Beyond the Posts: Books for Parents
PARENTreads Issue No. 10: Bonus issue featuring books for parents from this community
This bonus edition of PARENTreads gathers books written by members of this writing community—each offering its own perspective on parenting, family life, and the questions that shape how we show up for the people we love. Whether reflective, practical, or deeply personal, these books invite you to explore ideas beyond the newsletter and discover the voices behind them.
NOISE: A Manifesto Modernising Motherhood
by Danusia Malina-Derben | Parents Who Think
NOISE interrogates cultural myths that strip women of selfhood when they become mothers. Blending memoir, research, & manifesto, it rejects limiting motherhood narratives and exposes how maternal identity is narrowed - arguing instead for mothers as whole, complex humans central to cultural change.
Quickening: The Art of Being a Creative Mother
by Heidi Fiedler | Nebula Notebook
This luminous collection of essays, poems, and journal prompts invites mothers to reconnect with their creative spark even when life feels overwhelming. Quickening explores the qualities shared by creative mothers and shows how you can nurture, or quicken, those qualities in yourself.
Mom Loves the Dogs More: A Memoir of Family Rescue
by Cindy Ojczyk | Like People, Like Pets
Fostering rescue dogs was supposed to heal Cindy’s grieving family and end the sister wars. Instead came anxiety and ADHD diagnoses, slammed doors, and hard truths about parenting teens. Amid therapy, meds, and muddy paws, healing begins—one rescue at a time.
For writers in this community
If you want your ideas to land clearly and stay with readers, this is worth your attention. Ayk | Parents in the Making helps writers turn posts into memorable visual metaphors readers can save, share, and revisit—with ready-to-use graphics for Substack and social.
Parenting in the Third Stage: From Holding Hands to Holding Space
by Ashley Radzat | Root & Reach
When the teen years hit, the old parenting map stops working. Parenting in the Third Stage is a practical journal packed with prompts and tools to help you reconnect, communicate clearly, and show up steady—grounded in adolescent brain science and values-based parenting.
The Road Less Triggered
by Dr. Kelly Flanagan | The Less Triggered Tribe
What if communication doesn’t break down between people but within people? The Road Less Triggered shows you how to disrupt defensiveness, cultivate inner peace, and connect with clarity, curiosity, and compassion.
Let’s Choose Less
by Jenna Michael | Purposeful Parenting
Let’s Choose Less is not just a guide to de-cluttering; it’s an urgent call to a simpler, more purposeful family life. If you’re longing to prioritize what truly matters over an infinite demand for more, then this book is for you. Are you ready to join the movement for less?
Nurture: How to Raise Kids Who Love Food, Their Bodies, and Themselves
by Heidi Schauster | Nourishing Words
Nurture is a compassionate guide for parents and caregivers about feeding, eating, and discussing bodies with children and teens.
Talk to Your Boys
by Joanna Schroeder | Zooming Out and Christopher Pepper | Teen Health Today
An urgent and practical book that helps parents and their boys navigate important topics like sex, drugs, bullying, power, consent, and more in a way that helps them grow their emotional intelligence, while also building connection and a closeness that can last a lifetime.
The Calm College Method: A Stress-Free Guide to College Admissions for Parents and Students
by Lisa Rouff, Ph.D. & Lynda Doepker | The College Admissions Collective
The Calm College Method offers a refreshing, psychology-based approach that helps families navigate admissions with confidence and connection instead of chaos.
Restrung: Fatherhood in a Different Key
by Matt Fogelson | Fine Tuning
Weaving the author’s coming of age in 1980s New York City with his life as a father today, this Nick Hornby–meets–Cheryl Strayed debut memoir examines father-son relationships, the pain of early parent loss, and the importance of embracing your passions.
Open and Relational Parenting: Loving Parents Reflecting a Loving God
by Chris Hanson | Open and Relational Parenting
Open and Relational Parenting blends parenting research with a relational theology to offer a fresh model for modern families. Pediatrician and theologian Dr. Chris Hanson invites parents to move beyond control toward responsive relationships that help children grow with resilience and autonomy.
Faith With Work Boots On: A 7-Week Journey Through the Book of James
by Maury Wood | Grit & Wit
Faith With Work Boots On is a practical, story-driven devotional through the book of James, written for parents who want faith that shows up at home. It helps families live out belief in everyday moments with grace, honesty, and action.
How to Dungeon Master Parenting: A Guidebook for Gamifying the Child Rearing Quest, Leveling Up Your Skills, and Raising Future Adventurers
by Shelly Mazzanoble | Middle-Aged Lady Mom
For years, millions of fans have looked to the beloved roleplaying game Dungeons & Dragons for fun, friendship, and entertainment. And now parents and parents-to-be can use D&D to gain inspiration and how-to when it comes to their most challenging and rewarding role yet.
What Parenting Asks Us To Carry
Much of parenting happens in the space between what we give and what we carry. This edition of PARENTreads gathers essays that examine the weight of responsibility, the persistence of guilt, and the ongoing negotiation between self-sacrifice and self-preservation. The essays that follow move through the many ways parents experience, question, and reshape what parenting asks us to hold.
Best Parenting Essays of 2025
The final PARENTreads issue of 2025 brings together parenting essays that captured growth, named hard truths, and reflected the real work of raising humans in a year that asked a lot of families. These stories were chosen—largely by the writers themselves—because they mattered, and together they offer a layered portrait of parenting as it was lived in 2025.
Explore all PARENTreads issues HERE.
Another small library focused on parenting that causes one to crave for 48 hrs. in a day just to spend 24 of them reading.
Thank you, Erin, for including Mom Loves the Dogs More with this wonderful curation of authors and parenting books. All great reads!