Emely Rumble, LCSW Literapy NYC

01/12/2026

Every Happiness: A Novel by Reena Shah is one of those quiet, powerful stories that lingers with you long after the last page.

Releasing February 3rd, this debut follows a lifelong friendship shaped by love, rivalry, class, migration, and the complicated push-and-pull between family expectations and selfhood.

I loved how this book lets us grow alongside these two women from girlhood to adulthood, from India to the U.S. as they navigate assimilation, ambition, motherhood, and the question so many of us carry:

Who am I allowed to be for myself? That part!

Two lines that made me pause and book journal:
✨ “What was belief if not fear?”
✨ “Something to make her real.” Something of her own.

And honestly… “We’re in our 30s and should have investments by now” 😮‍💨 deeply relatable.

Grateful to the Educators ALC program for the opportunity to read early. This one is tender, sharp, and full of emotional truth especially for readers drawn to stories about female friendship, longing, and finding your voice across borders.

Save & share with a friend who loves women’s fiction!

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01/12/2026

I personally would like this memoir to be acquired by but that’s just me 🥰

Who else wants to read this autobiography? I know I’m not the only New Yorker who does 🙌🏾

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01/11/2026

NEW SUBSTACK BLOG 🙌🏾

Talking about something I’ve been holding onto for awhile- how I’m often asked for access to my expertise for free.

And how you can support my work and be nourished by the archive I’ve created over the last 4 years! Please share and spread widely 🫶🏽

LiterapyNYC.substack.com | Words of Wellness

Join our BIBLIOTHERAPY community today! 🔗 under my profile picture 📚

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01/11/2026

01/11/2026

thank you! First romance read of 2026 and the bar has officially been raised. 🎶

The moment when Luke tells August “The rain plays you symphonies” 🥹

This story pulled me in with its Southern charm, music-soaked atmosphere, and layers because yes, it’s a romance, but it’s also about reckoning, reinvention, and what it actually means to make amends with someone who betrayed your trust but your heart still wants back.

The audio is everything!

We meet Luke at rock bottom, clinging to a past that no longer fits, and the only way forward is by facing the harm he caused especially to August, whose song lyrics he claimed as his own years before.

The tension between them is REAL. The emotional push-and-pull is written with so much depth especially watching August fight to reclaim her voice, her power, and her authorship while still being tangled up in old love she refuses to let run her life. I loved how the story refuses impulsivity and instead sits with discomfort, accountability, and growth.

Romantic, messy, soulful, and deeply human. If this is how my romance reading year is starting, I’m all in. 🥰

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01/10/2026

I get a lot of messages asking to pick my brain about books, bibliotherapy, building reading lists, and how I use literature as care. I’m always honored by that, and I also want to be honest about my capacity.

That’s why I created Libros y la Curación: Healing Through Books.

It’s an archive I’ve been building since 2022—full of book lists, bibliotherapy features, articles, tools, and resources I regularly get asked about.

Instead of answering the same questions one by one, I’ve poured that knowledge into a space you can return to again and again.

If you’re a therapist, educator, librarian, or reader who wants to engage deeply with books as a healing practice, this community is for you.

$5.99/month.

If you’ve ever wanted to pick my brain, this is the most sustainable way to do it—for both of us. 📚💛

01/10/2026

📚 Readers Who Run With the Wolves January Book Pick Reflection 🐺

This month we’re reading The Bad Indians Book Club, and the timing feels just right.

I recently learned that many Indigenous cultures share sacred or powerful stories only in winter after the first snowfall, before spring thunder. When the land is quiet. When spirits and animals are resting. When people are indoors, gathered close, listening deeply. Winter becomes a season not just of survival, but of teaching, memory, and reflection.

In a moment where ICE violence and state harm continue to claim lives across the U.S., this practice lands heavy and clear: who gets to tell stories, when we tell them, and how we protect them matters. Stories are not neutral. They are shelters. They are warnings. They are inheritance.

The Bad Indians Book Club asks us to sit with history, resistance, and responsibility especially now, when silence is dangerous and storytelling is an act of care and defiance.

Let’s read slowly. Let’s read together. Let’s honor the season ,and the lives, by holding these stories with respect. ❄️📖

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01/09/2026

hosted by

From Dr. Williams:

Introducing The 12 Lives Challenge.
Let’s commit to reading biographies in 2026.

Rules: Read 12 biographies throughout the year.

Make sure you use the hashtag!

What counts as a biography for this challenge? Any nonfiction book about a person (living, deceased, or fictional) that is written by another person. Memoirs and autobiographies do not count as biographies for this challenge.

Join the challenge!! (StoryGraph challenge link is in the bio on his page!).

01/09/2026

If there was ever a relevant book to read about reading, it’s this one 👌🏾😮‍💨

As a professor and bibliotherapist, Language as Liberation feels like a masterclass in how language shapes power, imagination, and identity. Being invited into Toni Morrison’s Princeton classroom through her lectures, course framing, and teaching philosophy has been both grounding and galvanizing.

This is a book that reminds us that critical reading is an ethical act, and that stories are never neutral.

Releases February 3rd and I’m so grateful to for the advanced reader’s copy. If you care about how we teach people to read, how literature manufactures meaning, and how liberation can live in language, put this on your list.

01/08/2026

Take It From Me drops January 20, and I’m so grateful to for sending an early copy.

As a debut nonfiction author who just moved through the whirlwind of publishing my first book, this one hit close to home. I wish I had this book beforehand!

Alia Hanna Habib pulls back the curtain on the parts of publishing that so often feel opaque, intimidating, or reserved for “insiders” and does it with clarity, honesty, and care.

Reading this while actively expanding my career as a writer felt like sitting with someone who’s saying, you’re not behind, you’re learning. From proposals to publicity to the emotional realities of putting your work into the world, this guide includes advice from several writers (some of our faves!) and I know I’ll return it to as I keep growing.

If you’re a nonfiction writer at any stage: dreaming, drafting, querying, or navigating life after publication this is a book that meets you where you are and hands you real tools for the road ahead.

Save & share with a writer friend who needs to know about this upcoming release!

01/07/2026

No More Mediocre by Laura Danger, and this one is meeting me right where I am.

Coming back to working in person, juggling motherhood, partnership, home life, and this brand-new identity at 40 has me noticing just how much invisible labor gets normalized and how we’re taught to shrink, joke it off, or push through our own discomfort to keep things “running.”

This book puts language to the rage, the burnout, and the quiet inequities that live in our homes and relationships.

It asks the uncomfortable questions about weaponized incompetence, harmful stereotypes, and who actually benefits when we accept “this is just how it is.”

This line says it all:

“With the clarity that comes with righteous anger, I began to recognize many of the ways I had been encouraged to adapt to my own discomfort.”

That hit deep. Because so many of us especially women, caregivers, partners—have been socialized to adapt instead of disrupt.

Reading this as I re-enter the world, re-negotiate roles, and re-introduce myself to me. Less hustle. Less martyrdom. More honesty. More equity. More than mediocre.

Anyone else in a season of renegotiating everything? 💭

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