Join a sloooow book club

We're taking the rest of 2025 to read and digest a wonderful book. You in?

Hi, I’m Amber—former English teacher, current writer, wife + mother of three girls. One Tired Mother is a place for me to share my thoughts on motherhood that often challenge both the liberal feminist paradigm and the conservative Christian one, with the aim to spark thinking and dialogue and hope. If you’re new here, I’d love to have you as a reader and conversation partner! If you’re already a regular reader, a gentle reminder that you can take the next step of support by becoming a full (paid) subscriber, which offers endless encouragement for me and a few perks along the way. Regardless, I hope you’re well!

I don’t know about you, but for me, it’s become clear that a big part of my stress is that I always feel rushed and overwhelmed. This… doesn’t work for me. I crave depth and slowness so much. Everything is too much, too fast.

I feel this in every part of my life, even here on Substack. I add way more posts to my “Saved” folder than I ever seem to get to reading. I can’t keep up with Notes, even when I start the conversations. I have a lot to say, but hitting “publish” too frequently feels like it’s contributing to the clamor.

On this note, after some reflection I decided I’m going to take all year to guide us through the next One Tired Mother book club pick. (In case you missed it, it’s When You Care—The Unexpected Magic of Caring for Others¹ by

Elissa Strauss

.) I’m sure this sounds crazy to some,² but I also know I’m far from the only one craving more slow experiences.

This book actually couldn’t be more perfect for a slow read. It’s arguing, after all, for a more human and humane world, and I think we all know at this point that when it comes to human flourishing faster does not equal better. It’s also just a book worth savoring. It’s thoughtfully crafted and full of insight, not (like so many non-fiction books) crammed with simplistic filler because the publisher wanted it to be a certain length or something. It’s a true work of art.

I’ll also be trying a new thing! Elissa and I will be doing a few Zoom chats, which I’ll release as podcasts here. (Full subscribers will be able to send me requests to help guide the conversations!) I’ll create posts where you can leave your comments.³

sloooooow.

This past weekend I was at a wonderful conference (I’m actually still in Florida!), and the final speaker was Destiny Herndon-De La Rosa, whose work at New Wave Feminists I’ve loved for years. She spoke a lot about something she does so well: having relationships and conversation across political/ideological divides. “Most people are not the labels and stereotypes,” she said. “It’s like, ‘show me your heart.’”

Elissa and I don’t share the same background or all the same beliefs, but what we do share is a love of nuance and a desire to dialogue authentically about things that matter. (And we’re both obsessed with thinking about care.) You don’t have to identify as religious, not religious, feminist, not feminist, conservative, liberal, anything, to join us in conversation. If you desire a world where care—that is, attending to the needs of other human beings—is valued, you’re cordially invited to read along with us and share your thoughts! And your heart.

Schedule

We’re going one chapter a month.

March - Introduction—Why Care?

April - Chapter One—Breaking the Glass Doors: Building a Feminism of Care

May - Chapter Two—Social Housekeepers: When Women Embraced Care

June - Chapter Three—A New Man: On the Rise of Male Caregivers and How Care Changes Men

July - Chapter Four—Love and Money: The Economic and Social Might of Care

August - Chapter 5—Survival of the Most Sympathetic: Rediscovering Charles Darwin and Our Instinct to Care

September - Chapter 6—The Feeling is Mutual: How Caring For Others Can Better Our Minds and Bodies

October - Chapter 7—A Philosophy of Care: Through Caregiving, We Can Encounter Big Questions, and Big Answers

November - Chapter 8—When Revelation Takes Place at Home: Care’s Spiritual Potential and Why It’s So Easy to Ignore

December - Conclusion—Interdependently

The pace of the modern world is just not it for me. I don’t want to keep up; I wanna slow down. I don’t want to jump from thing to thing like a dopamine-crazed addict; I want to revel, sit, stay, be.

If you’re feeling this too, I invite you to join us in this slow book club. Maybe it will be so good that we’ll do it this way from here on out, a book a year. I secretly hope so.

Are you in for reading When You Care? Let us know—

1. Read more about the book in this post.

2. It seems like most book clubs are, like, a book a month? By the time I’ve actually ordered the book and begun to read, the conversations are over, lol

3. I tried doing conversation in the chat for the last book and that didn’t seem to work as well. So back to posts.