Women’s Book Club Celebrates Ten Years of Fostering Community and Love of Literature

Well-Read Mom offers opportunities for personal growth, friendship, and meaningful conversations to readers around the world.

Women today yearn for deep connections and a sense of meaning and purpose. Founded in 2012, Well-Read Mom is a non-profit organization that accompanies women in the reading of great books and spiritual classics to encourage personal growth, friendship, and meaningful conversations in order to explore the human condition and reorient toward what is good, beautiful, and true. Well-Read Mom aims to deepen awareness of the meaning hidden in each woman’s daily life and her unique presence at the heart of the family.  Now in its tenth year, Well-Read Mom has local groups in all 50 states as well as eight other countries.

Marcie Stokman, a mother of seven and the founder of Well-Read Mom, knows all too well the obstacles and aches of women who are running on empty, feeling isolated, and longing for a break. Years ago, after experiencing feelings of burnout and exhaustion from a busy life spent taking care of others, Stokman shared her feelings with a friend who pointed out, “You need to take care of your heart, that’s how you mother.” This moment challenged Stokman, who always believed in the power of reading to transform people’s lives for the better.  

“I think the Lord uses literature in our lives to help us with places we are stuck,” says Stokman. “A book that has stood the test of time says something that’s true to the human experience. It helps us to see, it educates us, and it helps us move toward holiness.” 

Each year, Well-Read Mom provides everything a woman needs to successfully host a group including a comprehensive reading plan and helpful printed and online resources for the monthly meetings. To participate, women may join an existing small group, start their own, or follow along with the reading plan with as little as one other friend. It is a belief of Well-Read Mom that as women accompany each other, there is accountability, support, and a sense of belonging that helps to foster the habit of regular reading. Moreover, staying on pace together and reading the same books universally facilitates and elevates awareness of a wider and deeper cultural conversation. 

The unique method of Well-Read Mom includes strategies to make time for reading, comparing the literature with our own lives, and sharing personal insights and experiences. Emphasizing the importance of reading allows women to give themselves permission to find time and space to read. Comparing is a means of entering into the drama of the story and examining the questions that arise in the mind of the reader, such as, “What does this mean for my own life?” Sharing happens after the women listen to the monthly audio prepared by Well-Read Mom, discuss the book, and offer something of themselves through sharing personal insights and experiences as well as conversation and questions that arise from the text.

Women who have participated in Well-Read Mom groups testify to the transformative effect it has had on their lives. One member, Danielle, states, “Reading has been the best thing I have invested in for myself. The dear friends I have made along the way (in real life and in the books) have literally changed me!” Another, Angie, shares her gratitude to Well-Read Mom, “I am learning so much about myself reading these books I would never choose or wouldn't dare pick up on my own. Well-Read Mom book clubs actually discuss the book to share about one’s life and grow as a person!”

Well-Read Mom book clubs welcome women of all faith traditions and stages of life, regardless of whether or not they have biological children. The book reflections, audios, and discussion questions approach the literature selections through the lens of the Catholic intellectual tradition.

For more information on Well-Read Mom, visit WellReadMom.com.

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