    Names the thing nobody named for me. I wish I had read this in the fourth trimester.

  • Of Woman Born · Adrienne Rich

    Still the most honest book about motherhood I have ever read. Forty years old and somehow still ahead of us.

  • The Mother Knot · Jane Lazarre

    Short, lyrical, brave. Reads like a long letter from a friend.

For trusting yourself again

For the long, awkward work of hearing your own voice and believing it.

  • Big Magic · Elizabeth Gilbert

    Not just for creatives. The chapters on permission and fear are for any woman trying to choose herself.

  • Untamed · Glennon Doyle

    Loved. Argued with. Loved again. The 'knowing' chapter alone is worth the book.

  • Women Who Run with the Wolves · Clarissa Pinkola Estés

    Read it like scripture. One story at a time. Let it work on you.

Poems we keep coming back to

Short enough to read in the bathroom. Big enough to carry you through the week.

  • Wild Geese · Mary Oliver

    The first poem we share with every new member.

  • The Journey · Mary Oliver

    Read it out loud, even if you feel silly.

  • Don't Hesitate · Mary Oliver

    If you've been waiting for permission to feel joy, this is it.

  • Kindness · Naomi Shihab Nye

    On what sorrow makes possible. Don't skim it.