The Balance Project Book Club
The Balance Project offers book club guides designed for individuals, groups, and organizations across the country. These guides provide structure and inspiration to help book clubs—formal or informal—dive into meaningful conversations about balance, technology, and well-being.
Book #1: How To Break Up With Your Phone
Starting off with a bang — this one is for US!
In this engaging, eye-opening read from Catherine Price, we will learn how to regain control of our digital lives, establish healthier habits, and perhaps most important, model mindful phone usage for our kids.
Let’s come together, discuss realistic strategies, and support one another on a mission toward better balance. It’s time to put down the phone and pick up a book—your mind (and your relationships) will thank you!
Book #2: Free Range Kids
In this thought-provoking read, Lenore Skenazy provides her perspective on the importance of childhood independence — how giving children freedom to explore, take risks, make mistakes and encounter "struggles with a small s" will help them grow into confident, capable, resilient adults. A parent's dream!
We'll work through how to strike the right balance between independence and safety to set our sweet kiddos up for success (and to calm our personal parental anxieties around this!)
Book #3: Never Enough
In this eye-opening read, Jennifer Wallace dives into the hidden costs of today’s “toxic achievement culture” — how the constant pressure to do more, earn more, and be more leaves kids (and parents!) feeling exhausted, anxious, and never quite good enough. Through research and real-life stories, Wallace shows us how this culture takes root and, more importantly, what we can do to resist it.
Together, we’ll explore how to shift our focus from relentless achievement to cultivating connection, resilience, and a healthier sense of self-worth — for our children and ourselves. A refreshing reminder that success is about balance, not burnout!
Book #3: The Amazing Generation (Jan-Feb 2026)
Inspired by the #1 New York Times bestseller The Anxious Generation, this new book for tweens is a handbook for living a happy and exciting life that isn’t hijacked by a smartphone.
Jonathan Haidt’s blockbuster book The Anxious Generation has sparked a global conversation about the effects of smartphones and social media on young people’s development, inspiring millions of parents, teachers, and leaders to take action.
Now, Haidt and Catherine Price — author of the bestselling How to Break Up with Your Phone — have teamed up to create a new book that speaks directly to kids and early teens. The goal? To empower young people to stand up for themselves by choosing a life not dominated by screens.
Book #4: Mattering (Feb-Mar 2026)
In this groundbreaking work, Jennifer Breheny Wallace makes an urgent case: mattering—the feeling that we are valued and have an opportunity to add value—is a core human need, as essential to our well-being as food and water. And yet, in today’s world, that fundamental need is going unmet, with perilous consequences. As mental and social health crises surge, we often blame social media, the pace of modern life, and polarizing politics. But beneath these issues lies a deeper crisis, what Wallace calls “an erosion of mattering.”
With her signature warmth and insight, Wallace weaves together research and deeply moving stories of mattering lost and regained. Wallace provides the essential elements to building what she calls our “mattering core”: recognizing your impact, being relied on (but not too much), feeling prioritized, and being truly known and invested in. Strengthening this core helps us reconnect to our sense of purpose, deepen our relationships, and navigate life’s uncertainties and challenges with greater resilience.
For readers of Brené Brown, David Brooks, and Adam Grant, Mattering is a rare, culture-shifting book that offers both a diagnosis and a remedy. With a clear road map and actionable takeaways, Wallace reveals how to unlock this powerful force within ourselves and how to build cultures of mattering in our homes, workplaces, and communities.