Please note the books listed on this page are not personal recommendations, but a selection of available literature on the subject of childlessness.

If you would like to recommend a book for this page, please get in touch

Have you heard about the Inclusive Libraries Project?

It’s aim is to encourage libraries to help childless and childfree people find books that reflect their lives and experiences, and are 'safer' to read for people in deep grief. This can be achieved in two ways:

1. Stock books by, for, and about childless and childfree people, and embrace us as part of their communities.

2. Create a disply stand for World Childless Week, using the books suggested in point 1.

If you’d like to know more and see what you can do to help, take a look at the Inclusive Libraries Project

Beyond Childlessness - Rachel Black & Louise Scull - Even now, many women find it very difficult to discuss their childlessness with family and friends. This book offers support, shared experience and practical strategies to all those for whom childlessness is not a positive choice but a circumstance they have to learn to live with. ISBN-13: 978-1405077613

Dear You - Tessa Broad - Most infertility memoirs end with a miracle baby; this one doesn’t. Instead, it’s a warm, honest and quirky account of Tessa’s own miracle; how she found a way to live a happy and passionate life without children. ISBN-13: 978-1910453407

Sweet Grapes - Jean W. Carter & Michael Carter - Sweet Grapes examines the psychological aspects of infertility and offers advice on redefining one's life and recognizing the potential for growth while living childfree. ISBN-13: 978-0944934234

Childless By Marriage - Sue Fagalde Lick (author and blogger) - First you marry a man who does not want children. He cheats and you divorce him. Then you marry the love of your life and find out he does not want to have children with you either. This is the story of how a woman becomes childless by marriage and how it affects every aspect of her life. ISBN-13: 978-1733685238

Love or children: When You Can’t Have Both - Sue Fagalde Lick (author and blogger) - It's like this giant secret that is right in front of everyone. One in five women reach menopause without having children. For more than half of them, it was not by choice. At least not their own. They don't have children because their partners were unable or unwilling to have children with them. ISBN-13: 978-1733685214

Childless Voices - Lorna Gibb - From the playgrounds of Glasgow to the villages of Bangladesh; from religious rites to ancient superstitions; from the world's richest people to its powerless and enslaved, Lorna Gibb's masterful Childless Voices paints a global portrait of people without children. ISBN-13: 978-1783782642

How Is a Man Supposed to Be a Man? Male Childlessness – a Life Course Disrupted - Robin Hadley (author and blogger) - The global trend of declining fertility rates and an increasingly ageing population has serious implications for individuals and institutions alike. Childless men are mostly excluded from ageing, social science and reproduction scholarship and almost completely absent from most national statistics. This unique book examines the lived experiences of a hidden and disenfranchised population: men who wanted to be fathers. ISBN-13: 978-1805391296

This Particular Happiness: A Childless Love Story - Jackie Shannon Hollis - As a farm girl raised in eastern Oregon, Jackie Shannon Hollis expected to become a mother someday. But, after several failed relationships, she meets Bill, a man who doesn’t want children. In direct and intimate language, this debut memoir asks us to consider what we keep and what we abandon to make space for love. ISBN-13: 978-1942436393

The Baby Dream: Learning to Live with Infertility and Loss - Narelle Hudson - is Narelle Hudson's heartfelt account of her experiences with infertility and IVF. Join Narelle on this inspirational journey as she travels courageously through pain, grief and joy, and experiences situations that will change her forever. Be uplifted by her messages of hope as she discovers what else is possible. ISBN-13: 978-0645150124

Downriver Nomad - Rob Hutchings - Rob shares his story of adventures and adversities not only in the water, on the race course and off the beaten track, but also his struggles with an alcoholic father and his own unsuccessful path to fatherhood. His is a story of humour, heartbreak and challenges that will inspire the absolute beginner in adventure sports to the seasoned endurance athlete. ISBN-13: 978-0473588342

Do You Have Kids? Life When The Answer Is No - Kate Kaufmann - Imagine having your own team of honest childless aunties, wise childfree godmothers, and savvy experts describe life's options and challenges when you don't have kids. Do You Have Kids? Life When the Answer is No weaves together perspectives of non-moms aged twenty-four to ninety-one, a growing body of research, and the author's own story into a practical guide to what life without kids can entail. ISBN-13: 978-1631525810

The Hollow Sea - Annie Kirby - After years of trying to become a mother, Scottie makes a snap decision to run away from her marriage and more fertility treatment, travelling to a remote, storm lashed archipelago to try and discover her forgotten past. Once there, she’s drawn to the legend of Thordis, reviled as a witch, murderess and child-stealer ISBN-13: 978-1405949903

The Facts Of Life - Paula Knight - In 1970s Northeast England, best friends Polly and April are swapping their hazy knowledge of the facts of life. They both expect to have families one day - it's the normal script to follow, isn't it? But when Polly looks back, many years later, she has to confront what family means in a society where 'family' usually means 'children'. ISBN-13: 978-1908434524

The Secret Parent - Zelna Lauwrens - Kids Life Coach, Zelna, sheds light on the painful issue of what it means to have a fundamental choice taken away. The choice of being a biological parent. In this eye opening snapshot of her views on life, parenting and childhood she whispers out loud the secrets which previously held her back from finding and living her purpose fully. ISBN-13: 978-1916463004

Living With Amazing Grace - Melanie Mackie - This is a much needed inspirational story that gives a voice to address the silence, taboo and stigma that continues to surround women following miscarriage and baby loss. ISBN-13: 978-1789725865

Silent Sorority - Pamela Mahoney Tsigdinos (author and blogger) - Silent Sorority is an award-winning book. It reveals with candor, humor and poignancy the intense and at times absurd experience of adjusting to a life as a "non-mom" when nature and science don't cooperate in the family building department. ISBN-13: 978-1439231562

Life Without Baby: Surviving and Thriving When Motherhood Doesn’t Happen - Lisa Manterfield - Based on her small-group workshops and popular ebook series, this book offers a combination of hard-won lessons, gentle queries, and real-world suggestions. Manterfield is a comforting and supportive companion who will guide you gently down your own path to making peace with being childfree-not-by-choice and thriving in a new happily ever after. ISBN-13: 978-0983012535

I Always Wanted To Be A Dad: Men Without Children - Robert Nurden - In this ground-breaking and no-holds-barred exploration, Robert goes on a journey through his own hurt and regret, unravelling the complexities of life as a childless-not-by-choice man. He ultimately uncovers the hope that is discovered in acceptance, and the realisation that a rich and fulfilling life can still lie in wait. A 'brave, ground-breaking and brutally honest' read. ISBN-13: 978-1838447731

WITHOUT CHILDREN - Peggy O’Donnell Heffington - In WITHOUT CHILDREN, a historian of gender explores the complicated relationship between womanhood and motherhood. Utilizing deep research and her experience as a woman without children, Heffington shows that many of the reasons women are not having children today are ones they share with women in the past. Understanding this history is key to building a better world for all. ISBN-13: 978-1541675575

Surviving Childlessness - Steph Penny (author and blogger) - Steph explores how people may be excluded from church and society because of childlessness. With thoughtful suggestions and practical tips for family, friends and churches, as well as some tongue-in-cheek recommendations for what not to say, this hopeful book encourages childless people to live for God—even in the midst of suffering and the grief of childlessness. ISBN-13: 978-0645062700

Finding Joy Beyond Childlessness - Lesley Pyne (author and blogger) - This book is for you if you wanted to be a mother and for some reason it didn’t happen. You’re feeling devastated, sad, angry, disappointed, (etc, etc). And mostly…you’re hiding your true self from the world. What if you could spend time with other women who have been where you are now, and are now leading a fulfilling life? ISBN-13: 978-1838531522

A Year Of Medical Thinking - SK Reid - "I quickly swapped my ‘Ms Innocent, the world is tough but basically okay’ hat for the one of ‘Breast Cancer Patient’, madly trying to process everything that the doctor was saying.” An inauspicious encounter in a doctor’s surgery during a routine follow-up for IVF initiates a descent into a labyrinth of questioning and uncertainty. ISBN-13: 978-1922190963

Endless Reproduction - Melanie Stidolph - Endless Reproduction is my first photography book. It metaphorically charts my journey trying to get pregnant; from relying on nature, living by the calendar, assisted by drugs and interventions and increasingly random trying before eventually stopping. It creates connections with the processes of photography and trying to get pregnant, through emphasising the repetition, failure and chance involved in both.

Motherhood Missed - Lois Tonkin - Many women expect to become mothers but are childless through social rather than biological reasons - perhaps they haven't met the right person or they prioritised career or education earlier in life. Featuring international interviews by grief counsellor and researcher Lois Tonkin, this collection of first-person stories provides insight into the under-discussed situation of being childless by circumstance. ISBN-13: 978-1785923371

Resurrection Year - Sheridan Voysey - Expectation. Expectation. Expectation. Disappointment. After ten years of tear-soaked prayers and repeatedly dashed hopes, Sheridan Voysey and his wife come to a heart-breaking conclusion—their dream of having a child is over. Empty and confused from a decade of disappointment, they leave their jobs, pack their bags, and embark on a journey in search of restoration. ISBN-13: 978-0849964800

She I Dare Not Name - Donna Ward - She I Dare Not Name is a compelling collection of fiercely intelligent, deeply intimate, lyrical reflections on the life of a woman who stands on the threshold between two millennia. Both manifesto and confession, this moving memoir explores the meaning and purpose Donna Ward discovered in a life lived entirely without a partner and children. ISBN-13: 978-1760876296

The Mother of All Dilemmas: Dreams of Motherhood and the Internship That Changed Everything - Kathleen G Woods - Hurtling toward 40-and still single and longing for children of her own-Kathleen doesn't need to be reminded that time is running out for her to turn her dreams for a family into reality. So she starts to consider a Plan B: becoming a single parent. But can she do it all on her own? And does she really want to? ISBN-13: 978-0578346656

cancer, covid and me - Marisa Wray - Spring 2020. The world has just gone into COVID-19 lockdown. Marisa sits in the surgeon's consulting room and hears, "You have breast cancer. You need a mastectomy. It's not safe to operate because of Covid." This is her story. As Marisa contemplates her cancer diagnosis she also confronts her struggles with childlessness and depression. ISBN-13: 979-8442341393

Magazines

Tutum Global A community-first platform for childless women developed by a childless woman. Empowers women who are childless not by choice or by circumstance, by igniting meaningful dialogue and change around the topics of stigmas, personal development, well-being, career and business, better health, love and relationships, and everything in between, while provoking new thinking that sparks conversation on matters vital to childless women.⁣

DISCLAIMER: Please note the resources and material provided on this website is for information only and World Childless Week cannot guarantee there are no mistakes or errors. World Childless Week cannot vouch for the services, products or treatments provided by anyone mentioned on the website. Should you act upon any of the information provided on this website, you do so at your own risk.