Get a year of Mad Woman for 25% off

Dec 27, 2024

Just a very quick email to say hi, hello, hope you’re having a lovely holiday, whatever that means to you— and a reminder that paid subscriptions are 25% off until Monday night. Don’t miss out!

Get 25% off for 1 year

The paperback edition of my book Touched Out is also a great antidote to the long break if you’re a parent. Or get the audiobook and go for a long walk!

I’m taking next week off to ring in the new year, which means spending time with friends and family and slowing way down. The annual reflection and reset is one of my favorite parts of this time of year. If you’re also taking stock of what last year felt like for you, and what next year may bring, here are some year-end thoughts, and a few book recommendations. See you next year!

Essays

A year of mad women

Amanda Montei

December 20, 2024

This year, as our community grew to well over 10,000 subscribers and 21,000 people following the newsletter, the number of mad women—and women likely to be written off as madwomen—also grew around the world.

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Essays

Irreconcilable differences

Amanda Montei

December 5, 2024

Right after the election, I felt a sudden panic that I wouldn’t be able to get out of my marriage. I had dragged my feet on paperwork, worried about losing access to Jon’s employee-sponsored health insurance. But now here I was, debating which I might lose first under the new presidential administration—my right to health or to happiness?

So, a few days before Thanksgiving, I finally filed for divorce, paying the hefty court fee, and checking the box that said “irreconcilable differences.”

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Weekly Recs

Re-visioning

Amanda Montei

November 18, 2024

In her 1971 essay “When We Dead Awaken: Writing as Re-vision,” Adrienne Rich writes about living through an “awakening of the dead” that is affecting “the lives of millions of women, even those who don’t know it yet.” She writes that this era of awakening “is also affecting the lives of men, even those who deny its claims upon them,” and predicts that arguments will continue about whether our “oppressive class system is responsible for the oppressive nature of male/female relationship, or whether, in fact, patriarchy… is the original model of oppression on which all others are based.”

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Weekly Recs