Emely Rumble, LCSW Literapy NYC

Thank you to and the with for the opportunity to read an advance copy of Root Therapy by Felicia Leatherwood.

As a therapist, I couldn’t stop thinking about how much our relationships with our hair reveal about the stories we’ve inherited and the ones we’ve told (and keep telling) ourselves.

Root Therapy is about more than simply caring for your hair. It’s about examining where your beliefs about it came from in the first place.

Felicia weaves together her own story as a Black woman stylist and entrepreneur with reflections on hair as ancestral, spiritual, and personal, alongside stories from celebrity clients and everyday people.

As Black women, we already know our hair has never been “just hair,” and this book gives language to so much of what lives underneath that truth. The journal prompts had me reflecting on my own experiences, and the practical hair care advice is tied in naturally rather than feeling separate from the deeper work.

I also couldn’t help but laugh thinking about how I waited months to get my first Felicia Leatherwood brush back in the day. If you remember that era, you already know. Reading this felt a lot like finally opening that package: worth the wait.

Root Therapy publishes August 11, and I already know I’ll be recommending it.

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Happy book birthday to Cool Machine by Colson Whitehead!

Whitehead has been an auto-buy author for me for years and Cool Machine, the third book in his Harlem Trilogy, reminded me exactly why.

Colson so effortlessly makes New York feel like a character with a pulse. The city breathes, reinvents itself, wears people down, and somehow keeps calling them home. As someone who misses New York every single day, reading this felt like stepping back into streets that still live inside me.

Ray Carney is older now, trying to hold onto the respectable life he’s built but Whitehead never lets us believe the past is something we simply leave behind. This story is about loyalty, family, memory, and the complicated ways we carry our history. Pepper remains one of my favorite characters too, moving through a changing city with the instincts of someone who knows survival better than anyone.

I love books that entertain me while quietly asking bigger questions about life and how navigate the ups and downs. Whitehead does that every single time.

Happy book birthday to another unforgettable addition to one of my favorite literary series. If you’ve been reading the Harlem Trilogy, I can’t wait to hear what you think of this one.

Thank you for sending me a advance copy of Great and Unfortunate Things by Jason Arday. It publishes on August 11, and I’m only partway through, but one passage already brought me to tears.

“There’s no one in there,” the doctors told Goff. “They said that I was deficient, and that I’d never be able to talk, read, or write.”

As the mother of an autistic son, I know this is a sentence too many families have heard in one form or another. A sentence that mistakes difference for absence. A sentence that says more about our assumptions than it ever could about a child.

This memoir so far isn’t just a story about achievement. It’s about a mother who refused to let other people’s expectations define her son, and about what becomes possible when someone is seen, believed in, and supported.

Jason’s journey from a nonspeaking autistic child to a professor at the University of Cambridge is powerful but it was the love and community that carried him there.

As both a therapist and a mom, this book is reminding me that our job isn’t to decide what’s possible for our children. It’s to make sure they are seen, understood, and given every opportunity to become who they already are.

This is one I’ll be recommending!

Today my 6 year old got her very first library card 🔖 🥹

Libraries are one of the few places that ask nothing of us except our curiosity.

Here’s to the beginning of a lifelong relationship with stories!

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Some books don’t just tell a story. Instead, they remind us of who we’ve always been.

This month, our Readers Who Run With the Wolves bibliotherapy book club is reading Girl Warrior by Joy Harjo. It’s a breathtaking coming-of-age memoir woven with Indigenous wisdom, poetry, memory, and the stories that shape a life. I’ve already underlined so many passages that I can’t wait to come back to.

✨ Our Readers Who Run With the Wolves book club is completely FREE to join on StoryGraph and Fable, and we’d love to read alongside you.

If you’re a therapist, educator, librarian, book club leader, or simply someone who believes books can be a tool for healing, I’d love to invite you to Healing Through Books / Libros y la Curación.

For just $5.99/month, you’ll receive:
📚 Access to three years of archived bibliotherapy book recommendations
📝 Reflection prompts, bibliotherapy tools, and practical resources you can use in your work
💛 A growing library of trainings, discussions, and content centered on the healing power of literature

Join our community here:
https://literapynyc.podia.com/literapy-nyc-community⁠

Swipe to read a few of my favorite quotes from Girl Warrior and don’t miss the slide where I’m sharing what’s coming up next on our reading list.

I’d love to know: What’s a book that helped you become more fully yourself?

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