Influential Books for Women
As an avid reader and “self-improvement” nerd, I am always on the lookout for a list of “must reads”. With that in mind, I thought it would be interesting to post my own list of influential books that I often recommend. So, without future ado, here are 8 must-read influential books for women.
In a world where everyone is always asking for our time and energy, engaging in self-care through reading and self-improvement or self-reflection can be, in the words of Tara Brach, a radical act of self acceptance.
Sometimes, after reading a book, we find ourselves closing the back cover with a changed attitude or transformed value. Whether inspiring, challenging, or just good examples of values to aspire toward, these books all speak to the experience of womanhood in the zeitgeist of our time.
Eat, Pray, Love
Elizabeth Gilbert has the uncanny ability and the commitment to unabashed, raw authenticity and compassionate vulnerability with her writing, her online presence, and at public engagements.
She is a fabulous example of an intelligent, creative woman, always finding herself, changing, growing, making mistakes, and finding gratitude in this crazy thing we call life.
In Eat, Pray, Love, her first bestseller memoir, she takes the reader on a journey through heartbreak, grief, depression, and an international travel adventure for one woman to find sensuality, spirituality, and love, on the way to re-member-ing herself.
I’m Dancing as Fast as I Can
In another autobiographical memoir, Barbara Gordon tells her story as she suffers with difficult relationships, making her way in the world, anxiety of the rat race, and finds herself spiraling into the sinking pit of quicksand of addiction with xanax prescribed by her psychiatrist.
This book humanizes the struggle of addiction and the shortcomings of the mental health medical model. Her story breaks through the stigma of mental health, psychotropic medications, and addiction and makes the reader feel for the author as she recants her story as well as raises questions about how society judges these critical, and often overlooked struggles.
Grit by Angela Duckworth
Grit is a nonfiction book based on years of psychology research done by Research Psychologist Angela Duckworth. Her premise, in a nutshell, is that perseverance, motivation, and a willingness to perfect one’s craft, by far is more important than innate talent.
Her research gives a compelling argument against the ideas of inborn talent or creative type people, and opens up the world of greatness, mastery, and creative achievement to anyone with the “grit” to never give up.
While this book is not a “motivational” style book, the research, as well as the author’s passion for the subject is greatly inspiring nonetheless.
Survival Lessons
Author of Practical Magic, among other novels, Alice Hoffman, gifts us this little gem of a book about surviving losses and disappointments of all sorts.
With an approach full of artful grace, she offers her vision of comfort and strategies through these survival lessons for anyone working through a grief process of any sort.
A Return to Love
Marianne Williamson writes in her classic, A Return to Love as follows:
“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, ‘Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous?’ Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. You’re playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It’s not just in some of us; it’s in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.”
Based on the metaphysical text, A Course of Miracles, Williamson challenges us to act not out of fear, in turning away from others and from ourselves, but to embody love as a powerful force that nothing can tarnish.
Challenging and inspiring, this book offers many ideas toward learning not to play small and manifesting your best life.
The Art of Asking by Amanda Palmer
Amanda Palmer writes in her memoir with a quirky, funny, irreverent, and vulnerable way that makes you question your assumed limitations and grounds you to reach out and connect more, through the uncomfortable audacity of just “asking”.
What could be more relevant right now, in a world separated by the internet and a pandemic, but to reach out and really connect with people through the vulnerability of asking for help?
Becoming Michelle Obama
Michelle Obama tells her life story of growing up in a black family on the South Side of Chicago as a smart, black girl and the road that led her to be the first black first lady in a building built by slaves.
Through her story, she illustrates her experiences and perspectives with grace, wit, and strength that proves her to be a powerhouse in her own right as a black woman, Princeton and Harvard educated lawyer, mother, and influencer.
Her candid writing style is approachable, warm, and relatable and provides ethics and values as a role model for other women.
Blood Water Paint
Joy McCullough imagines the story of Artemisia Gentileschi, a Baroque Italian painter, in this first person novel. McCullough richly paints the details of this female artist, struggling to answer the creative call in a male oriented, and male driven society.
Gentileschi navigates financial and family struggles and the inequities and violence of men around her. At the same time, she sublimates her pain and experience through the allegories of her paintings, telling the stories of Judith, Susanna, and Salome. She paints from a female perspective that challenges and questions the assumption of the male gaze.
This book is emotional, moving, and raw–not for the faint of heart, but voices a too often silenced, justified, feminine outrage.
Final Thoughts
These 8 books are engaging and thought provoking. The women who wrote them show their passion through their art. These books explore grief, depression, perseverance, curiosity, transformation, and joy. Whether the book is a novel, memoir, or non-fiction, they all engage the reader to a see a new perspective. I found all of these to be great examples of the human experience that make me feel connected, enriched, and inspired. These authors prove that grit, imagination, vulnerability, and authenticity can sustain us through life’s challenges that lead toward thriving and a meaningful life worth living.
What’s on your “must read” list? I’d love to hear from you! Feel free to comment, like, and share.