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Summer reading anyone? Usually––for me anyway––summer is when I look for lighter “beach reads,” but this year something "meatier" feels appropriate as the pandemic has pushed forward intriguing business books. Here’s my top pick plus two timely older tomes that offer business insights mixed with gripping first-person accounts. And, because we’re HERtelier, only spotlighting female authors!
This book literally came out last week and I cannot put it down. Burns' personal journey, which the NY Times Book Review called “her blazing trail to the top of Xerox” (nice play on her surname NYT is remarkable. Her story from childhood in the cockroach- and crime-infested Lower East Side projects to private jet rides as CEO of Xerox weaves together lessons from her Panamanian single mother and her own learnings as an outsider paving her way in corporate America in the 1970s onwards when there were few women and even fewer Black women. So many bold ideas in this book from her suggestion to marry an older man to why it’s not always good to be ‘nice.’ If you can only read one book this summer, this is it.
Prince Charming Isn’t Coming, How Women Get Smart About Money, by Barbara Stanny This book came out in 1997, so though it’s been updated, it doesn't cover Bitcoin or the latest market movements. It resonates though as the author, Barbara Stanny (now Huson) shares her personal journey of figuring out how to be financially independent after her husband lost her considerable inheritance from her parents. Engrossing tale combined with solid actionable advice to help everyone bust the female finance tropes and set personal financial goals.
Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance, by Angela Duckworth If this year has taught us anything, it’s that we have to keep going in the face of adversity and challenge. This book by Angela Duckworth, Ph.D., a 2013 MacArthur Fellow and professor of psychology at the University of Pennsylvania, became an instant bestseller when it came out in 2019. Even more timely now, she explains the importance of consistency and goal setting with real-world examples and interviews, she’s a great storyteller and makes topics approachable.
What Kind of Woman, Kate Baer Bonus selection! Kate Baer started posting poems about being a woman on Instagram, many of which have gone viral. Her raw, honest and authentic take on friendships, motherhood, and body image is immensely relatable, empowering, inspiring, and often times laugh-out-loud funny. For a taste of her work, 10 Self-Help Essays to Read Before Re-entering Society which ran in the New York Times last month made me smile.