the one where we chat books

(audience participation encouraged)

Happy Saturday, friends! I often get asked for book recommendations on spirituality, especially as it pertains to feminism. And while it’s always my absolute pleasure to help connect people to the resources they need… she’s an onion, honey. She’s got layers. As seriously as I take a good mystical nerd-out, my nose is more often in a novel or memoir.

Fiction was my first love and, honestly, it always will be. But we eat delicious veggies AND we have dessert, am I right? So in today’s book extravaganza, we’ll put it all on the table and feast!

These lists are by no means exhaustive. They just happened to be what came to mind this week. I know I’m forgetting a million titles worth recommending, so let’s just all start with that base assumption, okay? Also, I commission and edit book reviews at the National Catholic Reporter for a living, so I can attest that either searching the archives or subscribing over there would be well worth your time.

So without further ado, grab a fork and let’s dig in.

Photo by Tom Hermans on Unsplash

Feminist theology/spirituality books

• She Who Is by Elizabeth Johnson

• Untie the Strong Woman by Clarissa Pinkola Estes

• In Memory of Her by Elisabeth Schussler Fiorenza

• Truly Our Sister by Elizabeth Johnson

• Enfleshing Freedom by M. Shawn Copeland

• Sexism and God Talk by Rosemary Radford Ruether

• The Defiant Middle by Kaya Oakes

• Subversive Habits by Shannen Dee Williams

• Wild Mercy by Mirabai Starr

• The Dance of the Dissident Daughter by Sue Monk Kidd

• …it would be a real missed opportunity if I didn’t also include Rewilding Motherhood and Feminist Prayers for My Daughter, hence I shall awkwardly insert them here, like so.

What I’m currently reading

• On Our Best Behavior by Elise Loehnen

• Everybody Come Alive by Marcie Avis Walker

• Pageboy by Elliot Page

• My Body by Emily Ratajkowski

• Goldenrod by Maggie Smith

What’s on my library hold list

• Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin

• Yellowface by R. F. Kuang

• Wordslut by Amanda Montell

• The Push by Ashley Audrain

What I have on hand but haven’t started

• The Deep Down Things by Amber and Seth Haines

• Chouette by Clare Oshetsky

• Opening to Darkness by Zenju Earthlyn Manuel

Modern storytelling that has changed me

• When Women Were Dragons by Kelly Barnhill

• Sing, Unburied, Sing by Jesmyn Ward

• 11/22/63 by Stephen King

• Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng

• Nightbitch by Rachel Yoder

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Now it’s your turn

Throw a book rec or two in the comments with a one-sentence description. Who knows how many of us (myself included) will find our next book this way!

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Hey podcast lovers

I got to help my friends kick off the third season of Beyond the Habit, a podcast hosted by the coolest young Catholic sisters (the nun kind, not the family kind) you could ever hope to meet. We talked about my book Feminist Prayers for My Daughter, the prayers we don’t even realize we need as women, the weird and wonderful joy of finding the sacred in nature, and finding ways to pass on delight in God.

You can listen here!

‘til next time,

Shannon