What can reading and being truly heard teach us about confidence?
In this special bonus holiday episode, I’m joined by five remarkable women from my Transatlantic Book Club (TABC), a group that began during the COVID-19 pandemic and spans six cities (Brussels, Chicago, London, New York, Toronto, and Quito) across five countries (Belgium, USA, UK, Canada, and Ecuador).
What started as an imagined escape (audiobooks on commutes, one hour a month online) has become something far richer. Over five years and 50 books, this group has explored everything from literary classics to contemporary fiction, and memoirs to magical realism. Along the way, we’ve discovered not only new authors and genres, but new ways of thinking, speaking, listening, and trusting ourselves.
In this conversation, we reflect on how confidence shows up in the books we’ve read (often quietly, often indirectly) and how the simple, consistent practice of reading together and sharing our perspectives has shaped our confidence over time. From finding your voice, to challenging groupthink, to feeling seen and heard no matter what’s happening in your life, this episode is a celebration of curiosity, connection, and the confidence that grows when we give ourselves space to think.
Key Takeaways
• Confidence has many definitions, from quiet self-trust to stepping beyond your comfort zone, and is shaped by experience.
• Reading builds confidence over time by exposing you to different genres, ideas, cultures, and writing styles that expand perspective.
• Finding your voice matters: Having a safe space to articulate opinions builds confidence in how you think and speak.
• Discomfort is part of growth: Some of the richest insights come from books we don’t like or agree with.
• Confidence isn’t always loud: It can show up as resilience, curiosity, integrity, kindness, or staying true to yourself.
• Being seen and heard regularly is powerful: Consistent connection can create belonging, self-belief, and trust.
• Small commitments compound: Reading one book a month can have ripple effects across confidence, empathy, creativity, and life.
Books Discussed
Other Books Read
15. The Mothers — Brit Bennett
16. The Aunt Who Would Not Die — Shirshedndu Mukhopadhayay
17. Stranger City — Linda Grant
18. Hamnet — Maggie O’Farrell
19. The Sympathizer — Viet Thanh Nguyen
20. Malibu Rising — Taylor Jenkins Reid
21. The Dutch House — Ann Patchett
22. The Nightingale — Kristin Hannah
23. The Midnight Library — Matt Haig
24. A Passage North — Anuk Arudpragasam
25. Miss Benson’s Beetle — Rachel Joyce
26. A Nearly Normal Family — M. T. Edvardsson
27. The Paper Palace — Miranda Cowley-Heller
28. Two Nights in Lisbon — Chris Pavone
29. True Biz — Sara Novic
30. Groundskeeping — Lee Cole
31. The View from Castle Rock — Alice Munro
32. Hello, Beautiful — Ann Napolitano
33. Pineapple Street — Jenny Jackson
34. The Marriage Portrait — Maggie O’Farrell
35. Yellowface — R. F. Kuang
36. Tender Is the Night — F. Scott Fitzgerald
37. The Penelopiad — Margaret Atwood
38. Love in the Time of Cholera — Gabriel García Márquez
39. The Light Between Oceans — M. L. Stedman
40. Long Petal of the Sea — Isabel Allende
41. Happy Place — Emily Henry
42. Roman Stories — Jhumpa Lahiri
43. The Country Girls — Edna O’Brien
44. Peggy — Rebecca Godfrey & Leslie Jamison
45. Papyrus: The Invention of Books — Irene Vallejo
46. The Life Cycle of the Common Octopus — Emma Knight
47. All Fours — Miranda July
48. Long Island — Colm Tóibín
49. The Letter Carrier — Francesca Giannone
50. The Year of Magical Thinking — Joan Didion
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