Book recommendations for women rarely come with this much heart behind them, five founders and leaders who did not just name a title, they explained exactly how that book rearranged something in how they see themselves, their purpose, and their work. Ahead, five women share the book that changed their own next chapter, and why it might be worth adding to yours.
1. Man’s Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl
Recommended by: Charisse Bateman, Blue Heart Accounting
“It’s not a light or an easy read…but the message, like, hits straight to the heart. What I love about it is it doesn’t just talk about hope, it shows how even in the darkest and most uncontrollable situation, we have the freedom to choose our mindset and our meaning. It’s a reminder that purpose isn’t found in perfect circumstances; it’s built in how we respond to what happens to us.”
2. The Four Desires by Rod Stryker
Recommended by: Paulette Rigo, Better Divorce Academy
“It allowed me to really understand who I was, why I’m here, my purpose in life and how I can contribute, how I want to be part of the solution, not part of the problem. I call it Dharma. And that’s…I ended up spending 2011 to 2016 studying, which led me to move to Belize and have my own registered yoga teacher training and retreat center, an ayurvedic spa, and then led me to move to Atlanta.”
3. A Happy Pocket Full of Money by David Cameron Gikandi
Recommended by: Nikisha King, NK Business Essentials
“A Happy Pocket Full of Money teaches you how to, and I’m a how-to human being…I read it a fourth time and I was like, I want to become the book. Like, it was that transformation…But when I did that, I understood things that I didn’t understand about me. That allowed me to become who I am today. Everything about me, everything I speak about, that was the beginning, when I read that book.”
4. Unreasonable Hospitality by Will Guidara
Recommended by: Michelle Pollack, Michelle Pollack Leadership
“To me, it’s one of the greatest leadership books of all time because every single lesson that is inside of that book is about how other people feel in their interactions with you. And it brings me back to Maya Angelou, right? People will forget what you did, but they won’t forget how you made them feel. And that goes back to who you are being in the world.”
5. The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls
Recommended by: Beth Knaus, That’s a Spade
“Everything around me is crazy, but it doesn’t mean I’m crazy. Jeannette Walls shows what her life was like, and her parents were incredibly unstable and emotionally unhealthy, we like to say, I’m sure they’re doing the best that they can. And yet the best was extremely limited. This is a book about how your past doesn’t define you.”
These five book recommendations for women prove that the right book rarely just entertains you, it reorients you. Whether it is choosing meaning inside hard circumstances, understanding your own purpose, or learning how people actually remember you, each of these women found something on these pages that changed the chapter they were writing next. Which one are you picking up first?
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