Women’s History Month gives us an opportunity to explore some of the latest books written by women, about women, and for women. Here are 6 new titles that will inspire you to become more self-aware, break social expectations, and participate in healthy conflict to reach the greater good.
1. The Perfect Predator: A Scientist’s Race to Save Her Husband from a Deadly Superbug: A Memoir by Steffanie Strathdee
What it’s about: A fascinating and terrifying account of one woman’s extraordinary effort to save her husband’s life – and the discovery of a forgotten cure that has the potential to save millions more.
Why pick it up: A real-life against all odds thriller that proves when science, medicine, and love align, the impossible becomes possible.
2. Quirky: The Remarkable Story of the Traits, Foibles, and Genius of Breakthrough Innovators Who Changed the World by Melissa A. Schilling
What it’s about: Melissa Schilling, one of the world’s leading experts on innovation, invites us into the lives of eight people – Albert Einstein, Benjamin Franklin, Elon Musk, Dean Kamen, Nikola Tesla, Marie Curie, Thomas Edison, and Steve Jobs – to identify the traits and experiences that drove them to make spectacular breakthroughs, over and over again.
Why pick it up: It’s a reminder that when it comes to understanding the extraordinary, outliers and exceptions are invaluable teachers.
3. Insight: The Surprising Truth About How Others See Us, How We See Ourselves, and Why the Answers Matter More Than We Think by Tasha Eurich
What it’s about: Organizational psychologist, Tasha Eurich, reveals that self-awareness — knowing who we are and how others see us — is the foundation for high performance, smart choices, and lasting relationships. There’s just one problem: most people don’t see themselves quite as clearly as they could.
Why pick it up: Integrating hundreds of studies with her own research and work in the Fortune 500 world, Eurich shows us what it really takes to better understand ourselves on the inside — and how to get others to tell us the honest truth about how we come across.
4. Educated: A Memoir by Tara Westover
What it’s about: Born to survivalists in the mountains of Idaho, Tara Westover was seventeen the first time she set foot in a classroom. Her family was so isolated from mainstream society that there was no one to ensure the children received an education. When another brother got himself into college, Tara decided to try a new kind of life. Her quest for knowledge transformed her, taking her over oceans and across continents, to Harvard and to Cambridge University. Only then would she wonder if she’d traveled too far, and if there was still a way home.
Why pick it up: Beautiful and propulsive, the questions Westover’s book poses are universal: How much of ourselves should we give to those we love? And how much must we betray them to grow up?
5. Fully Human: 3 Steps to Grow Your Emotional Fitness in Work, Leadership, and Life by Susan Packard
What it’s about: HGTV cofounder, Susan Packard, tackles unconventional topics, like how workaholism keeps us emotionally adolescent, and how forgiveness belongs in the workplace too. Packard shares her EQ Fit-catalyzed success at HGTV and teaches an ‘inside out’ practice of self-discovery, which helps you uncover and dispel unproductive emotions.
Why pick it up: No matter where you are in your career, success is an inside job. Packard lays out how to develop interdependent work relationships, and for leaders, how to build healthy company cultures.
6. First: Sandra Day O’Connor by Evan Thomas
What it’s about: The intimate, inspiring, and authoritative biography of Sandra Day O’Connor, America’s first female Supreme Court justice, drawing on exclusive interviews and first-time access to Justice O’Connor’s archives — by the New York Times bestselling author Evan Thomas.
Why pick it up: As the author recounts with delicious particulars, time and again, Justice O’Connor prevailed in “getting to five” on complex cases by avoiding emotional flare-ups and no-win fights, balancing realism and idealism, refusing to retaliate, and compromising after recognizing that her perceived best result was not going to be possible.
Question: What titles would you add in honor of Women’s History Month?
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