15 Books By Inspiring Women That You Need To Read STAT
Photo by Christina Piombetti
From dealing with terrible bosses to recovering from heartbreak, these amazing books by and for women will help you kick off your 2018 with a renewed sense of confidence and understanding.
Are you looking to gain new perspective this year? Books often help me drown out my own personal thoughts and dive into the world of another. Here are 15 books written by inspirational women that can shift the way you think.
The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up by Marie Kondo
Do you feel stressed when the piles start accumulating in your room? Ugh, tell me about it. I'm pretty OCD, but that doesn't mean I'm not occasionally (ok, a lot) messy. If you're anything like me, this genius book is probably for you. Japanese cleaning consultant Marie Kondo brings tidying to a whole new level, by asking the question: Does this item "spark joy?" If not, throw it out or donate it. Life-changing, y'all!
Body Of Truth by Harriet Brown
Harriet Brown dives deep into the hard questions like, "How did we get to this place where the worst insult you can hurl at someone is 'fat?'" Read along as the science journalist unpacks what we see as "truth" when it comes to weight and health.
In The Company of Women: Inspiration and Advice from Over 100 Makers, Artists, and Entrepreneurs by Grace Bonney
If you're the kind of person who reads books in chunks and likes skipping around, this is the perfect read for you. Grace Bonney has compiled the stories of over 100 diverse women as they describe how they have embraced creativity, overcame adversity and helped build a global movement around entrepreneurship.
Feminist Fight Club: An Office Survival Manual for a Sexist Workplace by Jessica Bennett
What was originally a monthly huddle in a friend’s apartment—where women shared sexist job frustrations and trade tips for how best to tackle them—is now available in bookstores (or URLs) near you.
Feminist Fight Club is built on personal stories and includes research, statistics, infographics, and expert advice in a no-nonsense, lighthearted way. If you need a boost up in your workplace, but like a more casual read, this is the book for you.
How To Be a Bawse: A Guide To Conquering Life by Lilly Singh
Youtube star Lilly Singh has published an ass-kicking manifesto on being a "bawse: a person who exudes confidence, hustles relentlessly, and smiles genuinely because he or she has fought through it all and made it out the other side."
If you think this sounds a bit like a girlboss, you're right. Our founder & CEO Sophia says “Lilly is a bona fide #girlboss" and that "her meteoric rise has come with so many incredible lessons that we are all lucky to have access to."
Too Fat, Too Slutty, Too Loud by Anne Helen Petersen
You’ve heard the criticisms over and over: Hillary Clinton is too shrewd. Serena Williams is too strong. Melissa McCarthy is too fat. Well, Anne Helen Petersen decided to change the way people think about these so-called “unruly” women. Too Fat, Too Slutty, Too Loud: The Rise and Reign of the Unruly Woman analyzes how modern female celebrities are pushing boundaries and challenging expectations, provoking an important discussion.
The Power by Naomi Alderman
Y'all need to trust me on this — The Power is literally the next Handmaid’s Tale. It even has Margaret Atwood saying it “Will knock your socks off! Then you’ll think twice, about everything.” Read it before it turns into a television series because, seriously, it's going to.
What It Means When a Man Falls From the Sky by Lesley Nneka Arimah
In her debut collection, Lesley Nneka Arimah blends magical realism and sci-fi elements for a truly unique set of stories about family, friendship, and home that will leave you hungry for more of her work.
Hunger: A Memoir of (My) Body by Roxane Gay
Roxane Gay released a short story collection called Difficult Women early this year, but one book per year is for underachievers. In Hunger, Roxane writes about her mental, physical, and emotional difficulties with food and her body, as well as the challenges of being overweight in a society that prizes thinness above all else.
Sour Heart by Jenny Zhang
You may have read Jenny Zhang’s poetry or some of her brilliant essays for Rookie, but she moved into the realm of short stories with the collection Sour Heart, which explores the inner lives of young women growing up in NYC. And if you’re looking for a celebrity endorsement, Sour Heart also happens to be the first book published by Lena Dunham and Jenni Konner’s Lenny imprint.
Work Party by Jaclyn Johnson
First, we leaned in. Now we stand up.
Jaclyn Johnson—the founder and CEO behind Create & Cultivate, the fastest growing online platform and conference for millennial women in business— offers a rallying cry for a new generation of women who are redefining the meaning of work on their own terms: WorkParty. Women who want it all and more, and guess what? They can have it.
Jaclyn suffered a massive blow in her early twenties. She was on an upward career climb and confidently moved across the country for a job—and then, was abruptly let go. Attempting to turn that closed door into an open window, she launched a company with a trusted business partner. Soon after, she discovered said business partner had made detrimental decisions to the company without her knowledge. Before she knew it, she was in the throes of a brutal business partner break up. She was only twenty-four.
Determined to bounce back, Jaclyn overhauled the mess that was her life and by the time she was in her early thirties, she had sold a company and launched the much-buzzed about Create & Cultivate platform—and advised and invested in multiple million-dollar projects at the same time. So, how did she do it?
In WorkParty, Jaclyn shows how she turned distrust into determination, frustration into fuel, and heartache into hard work—and how you can, too.
With stories from leading female entrepreneurs including Christene Barberich (co-founder of Refinery29), Alli Webb, (creator of Drybar), Morgan Debaun (founder of Blavity), Jen Gotch of Ban.do, Rebecca Minkoff, and Kendra Scott, you will learn the tips and tricks from the best in the business while cultivating the passion and happiness you need to succeed. By embracing failure and reconciling your femininity with being a boss, you’ll join the movement that is WorkParty—and have fun along the way.
What Happened by Hillary Clinton
The woman who would have been president revisits the events of 2016 in a searing and often heartbreaking memoir.
Reset: My Fight for Inclusion and Lasting Change by Ellen Pao
Ellen Pao made headlines in 2015 as interim CEO at Reddit, where she made a widely publicized attempt to shut down subreddits that fostered hate speech, but her fight against sexism in tech goes back much farther. In 2012, she sued venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins for gender discrimination. She lost the case, but her lawsuit inspired so many other women to come forward about Silicon Valley sexism that insiders started referring to the wave of suits as "the Pao effect." Reset offers a clear-eyed account of her experiences as well as Pao's vision for a way forward.
Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng
After a fire at the home of the Richardsons — a white, upper-middle-class family in the near-perfect suburban town of Shaker Heights — sets the scene, Celeste Ng throws a ton of major themes at you: motherhood, youth, class, race. But most importantly, she explores what it truly means to make a sacrifice for the ones you love.
What We Lose by Zinzi Clemmons
Zinzi Clemmons's debut novel tells the story of Thandi, a young woman struggling to deal with the aftermath of her mother’s death, through a series of haunting, beautifully written vignettes.
