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

1. 1984 – George Orwell
2. Anna Karenina – Leo Tolstoy
3. Aria – Nazanine Hozar
4. The Catcher in the Rye – J. D. Salinger
5. The Great Circle – Maggie Shipstead
6. If I Had Your Face – Frances Cha
7. The Island of Missing Trees – Elif Shafak
8. Klara and the Sun – Kazuo Ishiguro
9. Lessons in Chemistry – Bonnie Garmus
10. Manhattan Beach – Jennifer Egan
11. The Shadow of the Wind – Carlos Ruiz Zafón
12. This Is Going to Hurt – Adam Kay
13. Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow – Gabrielle Zevin
14. Where the Crawdads Sing – Delia Owens

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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