Author Guide · Memoir
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A blog post called “Don’t Carpe Diem”, about how hard it is to enjoy every moment of raising small children, reached 250,000 views within a couple of hours. Its author, Glennon Doyle, a former teacher from Virginia who had been writing the blog Momastery since 2009, soon had ten publishers bidding for her first book, Carry On, Warrior (2013). Seven years later her third memoir, Untamed, opened at No. 1 on The New York Times nonfiction list and went on to sell more than two million copies. Her books are about bulimia, addiction, a broken marriage, and leaving that marriage for a woman. This guide covers her five key books, in order, and where to begin.
By Lisanne Swart · 5 key books · 2013–2025 · Updated October 2026
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Quick answer
Glennon Doyle has written five books: Carry On, Warrior (2013), Love Warrior (2016), an Oprah’s Book Club pick, Untamed (2020), its companion Get Untamed: The Journal (2021), and We Can Do Hard Things (2025), written with Abby Wambach and Amanda Doyle. Start with Untamed; read on for how the three memoirs connect and why the order matters.
Where to Start with Glennon Doyle
If you want her best-known book
→ Untamed (2020) — the 2020 memoir about leaving her marriage and starting over.
If you want the story that comes before it
→ Love Warrior (2016) — addiction, bulimia and a marriage in crisis.
If you want short, funny pieces about family life
→ Carry On, Warrior (2013).
If you want practical answers from many voices
→ We Can Do Hard Things (2025) — the book behind the podcast.
5 Glennon Doyle Books, in Order
Carry On, Warrior
A collection of essays that grew out of her blog Momastery and the viral post “Don’t Carpe Diem”. She writes about motherhood, faith, recovery from addiction and bulimia, and the everyday chaos of raising three children. Published by Scribner, it debuted at No. 3 on The New York Times bestseller list in April 2013 and sold more than 200,000 copies.
Love Warrior
The story of her marriage to Craig Melton after he confessed to years of infidelity, the week before her first book tour. She goes back to her bulimia, alcoholism and a stay in a psychiatric hospital, and follows the couple through therapy towards reconciliation. Oprah Winfrey chose it for her book club in September 2016; about a month before publication, Doyle announced that the couple was separating again.
Untamed
Short chapters on how she stopped living by other people’s expectations, ended her marriage and fell in love with the soccer player Abby Wambach, whom she married in 2017. It opens with a cheetah at a zoo, and moves through parenting, faith and the idea of “a good woman”. Published by the Dial Press in March 2020, it debuted at No. 1 on The New York Times nonfiction list, was a Reese’s Book Club pick and Audible’s most-listened-to audiobook of 2020.
Get Untamed
An interactive companion to Untamed, with exercises, quotations from the book, illustrations and colouring pages. It asks readers to look at what makes their life feel caged and decide what to keep and what to let go. Doyle originally wanted to call it “The Experiment”.
We Can Do Hard Things
Written with her wife Abby Wambach and her sister Amanda Doyle, her co-hosts on the podcast of the same name. Organised around 20 questions about marriage, parenting, work, recovery, heartbreak and ageing, it draws on conversations with 118 people, among them Esther Perel, Cheryl Strayed, Elizabeth Gilbert, Ocean Vuong and Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson. It is a 512-page illustrated book from the Dial Press and a New York Times bestseller.
In What Order to Read Glennon Doyle
The three memoirs tell one continuing story, so publication order matters more than usual. Carry On, Warrior is the young mother writing her blog; Love Warrior is the marriage nearly breaking and being rebuilt; Untamed is what happened after that book was finished, when she left the marriage anyway.
Untamed works on its own, which is why most readers start there. If you read it first, Love Warrior becomes a different book: you know how it ends. Get Untamed only makes sense after Untamed, and We Can Do Hard Things can be read at any point, in any order, one question at a time.
A reading path
1. Untamed (2020)
2. Love Warrior (2016)
3. Carry On, Warrior (2013)
4. We Can Do Hard Things (2025)
The years · 1976–2025
Quick facts about Glennon Doyle
- Known for
- Writing about addiction, marriage, faith and coming out with unusual frankness, and turning a mothering blog into bestselling memoirs, a nonprofit and a podcast.
- 1976
- Born in Burke, Virginia
- 2009
- Starts the blog Momastery
- 2020
- Untamed
- Born
- 20 March 1976, Burke, Virginia
- Education
- James Madison University, BA 1999; then a teacher in Northern Virginia
- Founded
- Together Rising, a nonprofit for women, families and children in crisis (2012)
- Married
- Craig Melton (divorced 2016; three children); Abby Wambach (2017)
- Podcast
- We Can Do Hard Things, since May 2021; two Webby Awards in 2024
- Lives
- Hermosa Beach, California, since 2021
The red mark is 2020: Untamed, the memoir that opened at No. 1 on The New York Times list.
How Glennon Doyle Writes: Short Chapters, Full Disclosure
Doyle learned to write on a blog, and it shows in the structure of her books: short chapters, often a page or two, each built around one scene or one realisation and ending on a line meant to be remembered. Carry On, Warrior is literally assembled from essays; Untamed reads like a sequence of them, moving from a cheetah at a zoo to parenting, faith and her marriage.
Her subject is her own life, and she leaves very little out: bulimia from childhood, alcohol and drugs, an abortion, a psychiatric hospital, her husband’s infidelity, falling in love with a woman. She has said “the only way I know how to stay free is to be really freaking honest.” The disclosure is the method: each confession is used to make a broader point about what women are taught to hide.
Her early books come out of a progressive Christian blog and use the language of faith; Untamed turns away from rules and towards what she calls “the Knowing”, an inner voice. The most recent book changes shape again: We Can Do Hard Things is co-written and built from other people’s answers, much like the podcast it grew from.
Watch
Glennon Doyle and Abby Wambach on CBS This Morning
Doyle and her wife, Abby Wambach, talk with CBS This Morning during Women’s History Month 2021 about equality and their work on behalf of women.
Frequently asked questions about Glennon Doyle’s books
How many books has Glennon Doyle written?
Five: three memoirs, Carry On, Warrior (2013), Love Warrior (2016) and Untamed (2020); a companion journal, Get Untamed (2021); and We Can Do Hard Things (2025), co-written with Abby Wambach and Amanda Doyle.
What are Glennon Doyle’s books in order?
Carry On, Warrior (2013), Love Warrior (2016), Untamed (2020), Get Untamed: The Journal (2021) and We Can Do Hard Things: Answers to Life’s 20 Questions (2025).
Where should I start with Glennon Doyle?
With Untamed (2020). It stands on its own, and it is the book most readers know her for. Go back to Love Warrior afterwards for the story of the marriage it leaves behind.
What is Glennon Doyle’s most famous book?
Untamed (2020). It debuted at No. 1 on The New York Times nonfiction list and stayed there for seven weeks, was a Reese’s Book Club pick, and has sold more than two million copies, according to its official site.
Do I need to read Love Warrior before Untamed?
No. Untamed explains what you need to know. Reading Love Warrior first does show the full arc: it ends with the marriage rebuilt, and Untamed begins with her leaving it.
Is Untamed being made into a TV series?
Yes, it is in development. Bad Robot and Warner Bros. Television acquired the rights in August 2020. Sarah Paulson is attached to the lead role, and in March 2024 Krista Vernoff was reported to be adapting the book. No release date has been announced.
Who is Glennon Doyle married to?
The former US soccer player Abby Wambach, whom she met on her Love Warrior book tour in 2016 and married in 2017. She was previously married to Craig Melton, with whom she has three children; they divorced in 2016.
Why was Glennon Doyle criticised after Love Warrior?
Love Warrior, published in September 2016 as the story of a marriage saved, was promoted as an Oprah’s Book Club pick while Doyle announced that she and Craig Melton were divorcing; in November 2016 she announced her relationship with Abby Wambach. Some Christian readers and commentators, who knew her from Momastery, criticised her; The Christian Post reported her being called a “false prophet”. She tells her side in Untamed. In September 2026 she was also among more than 100 people detained at a sit-in near UN headquarters protesting Benjamin Netanyahu’s visit.
What is the We Can Do Hard Things podcast?
A podcast Doyle has hosted since May 2021 with Abby Wambach and her sister Amanda Doyle. It won two Webby Awards in 2024, and the 2025 book of the same name grew out of it.
Is Glennon Doyle still alive?
Yes. She was born on 20 March 1976 in Burke, Virginia, and lives in California with Abby Wambach.
Who is Glennon Doyle and why is she famous?
Glennon Doyle is an American author and activist best known for the memoirs Love Warrior (2016) and Untamed (2020), and for the podcast We Can Do Hard Things. She first became known through her blog Momastery, which she started in 2009, and her 2012 post “Don’t Carpe Diem” went viral after The Huffington Post picked it up.
Where does Glennon Doyle live?
As of October 2026, Glennon Doyle lives in a beach town in the Los Angeles area of Southern California with her wife, Abby Wambach. They moved there from Naples, Florida, in 2021.
How old is Glennon Doyle?
Glennon Doyle was born on 20 March 1976, so she is 50 years old as of October 2026.
Are Glennon Doyle and Abby Wambach still married?
Yes. As of October 2026, Glennon Doyle and Abby Wambach are still married. They wed on 14 May 2017 and co-host We Can Do Hard Things with Doyle’s sister, Amanda Doyle.
How did Glennon Doyle and Abby Wambach meet?
They met in Chicago in 2016, at a BookExpo dinner where Doyle was promoting Love Warrior. Doyle has said that when Wambach walked in, she thought, “There she is.” Both were with other partners at the time, and they married the following year.
Who is Glennon Doyle’s ex-husband?
Glennon Doyle’s ex-husband is Craig Melton, with whom she has three children. She announced their separation in August 2016 after 16 years of marriage, and the divorce was finalised that year. The couple co-parent their children.
What is Untamed by Glennon Doyle about?
Untamed (2020) is a memoir. In it, Doyle encourages women to trust their own instincts instead of shaping themselves to fit other people’s expectations, and she writes about the end of her first marriage and falling in love with Abby Wambach. It was a Reese’s Book Club pick in April 2020 and has sold millions of copies.
Did Glennon Doyle leave Substack?
Yes. Glennon Doyle joined Substack in 2025 and left after only a few days. Her brief stay prompted a wider debate among Substack writers about big names joining the platform, as The Ankler reported in June 2025.
Is Glennon Doyle sober?
Yes. Doyle has written openly about her recovery from addiction, and she has said she got sober in 2002, after learning she was pregnant, giving up alcohol, drugs and cigarettes.
Is Glennon Doyle still a Christian?
Doyle began writing as a progressive Christian on her blog Momastery. In Untamed she describes a faith she practises on her own terms, outside organised religion, and her later books focus less on religion than her early writing did.
Where is Glennon Doyle from?
Glennon Doyle was born in Burke, Virginia, and grew up there with her sister, Amanda. She studied at James Madison University, graduating in 1999, and taught in Northern Virginia before she started writing.
What is Glennon Doyle’s “Don’t Carpe Diem” essay?
“Don’t Carpe Diem” is a 2012 Momastery post in which Doyle admitted that she didn’t enjoy every minute of raising young children. It was viewed around 250,000 times within hours, was picked up by The Huffington Post, and led to her first book deal.
Footnotes
- Glennon Doyle — Wikipedia
- Untamed (memoir) — Wikipedia
- Author of Momastery blog spills all — The Boston Globe, 2016
- Glennon Doyle’s memoir Untamed to be adapted for TV — Penguin Random House
- Doyle keeps Untamed conversation going in journal, podcast — AP via KSAT, 2022
- Detained outside UN after protesting Netanyahu — PinkNews, 2026
Bibliography last verified 9 October 2026. Where sources give different first-publication years, this page uses the year in library catalogues or the publisher’s own record.
This list was not put together by a machine.
The notes are all mine,
and the books are all his.
Lisanne x
Written by Lisanne Swart, who has curated reading lists and author guides at lisanneswart.com since 2021.
See more on her personal bookshelf.
“There is no map. We are all pioneers.”
— Glennon Doyle, interview with the Associated Press (2022)
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