8 Books on Motherhood, Equality, Time, and Equity to Read in 2022

I love books. I love reading.

One of my favorite things to do is put together a short list of books I want to read over the year ahead. For the past several years, I’ve kept a database of every book I read (yup, I’m that kind of nerd). It started in?2017 ?and I kept track?in 2018 ,?2019 ,?and even through?2020 , but then things really went smashy, and in?2021 , not only did my regular reading pace get cut in half, I also still haven't updated the page with the books I did find a way to read. It's been those kind of years.

But reading is still one of my favorite things to do, and I especially love learning about the history of motherhood, domestic labor, equity, and the rise of female business leaders. This year I’m focusing on fewer books, and really sinking my teeth into delightful ones.

Here are my top 8 picks for 2022, and yes, these are the books we’ll be reading in WWC this year. (Plus, if you read?my last email, ?you know that we send you one of the books as part of our early-bird bonuses.)

EIGHT BOOKS I'M READING IN 2022

Books about the history of anger, the lies we tell about laziness, the reason time management doesn't really work, and why women must get paid more.?

Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management For Mortals?

I just read this book while on a brief vacation, and I highlighted?more than half of this book.?This book sold out of its first run, and has been a runaway bestseller since. Oliver Burkeman takes massive themes, like how much time we have in our lifetime, and puts them into frameworks our mental models can understand. Did you know we have just four thousand weeks in an average lifetime? That’s it. So what are you doing with the week you have right now??Shivers. It’s a deeply clarifying book.

The Coaching Habit

This short, delightful book is one of the most powerful books I’ve read on deepening your relationships with friends, colleagues, mentors, and teammates. I keep these key questions on my desk and now collect great questions to ask people. Michael Bungay Stanier reminds me that a good?question?often leads to an even better?conversation. My favorite question to ask from this book is:?"What's the real challenge here for you?"

Pay Up: The Future of Women and Work?

Reshma Saujani is the founder of Girls Who Code, and she has a book coming out this March 2022 all about the big lie of corporate feminism. From the description:

“We told women that to break glass ceilings and succeed in their careers, all they needed to do is dream big, raise their hands, and lean in. But data tells a different story."

"Historic numbers of women left their jobs in 2021, resulting in their lowest workforce participation since 1988. Women's unemployment rose to nearly fifteen percent, and globally women lost over $800 billion in wages. Fifty-one percent of women say that their mental health has declined, while anxiety and depression rates have skyrocketed."

"In this urgent and rousing call to arms, Reshma Saujani dismantles the myth of 'having it all' and lifts the burden we place on individual women to be primary caregivers, and to work around a system built for and by men. The time has come, she argues, for innovative corporate leadership, government intervention, and sweeping culture shift; it's time to Pay Up.”

Essential Labor

Angela Garbes, one of the co-hosts of?The Double Shift , first wrote one of my favorite books on motherhood:?Like A Mother. That book was a deeply nerdy look into the history, science, and culture of pregnancy. It is one of the books I recommend the most when new parents ask for book recommendations. Her next book, Essential Labor , is “a reflection on the state of caregiving in America, and an exploration of mothering as a means of social change.”

This book comes out in May 2022, and it’s all about the assumptions we make about care and work, and an exploration of what mothering is and can be. I cannot wait to read this book.

Rage Becomes Her?

One of the best books of 2018 by NPR and The Washington Post, this book encourages women to stop bottling up our anger. “There are so, so many legimitate reasons for us to feel angry,” Soraya Chemaly writes, and our anger “is not only justified, it is an active part of the solution.” This has been on my wish list since it first came out and the validation that women’s anger is justified is something I need to read about quite a lot.

Unicorn Space?

Eve Rodsky’s newest book dropped in December 2021.?Fair Play ,?her?first book about equality in the domestic sphere, became a NYT bestseller. In it, she talks about the concept of "unicorn space "—the space that makes us interesting, unique, vibrant, and different. The space we all need to be fully ourselves, whoever we are. She reminds us that unicorn space isn’t a luxury, it’s a necessity, and that by giving this space a name, we can protect the time we need for ourselves, even when we're in the midst of overwhelming domestic responsibilities and careers.

Laziness Does Not Exist

I stumbled across Devon Price’s work on Twitter, where they speak about autism, neurodiversity, gender diversity, and the myth of laziness (what they describe as “The Laziness Lie” in their book). What if our cultural idea of laziness is a mythology designed to make us miserable and keep specific power structures in place?

And, moreover, what if your “laziness” is actually you reading the signs about your tiredness, burnout, commitments, and need for rest in a more honest and accurate way? This book asked me to rethink my assumptions about work, “hard work,” and an unyielding “work ethic” that often contributes to people being sick, tired, and overworked. Maybe laziness is a concept invented to make us feel guilty, not a truism after all.

Wintering

Katherine May wrote a lyrical and beautiful narrative book about slipping through the cracks of life, and when her life told her she needed to pause . We know that rest and retreat are powerful, and this book looks more slowly at how we consider and relate to our own seasons of wintering. It is “an intimate, revelatory book exploring the ways we can care for and repair ourselves when life knocks us down.” Some seasons need to be about rest, and not much else. There’s a reason for winter.

What books are you reading this year?

Now I’d love to know — what books are you reading this year? What books have stood out in your journey in parenting, business, and building a more sustainable life? Hit reply and tell me your recommendations because you know I love books and learning!

— Sarah Peck?CEO, Startup Parent

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