10 Books To Kick Off Your Reclamation Era

Maybe you feel this way too - to best know how to move through something, make sense of it, & know my next steps, I need the ‘how’ & the ‘why’ behind.

How did we get here? Why is it like this?

A few years back, when I started to question, deconstruct, & put my life under the microscope that is trauma healing, I started asking those kinds of origin questions.

And I started to realize that so much of where I was in my life - and where I wasn’t - came down to the training & traumatizing, as I call it, of life as a white woman living in a patriarchal society and raised in an organized religion.

So I did what I have always done & I dove into learning about all of those things:

- the patriarchy & it’s effects on women (and society at large)
- the history of the church (in my case, Roman Catholic) & its role in a specific kind of social, emotional, & spiritual training
- society’s overall attitudes towards women & our role in everything from sex to CEO

I’ve come a long way in the last four and a half years of learning & unlearning, deconstructing & re-building, and these are some of the books that got me here.

This list is not exhaustive, I could easily do a part 2 (and I probably will) but if I were to answer the question, Where can I start with all this unlearning?, I’d hand you this.

Remember, an educated woman is the most effective weapon.

10 Books To Kick Off Your Reclamation Era

Before I get into, what is a reclamation era? Read this.

These books aren’t rated best to worst, it’s simply a list. They are each important & impactful.

Some are more socially focused, others deal with religion, the church & history. I’ve included my favorite true-female-rage novel & author, and lastly, a book about money, written by a now reality tv star, that set me on a path toward some deep money healing.

For your reading pleasure…

On Our Best Behavior:
The Price Women Pay To Be Good

Elise Loehnen

I’ve just recently finished the audio book & I’m now making my way through the paperback because I needed to make notes & mark it up.

Elise Loehnen (also host of the Pulling The Thread podcast) breaks down the way women have been trained into “goodness” by the religious & social rules laid out in the 7 Deadly Sins. This book had me questioning almost every aspect of what I grew up learning was a “good woman”.

Invisible Women:
Data Bias In A World Designed For Men

Caroline Criado Perez

We’re learning more & more about how the world is being researched for, designed for, & built for men - even though women make up, currently, 49.7% of the world’s population. Invisible Women is a deep dive into the significant gender gap & bias in data and development of everything from cell phones & seatbelts to antibiotics & surgical procedures.

Who Cooked The Last Supper:
The Woman’s History of The World

Rosalind Miles

This book has been a big part of my religious deconstruction.

“Men dominate history because men wrote history.” Miles takes a truly scholarly approach to turning the big light on what history actually looks like when you un-mute the stories, contributions, & influences of generations of women. This book will redefine your concept of history & women’s place in it.

When God Was A Woman

Merlin Stone

I was genuinely surprised to find out this book was published in 1976 - what was true then is still true today & even more important.

When God Was A Woman is a look at the ancient worship of The Great Goddess - a time in our human history when societies were matriarchal & we the goddess was the source of peace, prosperity, & true community. This was a truly fascinating (and infuriating) look at the transition from a goddess-worshiping matriarchy where women, family, & community were the focus to a Judeo-Christian, male focused patriarchal society.

(My own personal work with the goddesses - and eventually The Goddess Post - started with this book)

The Women of Wild Hill

Kirsten Miller

The first novel in our list & one of the best books I’ve ever read. In general, Kirsten Miller is the absolute G.O.A.T when it comes to female rage, matriarchy rising, & the righting of societal wrongs.

The Women of Wild Hill follows an ancient family of witches through the generations as they take back their home, find justice for the women who’ve gone before them, & reestablish their matriarchal power.

Other Kirsten Miller books:
LuLa Dean’s Little Library of Banned Books
The Change

Careless People:
A Cautionary Tale of Power, Greed & Lost Idealism

Sarah Wynn Williams

Ah, the book that made me quit Facebook for good! I’m including this one not for its position within feminist literature & history, but for its screaming commentary on how patriarchy, capitalism, & the internet have impacted us all.

Careless People is an eye opening & the-NDA-has-expired type memoir by Sarah Wynn William, former Director of Public Policy at Facebook. Sarah talks so candidly about her seven years at Facebook & the crazy descent (hers & the companies) from idealistic platform into corrupt, revenue-at-all costs, hypocritical global powerhouse.

The part where she talks about going into a coma after giving birth & then being reprimanded for not answering her emails whilst in said come, will boil your blood.

Untamed

Glennon Doyle

This was probably the first baby step I took into any kind of unlearning & deconstruction of my decades of training almost seven years ago.

Untamed is Glennon Doyle’s story of reclamation written in a voice & from a perspective that I think so many women can identify with - good Christian wife & mother & recovering addict finding out who she truly is through divorce, recovery, & the surprising love of another woman.

Mary Magdalene Revealed

Meggan Watterson

Spoiler alert: Mary Magdalene wasn’t a whore. Pope Gregory decided she was when he realized that her story could really put a dent in the church’s plan for power.

As a recovering Catholic kid raised on the penitent prostitute stories of Mary Magdalene, this took my religious deconstruction to the nuclear levels. A must read for anyone ready to do the same or just begin to understand that Jesus’ teachings were never about himself.

Women Who Run With The Wolves:
Myths & Stories of the Wild Woman Archetype

Clarissa Pinkola Estes

I think this book is probably on every feminist reconstruction reading list. And for good reason. Women Who Run With The Wolves is a deep & expansive look at the stories, fairy tales, & cultural myths that help women reconnect with their natural, fierce nature - like a masters level course in divine feminine power.

However, I always recommend this one with a disclaimer - take your time & have patience. This one is dense & a bit more academic than most so read it in chunks, go back to sections & re-read. This book isn’t meant to be read, it’s meant to be absorbed.

Rich As F*ck

Amanda Frances

So I debated including this but, if I’m being honest (& I refuse not to be), this book started my years long work with healing my money wounds & narratives which is a huge part of reclamation for most women.

If you’re a Real Housewives watcher, you may know Amanda Frances from the latest season of Beverly Hills, but I came across Amanda years ago in the early days of the spiritual internet guru. Her whole thing is positive mindset & manifestation with a focus on money & since I was a rather clueless & exhausted brand-new online business owner, I was ready for any kind of mind reset.

This book is simple, straightforward, & truly nothing fancy but its frankness is what made it so helpful for me. She holds up a mirror to a lot of the money shit we carry around & asks excellent questions for you to journal on. I promise that most of your money shit was handed to you by someone else, this book is a great place to start to unload it all.

So there you go, 10 amazing places to start on your road to & through your reclamation.

Take your time deciding where to start, I know it’s a lot all at once, but know that no matter which one you pick up first, you’ve tapped that first domino.

Happy Reclamation Reading!

(The links for these books are Amazon Affiliate links & I do earn a small commission if you choose to purchase. If you do, I appreciate it, thank you!)

Welcome to Your Reclamation Era!

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