Convent Wisdom

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What to expect

Bloomsbury presents Convent Wisdom by Ana Garriga & Carmen Urbita, read by Aida Reluzco

'Brimming with fascinating historical details' MELISSA FEBOS, MARIE CLAIRE
'Profoundly useful and pleasure seeking' EILEEN MYLES
'A fizzy joy to read' BETSY CORNWELL

An infectiously edifying manual that mines the lives of sixteenth- and seventeenth-century nuns, offering advice for our modern age and proving one thing: no matter the century, nuns know best.

When most of us think of nuns, we picture solemn shuffles down cloistered halls and hands clasped in prayer. But what about the nuns who erupted into jealous fights over makeup or crushed on their girlfriends? In reality, these women were no one-dimensional martyrs. Sixteenth- and seventeenth-century nuns were resourceful, rebellious and refreshingly relatable – and their lives hold surprising lessons for us today.

Convent Wisdom is your guide to navigating the chaos of the modern world with help from history’s most fascinating nuns. Struggling with money? Saint Teresa and her fellow Carmelites have some divine budgeting hacks. Drowning in FOMO while scrolling through social media? Mary of Jesus of Ágreda’s miraculous ability to be in two places at once might teach you how to finally keep up. Lost in the digital dating pool? Benedetta Carlini’s treatise on the seven ways to spot a lesbian nun may offer unexpected insights.

Blending rigorous research with pop culture and personal anecdotes throughout, best friends Ana Garriga and Carmen Urbita lift the veil on monastic life so you can better conquer today’s anxiety-ridden, hyper-connected world. From procrastination to imposter syndrome, friendship drama to creativity slumps, the nuns of Convent Wisdom are here to guide you – with a wink and a prayer.

Critics Review

This self-help book by two scholarly BFFs is full of wisdom gleaned from the lives of 16th and 17th-century nuns like Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz and Saint Teresa that is applicable to your most modern quandries. The cheeky and insightful volume is also brimming with fascinating historical details, like the penchants of some nuns for side hustles and eating spiders
Marie Claire
Nuns have long peppered my own writing because that's exactly what they are. Incendiary stuff. I tout this book madly because this is the back story that explains the inquisition we are now living through as well as revealing the fact that sixteenth-century nuns had the internet. I am panting with joy. And it's a wormhole into the elaborate, interior museum, sex club, library, bakery, community space and in diaspora the convent always was. Carmen and Ana, I thank you mightily for this profoundly useful and pleasure-seeking book
Eileen Myles, author of CHELSEA GIRLS and AFTERGLOW
When it comes to advice on life and love, where else would you turn besides sixteenth century nuns? Convent Wisdom is here to help us get in the habit of learning from the past
Nicole Tersigni, bestsellng author of MEN TO AVOID IN ART AND LIFE
Playful and inventive, Convent Wisdom is a delight for the intellectually curious reader. A pair of witty scholar-storytellers, Ana Garriga and Carmen Urbita, share stories of their devotion to each other and of the 16th-century nuns whose lives parallel ours in surprising ways. Through some alchemy they've transformed what could have been a survey course in historical religious figures into a treasure chest of revelations and nuggets of self-help
Anonymous, author of BECOMING DUCHESS GOLDBLATT
An invitation to sit at the cool nuns’ table, Convent Wisdom is for anyone who longs for more sisterhood, solitude, or sapphic drama (who doesn’t?). It’s at once juicy and funny and meticulously researched, an educational deep dive that’s also a fizzy joy to read. I’m already planning to gift it to several of my honourary sisters this year. I loved it!
Betsy Cornwell, author of RING OF SALT
A wonderfully entertaining book. . . Convent Wisdom shows us that monasticism is not an anachronism, but rather a deep well from which we can draw guidance and comfort. The lives of the sisters and saints in Convent Wisdom are as relevant today as they were in their own time
Sister Monica Clare, author of A CHANGE OF HABIT
Pick up Convent Wisdom for the clever cover art and intriguing title, stay for the fascinating stories and nun-ly wisdom ... With impressive research and writerly aplomb ... the duo enthusiastically populate seven sections - Girlfriends, Work, Body, Love, Money, Soul and Fame - with richly detailed, entertaining stories of indomitable, inspiring nuns ... Garriga and Urbita clearly regard the nuns as galvanizing influences and treasured friends; perhaps we should, too
BookPage
With no shortage of comical but also keenly observed comparisons between past and future, [Convent Wisdom] charms
Publishers Weekly
Popular religious history from a millennial perspective, served with a tongue-in-cheek slice of self-help ... Pithy comparisons catapulting the medieval into the modern abound, with comparisons of ecstatic religious choreography to Dua Lupa’s moves or postmortem incorruptibility as superior to Botox
Library Journal

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