Welcome to Alchemy Book Club
Have you ever picked up a book, put it down, picked it back up, and still couldn’t finish it — not because it was bad, but because it was too much?
That’s the one. That’s always the one.
Alchemy Book Club is a quarterly reading community for Black women who are healing, growing, and returning to themselves — one book at a time. We read books that meet you where you are. Nonfiction that names what you’ve been living. Fiction that reflects who you’re becoming.
Every selection runs through a single question: Does this book move something in you?
This isn’t a club where you show up, say “I liked it,” and leave. It’s a space to go deeper — into the book, into the conversation, and into yourself.
We’re the book lovers who dog-ear pages. Who texts a friend at midnight because a character just said the thing you’ve been trying to say for years. Who picks up a book at the wrong time, puts it down, and comes back to it three years later when you finally have the words for what it was trying to tell you.
What’s Included
4 books a year
Two nonfiction. Two fiction. Selected through a member vote each quarter. The lens is always the same: healing, identity, womanhood, and the relationships we hold with ourselves and others.
You vote on what we read
A shortlist of three books goes out each quarter. Members vote. The majority decides. No one person’s TBR gets shoved in your face.
2 live discussions a quarter
Hosted on Substack. These aren’t lectures — they’re conversations. Real ones. We talk about what landed, what was hard, and what we’re carrying with us after the last page.
Our Lives discussions
Between live calls, members share experiences, reflections, and questions in the community thread. No pressure to have it all figured out. The point is the sharing.
Reading guides
For each book, you’ll receive a curated guide with context on the author, key themes, and reflection prompts to help you read with intention — not just speed.
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The Alchemy Promise
We read to transform. Not to perform.
There’s no quiz at the end. No shame if you’re two chapters behind. What matters is that you show up — to the book, to the discussion, and to yourself — with as much honesty as you can bring.
”The function of freedom is to free someone else.” — Toni Morrison
As the community grows and the offerings expand — including workshops, interviews, and guest facilitators — the price will reflect that. Your seat, at your rate, stays yours.
My dream for Alchemy
Alchemy is building toward something larger. In the next two years, members can expect:
Author and expert interviews — conversations with writers, therapists, coaches, and clinicians doing meaningful work at the intersection of healing and culture.
Workshops— live and recorded, led by Sie and collaborating facilitators, designed to help you apply what you’re reading to your actual life.
Alchemy Books & Café — a physical home for this community, eventually. A place to read, gather, and exist in community in real life.
We’re starting with books and conversation because that’s where transformation has always begun.
This Is For You If
You’re a Black woman who reads — or wants to read more — and you’re tired of going through growth alone. You want to be in a room (even a virtual one) with women who are asking the same questions you are. Women who are honest about what they don’t know yet. Women who are doing the work.
You don’t need to have it together to belong here. You just need to be willing to show up.
Alchemy Book Club lives on Substack.
https://alchemybooks.club
Who Am I? Hello! My name is Siedah [Sie] J.M.
Writing about self-trust, growth & the human experience | Marketing Strategist
I wrote my book, I Am Love: Learn to Love Yourself and Tap Into Your Power [download for free on Amazon Kindle], during a season of deep self-examination. Not the kind that looks good online—the kind that forces you to sit with yourself when no one is clapping. That work wasn’t about motivation.
It was about remembrance.
About stripping away who I thought I needed to be, and coming back to who I already was.
