You have a stack of unread books on your nightstand and a library of good intentions on your Kindle. The problem isn’t that you don’t want to read—it’s that you’re reading the wrong books or reading without intention.
These ten books aren’t chosen because they’re bestsellers or trending. They’re chosen because they address the specific challenges ambitious women face: navigating careers, building wealth, maintaining wellbeing, and creating meaningful work. Read strategically, not randomly. Here’s where to start.
Career and Leadership
1. “The Memo” by Minda Harts
What no one tells women of color about navigating corporate America. Harts addresses the unwritten rules that often exclude women of color from advancement, offering practical strategies for advocacy, negotiation, and building power within systems not designed for your success.
Why it matters: Generic career advice assumes a level playing field. This book acknowledges reality and provides actionable strategies for navigating it.
2. “Multipliers” by Liz Wiseman
How the best leaders make everyone smarter. Wiseman identifies the difference between leaders who amplify their team’s intelligence (Multipliers) and those who drain it (Diminishers). Essential reading whether you’re managing a team now or aspiring to leadership.
Why it matters: Leadership isn’t about being the smartest person in the room—it’s about making your team smarter. This fundamentally changes how you approach management.
3. “The Culture Map” by Erin Meyer
Decoding how people communicate, lead, and get things done across cultures. In an increasingly global workplace, understanding cultural differences in communication, feedback, and decision-making is essential for effective collaboration.
Why it matters: What reads as rude in one culture is direct in another. What feels collaborative in one context is indecisive in another. This book prevents costly misunderstandings.
Money and Business
4. “The Psychology of Money” by Morgan Housel
Timeless lessons on wealth, greed, and happiness. Housel argues that doing well with money has little to do with intelligence and everything to do with behavior. Financial success is about managing emotions, not mastering formulas.
Why it matters: Most financial advice focuses on what to do. This book focuses on why we don’t do it, which is far more useful.
5. “Buy Yourself the F*cking Lilies” by Tara Schuster
A no-nonsense guide to taking care of yourself—financially, emotionally, and practically. Schuster combines personal narrative with actionable advice on building stability when you’re starting from scratch or recovering from setbacks.
Why it matters: Self-care isn’t just bubble baths. It’s having an emergency fund, setting boundaries, and building the infrastructure for a stable life.
Wellness and Personal Development
6. “The Burnout” by Emily and Amelia Nagoski
The secret to unlocking the stress cycle. The Nagoski sisters explain why managing stress isn’t about eliminating stressors—it’s about completing the biological stress cycle. They provide evidence-based strategies specifically addressing challenges women face.
Why it matters: You can’t think your way out of stress. You have to move through it physically. This book explains how.
7. “Atlas of the Heart” by Brené Brown
Mapping meaningful connection and the language of human experience. Brown identifies 87 emotions and experiences that define what it means to be human, giving you language to understand and communicate what you’re feeling.
Why it matters: You can’t address what you can’t name. Emotional granularity—the ability to distinguish between similar emotions—leads to better regulation and communication.
Culture and Creativity
8. “The Artist’s Way” by Julia Cameron
A spiritual path to higher creativity. Cameron’s 12-week program helps unlock creative blocks through morning pages (stream-of-consciousness writing) and artist dates (solo creative excursions). Despite the spiritual language, the practices are pragmatic and transformative.
Why it matters: Creativity isn’t just for artists. It’s essential for problem-solving, innovation, and finding fulfillment in any field.
9. “How to Do Nothing” by Jenny Odell
Resisting the attention economy. Odell makes the case for reclaiming your attention from platforms designed to capture it. She explores what becomes possible when we resist constant productivity and engagement.
Why it matters: In a culture that valorizes hustle, the ability to disconnect and simply be is revolutionary. This book gives you permission and frameworks.
10. “Braiding Sweetgrass” by Robin Wall Kimmerer
Indigenous wisdom, scientific knowledge, and the teachings of plants. Kimmerer weaves together botany, indigenous knowledge, and personal narrative to explore our relationship with the natural world and what it means to be a responsible member of the community of life.
Why it matters: It reframes how we think about reciprocity, gratitude, and our place in the world. In a culture of extraction, this offers an alternative way of being.
How to Actually Finish Books You Start
Buying books is easy. Reading them is harder. Here’s how to turn good intentions into completed books:
Read multiple books simultaneously:
One heavy book (career or personal development), one lighter book (narrative or creative), and one for pure pleasure. Match the book to your mental state. Forcing yourself through a dense business book when you’re exhausted guarantees you won’t finish.
Permission to quit:
If you’re not getting value after 50 pages, stop. Life is too short for books that don’t serve you. The sunk cost of buying it doesn’t obligate you to finish it. Put it down and pick up something else.
Set a realistic baseline:
Ten pages a day is 3,650 pages a year—roughly 12-15 books. That’s achievable. Don’t commit to reading an hour daily if you can barely find 15 minutes. Better to read 10 pages consistently than to set unrealistic goals and quit.
Link reading to existing habits:
Morning coffee and 10 pages. Evening wind-down and a chapter. Linking reading to established routines makes it automatic instead of something you have to remember to do.
Keep books visible:
Current reads should be in sight, not buried on a shelf. Keep one by your bed, one in your bag, one near where you sit in the evening. Accessibility matters more than aesthetics.
Your Reading Plan
Don’t try to read all ten books immediately. Pick one from each category and commit to finishing it before starting another in that category:
- Start with the category addressing your biggest current challenge
- Read career/money books when you have mental energy for application
- Save wellness and culture books for when you need perspective or restoration
- Take notes or highlight, but don’t let perfect capture prevent reading
A strategic reading list completed is worth more than a hundred books sitting unread. Choose based on where you are and what you need next, not what sounds impressive or what everyone else is reading.
The Bottom Line
Reading is an investment. Every hour you spend with a good book is an hour learning from someone who spent years developing expertise, making mistakes, and distilling lessons. That’s an incredible return on time invested.
But only if you actually read the books. Buying them doesn’t count. Wanting to read them doesn’t count. The value is in the reading, the thinking, and the application.
Pick one book from this list. Start tonight. Read ten pages. Do that tomorrow. And the next day. Small consistent progress beats ambitious plans that never happen. Your future self is counting on what you’re learning now.
