83 Brilliant Business Books Written by Women
During my monthly outing on Twitter, a Tweet claiming to recommend 10 great biz books caught my eye.
“10 must read books for marketers. (Link to blog.)”
Since I’m an enthusiastic book learner, I naturally thought ‘Oi oi, this sounds interesting!’ and clicked to view the list.
Despite the fact that the list was written by a woman, all 10 of her recommendations were by male authors. I found this a little odd. And then I had a think.
What business books could I recommend to people that were written by women? The vast majority of business books I’ve read through the years have been written by blokes.
I was scrabbling around to even come up with four books by women that I could recommend others! And yet those four are books that I most passionately love and recommend over and over.
I wrote a post about it on LinkedIn, and I was delighted at the deluge of responses! I do enjoy good engagement on LinkedIn, but the post now has over 11k views which is a record for one of my text-only posts.
So many wonderful suggestions! Some I realised that I had read. (The total is now around 7…)
As with any post that does well, I had a couple of naysayers. One guy called it BS (I think he meant bullshit) that I was only asking for female-authored recommendations and that ‘quality is quality’. Quality IS quality my potty-mouthed friend, but isn’t it weird that a woman trying to come up with a list of business books struggles to get any women in there?
Like it or not, women have a different perspective on things than men. Logically, their perspective should be equally represented wherever there should have equality. Oh yeah, that’s EVERYWHERE!
Like it or not, women have a different perspective on things than men. Logically, their perspective should be equally represented wherever there should have equality. Oh yeah, that’s EVERYWHERE!
Janine Coombes
The same goes for people from different races, sexual orientations and neurodiversities. I share the list of wonderful biz books by women below, but it’s still not very diverse. Quite frankly it’s a looking a bit pallid.
Among the post comments, one book coach observed that she sees about a 50:50 gender split of authors coming through her doors, but that more men tend to forge ahead and finish their manuscript than women. Imposter syndrome anyone?
I was lucky enough to be part of Clare Josa’s intake onto her Author Mastermind this year. (I’m writing a book, if you didn’t know.) The programme included a module on ‘Imposter Syndrome for Authors’. And rightly so!
As I’m finding, writing a book brings out all your inner demons. Who are you to write a book? What would your old boss say if she heard you were writing a book! What if you write something that offends someone?
But there’s no doubt in my mind that I’m going to finish it. And I think that’s part of the battle.
I’ve read so many brill business books by blokes but I look forward to adding more by women to my shelves.
In no particular order, as voted for by the people who commented on my LinkedIn post:
| 5 Second Rule by Mel Robbins |
| A-Z Pearls of Wisdom For Executive PAs by Lindsay Taylor |
| Amplify by Holly Chessman |
| Becoming by Michelle Obama |
| Big Magic by Elizabeth Gilbert |
| Big Magic, Daring Greatly by Brene Brown |
| Bird by Bird by Anne Lammott |
| Brave Leadership by Kimberly Davies |
| Brilliant customer service by Debra Stevens |
| Building A Powerful Personal Brand by Anel Martin |
| Business is Personal by Penny Power OBE |
| Buyer Personas by Adele Ravella |
| Calm the F*ck Down by Sarah Knight |
| Chillpreneur by Denise Duffield Thomas |
| Clever Girl Finance by Bola Sokunbi |
| CoachYaDamnSelf by Natisha Willis |
| Confessions of a Misfit Entrepreneur by Kate Toon |
| Dare to Dream Bigger by Clara Josa |
| Dare to Lead by Brene Brown |
| Daring Greatly by Brene Brown |
| Disrupters by Patti Fletcher |
| Earth is Hiring by Peta Kelly |
| Entrepreunial You by Dorie Clark |
| Everybody Writes by Ann Handley |
| Feel the Fear and Do It Anyway by Susan Jeffers |
| Financial Recovery by Karen McCall, |
| Find Your Thing by Lucy Whittington |
| Get Rich, Lucy Bitch by Denise Duffield-Thomas |
| Getting It Write by Marilyn Messik |
| Girl, Wash Your Face by Rachel Hollis |
| Grammar Girl’s Quick and Dirty Tips for Better Writing by Mignon Fogarty |
| Hack the Buyer Brain by Kenda Macdonald |
| How to be a Bawse by Lilly Singh |
| How To Be A Virtual Assistant by Catherine Gladwyn |
| How to be really productive by Grace Marshall |
| How to Own The Room by Viv Groskop |
| How to style your brand by Fiona Humberstone |
| Instant Motivation by Chantal Burns |
| Is This It by Ruth Kudzi |
| Ish by Lynne Cazaly |
| Just f**king do it by Noor Hibbert |
| Lady Balls by Jody Jelas |
| Lean In by Sheryl Sandberg |
| Little Black Book by Otegha Uwagba |
| Live it, Love it, Sell it by Jules White |
| Marketing – a Love Story by Bernadette Jiwa |
| Master Content Marketing by Pamela Wilson |
| Master Content Strategy by Pamela Wilson |
| Mindset by Carol Dweck |
| Money Magic by Deborah Price |
| Multipliers by Liz Wiseman |
| My SEO Workbook by Akilah Thompkins |
| Obviously Awesome by April Dunford |
| Option B by Sheryl Sandberg |
| Over Coming Under Earning by Barbara Stanny |
| Playing Big by Tara Mohr |
| Powerful by Patty McCord |
| Presence by Amy Cuddy |
| Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking by Susan Cain |
| Radical Candor by Kim Malone Scott |
| Shark Tales by Barbara Corcoran |
| She Means Business by Carrie Green |
| She’s Back by Lisa Unwin |
| Simple tips, Smart Ideas: Build a Bigger Better Business by Erica Wolfe-Murray |
| Smart Leaders Sell by Jessica Lorimer |
| The Art of Goal Getting by Karmin Meckael |
| The Awakened Woman by Tererai Trent |
| The Gratitude Diaries by Janice Kaplan |
| The Kitchen Table Tycoon by Anita Naik |
| The Multi-Hyphen Method by Emma Gannon |
| The Successful Author Mindset by Joanna Penn |
| This Book Means Busines by Alison Jones |
| Thrive by Arianna Huffington |
| Time to Think by Nancy Kline |
| Unsubscribe: How to Kill Email Anxiety, Avoid Distractions and Get REAL Work Done by Jocelyn Glei |
| Watertight Marketing by Bryony Thomas |
| Web Copy That Sells by Maria Veloso |
| Webs of Influence – The psychology of online persuasion by Nathalie Nahai |
| X-Change: How to torch your work treadmill, retire your boss, dump the ingrates, torment the passive-aggressives, escape the toxic office, get your fierce on and design the career that lets you live, love and laugh after 40 by Lucia Knight |
| You Are a Badass by Jen Sincero |
| You Are a Badass at Making Money by Jen Sincero |
| You Are Meant For More by Andrea Callanan, Emma Van Heusen & more |
| Your Press Release is Breaking My Heart by Janet Murray |
Sherry Bevan, Career Coach and founder of The Confident Mother Book Club also commented with her pick of the 50 of the best book ideas as a perfect gift for ambitious women.
So that was the list of books already published, read and loved by the good people of LinkedIn. I also asked for women to let me know if they’re going to publish a book or know of someone who is.
Here’s that list:
13 Upcoming books from fabulous women many of whom I know!
| Brand Before Logo by Lucy Griffin-Stiff |
| Create Your Lucky Loop by Geraldine Joaquim |
| Ditching Imposter Syndrome by Clare Josa |
| Haven Wakes by Fi Phillips |
| How to be a Thousandsaire by Catherine Adamson |
| Not a Robot by Debra Stevens |
| Public Speaking (Exact title TBC) by Annik Petrou |
| Rewrite Your Story: How to Find Who You Are & Thrive After Burnout by Kay Fabella |
| The Content Marketing Myth by Janine Coombes |
| The Curiosity Key by Charlie Whyman |
| The Return to Study Handbook: Study Skills for Mature, Distance, and Workplace Learners by Chloe Burroughs |
| The Working Mothers Confessional by Rachel Klaver |
| Trust (Exact title TBC) by Rachel Klaver |
I’m sure there are many more talented women in my network who are writing books but either they didn’t see my post or, is it possible, that they didn’t want to blow their own trumpets?
I hope it’s the former.
The Content Marketing Myth by Janine Coombes
For people who want to:
> Find out why creating content can be such an energy drain.
> Learn the principles that will be the yardstick for all your future marketing activities.
> Face-palm with relief when you realise how easy it is to make online marketing (or any marketing) work for you.Go to TheContentMarketingMyth.com
Janine Coombes works with small business owners who are fed up of having no time and of feeling out of control of their promotional efforts. If you’re telling yourself ‘I should be doing this! I should be doing that!’ book a call with Janine and she’ll make all those nasty shoulds go away: bit.ly/JanineCoombesBookACall
