The Well-Read Mom: Read More. Read Well.

How It All Began The Well-Read Mom Story

The Well-Read Mom: Read More. Read Well. book by founder and president, Marcie Stokman

Marcie Stokman knows the obstacles and ache of women running on empty, isolated, longing for a break. More than ever women today yearn for deep connections, true leisure, and a sense of meaning and purpose. Her book, The Well-Read Mom, is a response to that need: We need to read more, read well.

With honesty, humor and encouragement, Marcie shares how a desire to read great literature and make meaningful connections became the catalyst for the Well-Read Mom (WRM) international book club and movement. WRM is restoring the hearts of women and awakening a cultural revolution beginning with the hearts and homes of mothers across the world.

Be inspired by the story of Marcie's Well-Read Mom book club, the movement helping women read deeply.

Be persuaded by the research that reading transforms our parenting, moral imaginations, friendships and more.

Be encouraged that it is possible to create a reading practice in your own life. Let Marcie show you how and even give you the reading lists that have inspired Well-Read Moms over the years.

Well-Read Mom

Join the movement and cultural awakening:
The Well-Read Mom: Read More. Read Well.

Buy Now

Order from Well-Read Mom
Also available to purchase at Amazon.com

Selected Clips from Marcie's Virtual Book Tour

Play Video

Marcie Stokman, author of The Well-Read Mom: Read more. Read well. briefly explains the inspiration for writing her first book and how she hopes the book can be a source of encouragement for all women to foster the habit of reading in their lives.

​

Play Video

Listen as the author, Marcie Stokman, reads a small excerpt from her book, The Well-Read Mom: Read more. Read Well, about how reading can be a source of self-care.

Well-Read Mom

About The Author

Marcie Stokman is founder and president of the international movement and book club the Well-Read Mom (WRM). With a passion for reading and motherhood, she writes and speaks to encourage women in a world of rising isolation, loneliness, and mental health issues. Through the power of reading together and reading well, Well-Read Moms across the country are finding friendships, meaning, and true leisure. Connecting on a deeper level and serving others in their search for purpose is Marcie’s passion.

Marcie has a Bachelor of Nursing from the University of Nebraska, Kearney and Masters in Psychology from the Adler Institute in Chicago. As a clinical nurse specialist (CNS) in mental health, Marcie founded the Family Consulting Services at Cuyuna Regional Medical Center, which continues to operate today, providing individual marriage and family counseling. She co-founded Frameworks, a workshop series for teachers, nurses, and the broader community on healthy lifestyle strategies and mindset habits.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Speaking and leadership credits include the Minnesota Association of Catholic Homeschooling Educators Conference (MACHE), the annual WRM conferences at the University of St. Thomas, St. Paul, Minnesota, as well as numerous organizations in Chicago, Milwaukee, Boston, New York, DesMoines, Denver, Sacramento and smaller cities across the United States and Canada.

Well-Read Mom hosts events at The New York Encounter, a free cultural event held in the heart of New York City each year. Discussions have delved into C.S. Lewis' Screwtape Letters, Karol Wojtyla's The Jeweler's Shop, and Manzoni's The Betrothed. In 2018, Marcie facilitated a panel discussion called “An Epidemic of Loneliness.”

Marcie’s passion for the power of deep reading to transform lives and communities is central to her concerns and activism. Her training as a clinical nurse practitioner in mental health gives her a keen ear for listening and engaging in problem-solving and encouraging women in finding their passion and purpose. As an author, national speaker and panel facilitator, she seeks to awaken the best in women and families; re-vitalizing our culture through her mission to support more women to Read More and Read Well.

As a homeschool mom for twenty-five years, Marcie co-founded a classical co-op for high school students, bringing families together to support each other in their vision for excellence in education and seeking truth, beauty and goodness through the Western classical tradition. Marcie and her husband Peter have seven children and eleven grandchildren and reside in Crosby, Minnesota.

Read More

Endorsements

In some ways, our world today makes interpersonal connections more difficult: digital connections are often artificial and lacking in depth. I wholeheartedly recommend The Well-Read Mom to those who want to go deeper.

- Bishop Andrew Cozzens, Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis

Through her stunningly successful labor of love "The Well-Read Mom," Marcie Stokman has restored to literature its rightful readership of everyman --or, in this case, every mom

- Joshua Hren, Ph.D., author of “This Our Exile: Short Stories” and founder of Wiseblood Books

In these beautifully written pages, women will find relief, permission, and encouragement to pursue a life of deep reading for themselves, their families, and the culture.

- Elizabeth M. Kelly, award-winning author of “Jesus Approaches: What Contemporary Women Can Learn about Healing”

In an age of tweets and texts, Marcie Stokman presents a powerful case for the value of literature. Hers is an empowering, uplifting invitation to return to great books, which like great art, cultivate the mind and awaken the soul.

- Elizabeth Lev, author of “How Catholic Art Saved the Faith”

Marcie Stokman personally embodies the principle that gave rise to her international reading movement: “The good we do for the people around us springs from the life inside us.”

Now, anyone who has already profited from Marcie’s efforts, or wishing to do so for the first time, can read her and learn the reasons for restoring the lost art of leisure.

- Margaret Harper McCarthy, editor of “Humanum: Issues in Family, Culture, and Science” and associate professor of theology at the Pontifical John Paul II Institute

“The Well-Read Mom” isn’t just for moms. Nor is it just for the well-read. This is a delightful, insightful, and inspiring book on how, why, and what to read.

- Karen Swallow Prior, award-winning professor and author of “On Reading Well: Finding the Good Life through Great Books”

By drawing on her experience to illustrate the profound importance of beauty, reflection, and a true experience of leisure, this book ignites the desire to live more deeply and intentionally.

- Kimberly C. Shankman, Dean of the College, Benedictine College, Atchison Kansas

In this important little book, Marcie and her friends invite us to a life that is richer in imagination, companionship and empathy and, thus, so much richer in meaning.

- Reverend Richard Veras, Director of Pastoral Formation at St. Joseph's Seminary and author of “Word Made Flesh”

Stokman inspires us to love well, to think well, to be what we all desire but assume we have too little time to become—well-read moms.”

- Jessica Hooten Wilson, author of “Reading Walker Percy’s Novels”

In a culture increasingly polarized by special interest groups and opposing ideologies, Marcie Stokman, founder of ‘The Well-Read Mom,’ has single-handedly brought back the civilized—and civilizing—tradition of authentic conversation. It is a gift of inestimable value.

- Suzanne M. Wolfe, award-winning author of “The Confessions of X”

This project was made possible by a grant provided by the Five Wings Arts Council with funds from the McKnight Foundation. Profits from the sale of this book will support bringing out-of-print books back into print.

Well-Read Mom
Well-Read Mom