WPD Virtual Book Club

WPD's Virtual Book Club was refreshed and relaunched in 2023. Over the last two years, Book Club has grown to include nearly 400 active participants. Our new platform, Bookclubs.com supports both bimonthly real-time discussions on Zoom, with around 20-30 participants, and more flexible asynchronous discussions drawing in members who are unable (or who prefer not to) participate in the live meetings. And, we know are members are very busy and things often come up - there is no obligation to participate in every book discussion. It's completely up to you. Members can also recommend books and vote on future books for the club to read. All are welcome and Book Club is free to join!

Join Us! WPD Book Club Virtual Q&A with "Shame on You" author Melissa Petro

📅 June 25, 2025
🕘 8:00 PM ET
📍 Location: Bookclubs.com – RSVP now at the link below and join the group to access this event - all are welcome!

✨ Co-hosted by the APA Women and Planning Division and the LGBTQ and Planning Division

All are welcome to join us for a special Book Club Q&A with Melissa Petro, author of Shame on You, as we close out our Pride Month programming. This intimate conversation will reflect on themes of shame, resilience, identity, and how we navigate stigma in our personal and professional lives. Whether you've read every page or just want to listen in, you're welcome in this space.

Expect an honest, empowering conversation about writing, healing, and showing up—without apology.

RSVP Today!

Current Book

Shame on You: How to Be A Woman in the Age of Mortification by Melissa Petro

In the spirit of Rebecca Traister's Good and Mad and Roxane Gay's Bad Feminist comes a courageous, in-depth investigation into the modern epidemic of shame in our society—what it is, why women are uniquely susceptible, and how we can shift the shame off our plates and live our best lives in an over-exposed, image-obsessed world.

For millions of women, shame is a vicious predator. It tells us we are less than, that we are unworthy. We try everything to escape shame—ignoring it, intellectualizing it, and even, ironically, shaming ourselves for feeling it. The reality is that women experience shame more frequently and more intensely than men—a direct result, as acclaimed journalist Melissa Petro explains, of a patriarchal culture that “urges women to feel bad about themselves, and then punishes them when they do.” Why can’t we figure out how to break the shame cycle once and for all?

In Shame on You, Petro takes on the issue of women’s shame directly with an unflinching look at the social systems that encourage women to believe we are deeply inadequate. From shame’s beginnings ( Maybe she’s born with it? Nope, it’s misogyny.) to its effect on our lives as adults (How the humiliation of “bad women” affects us all.), shame poisons our friendships, romantic relationships, and work lives. But it doesn’t have to be that way. Blending investigative reporting, science, literature, and hundreds of women’s personal stories—including her own shameful account of winding up as an unwitting New York Post cover girl—Petro offers us a new way forward. No matter what you do, she explains, there is no escaping being judged. And yet, the women we can become—sometimes as a consequence of shame, rather than in spite of it—are powerful indeed. And maybe that’s what others are afraid of.

Join Book Club!

Previous books include:

• The Color of Compromise: The Truth about the American Church’s Complicity in Racism by Jemar Tisby
• Just Action: How to Challenge Segregation Enacted Under the Color of Law by Leah Rothstein and Richard Rothstein
• True Gretch: What I've Learned About Life, Leadership, and Everything in Between by Gretchen Whitmer
• The Address Book: What Street Addresses Reveal About Identity, Race, Wealth, and Power by Diedre Mask
• Invisible Women: Data Bias in a World Designed for Men by Caroline Criado-Perez
• The Art of Gathering: How We Meet and Why it Matters by Priya Parker
• Hood Feminism: Notes from the Women that a Movement Forgot by Mikki Kendall
• The Color of Law: A Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America by Richard Rothstein
• Feminist City by Leslie Kern