Reads for Women in Their 30s: Thrive in Your Power Years
1. Second Sex
by Simone De Beauvoir
People closed the woman in the kitchen or in the boudoir, but they were surprised at her limited vision; people broke her wings, but lamented that she could not fly. I hope people will open up to her, and she will never be forced to stay in the present
Summary:
She attaches importance to stockings or nylon stockings and attaches importance to gloves and hats. It is by no means useless, but she must ensure her own status.
The more common this situation is, the more attentive a well-dressed woman will get; the more she finds a job, the greater the benefits that beauty brings to her.
Author Simone de Beauvoir's book is hailed as "the soundest, most sensible, and most intelligent book to discuss women in history", and is even revered as a Western woman's" Bible".
With cultural content covering philosophy, history, literature, biology, ancient mythology, and customs as the background, she discussed the actual situation, status, and rights of women in the historical evolution from primitive society to modern society, and discussed women's Gender differences revealed by individual development history.
"Second Sex" can be regarded as an encyclopedia overlooking the entire world of women. She opened the prelude of the women's cultural movement to the long-standing gender discrimination.
2. How to Stop Worrying and Start Living
by Dale Carnegie
Happiness is the goal that women pursue in their lives. Women in the world all dream of having a happy marriage, a harmonious family, a happy life, and a successful career. In this book, success master Dale Carnegie puts forward many wise insights and incisive analyses on how women obtain happiness and achieve success through years of in-depth research on women's physiology and psychology.
The methods and techniques described in the book about women's career success, happy marriage, and family happiness have helped countless women in the world to get out of confusion, succeed, and happiness, and it is important for both unmarried women and married women. The guiding significance.
3. A Dream of Red Mansions
by Cao Xueqin
The principle of prosperity and decline is destiny. But the human heart is like this. Seeing him rise from a tall building, he couldn't bear to see him collapse.
When I saw his heyday, it would be very sad to see his decline. What's sadder is that you who witnessed this mutiny are the person in this play.
Summary:
Officials, the family business is withered; wealthy, gold and silver are scattered; graceful, escape from death; ruthless, clear retribution; those who owe lives, their lives have been paid; those who owe tears, their tears are exhausted. The retribution of injustice is not light, and the separation and aggregation are all predetermined.
If you want to know about your life and ask about your past life, it is a fluke to be rich in old age. Seen through, escaped into the empty door; obsessed, killed in vain. It's as if the birds are thrown into the forest, and the white land is really clean.
"A Dream of Red Mansions" The Kingdom of the Daughters of the Red Chamber, a love tragedy in the rise and fall of a family, an encyclopedia with outstanding achievements in literature, aesthetics, thought, life, architecture, etc.
4. Jane Eyre
by Charlotte Bronte
Reasons for reading:
- An ordinary heroine, with self-respect, and self-love. How to be diligent and not give up on yourself.
- Don't sell your soul, and give up in the face of temptation.
- Pursue love and have the courage to fight for it.
Summary:
Jane Eyre is an orphan, born into a poor priest's family. The parents died of typhoid fever in one month. Young Jane is fostered at the house of his uncle's parents. After the death of her uncle, Mr. Reid, Jane lived a life of discrimination and abuse for 10 years.
Once, Jane was imprisoned in the Red House for resisting the beating of her cousin. Physical pain spiritual humiliation and fear made her seriously ill. Detail Book Reviews
5. Madame Curie: A Biography
by Eve Curie
"The Biography of Madame Curie" reviews the extraordinary life of Madame Curie, a great woman who influenced the process of the world, mainly describing the life of Madame Curie.
The author Eve Curie explained to readers that in addition to her mother's outstanding achievements in the scientific field, she also set an example for her daughter with her life's noble behavior, and she also had many unique methods for her daughter's education.
After reading this book, I believe that Mrs. Curie's patience and working spirit for hardship and disaster will urge us to work hard, and her attitude to deal with things can even clean our hearts.
6. A Doll's House
by Henrik Ibsen
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Summary:
In the early days, the status of women was relatively underground. In married life, women were like servants, and there were even various rules in society that stipulated women’s three obedience and four virtues.
The book "House of Dolls" talks about many equal relationships between men and women, which is very suitable for married women to read.
7. Vanity Fair
by William Makepeace Thackeray
A woman’s love sometimes seems silly, at least in the eyes of his friends and relatives. In Vanity Fair, two women with different pursuits have experienced a rich love life.
They have happiness, joys, and sorrows, and control over money. They show the feelings of the two women in Ukiyo-e
8. Escape
by Ann Marie Lee
If you are married, female, and feel a little disappointed in your married life, don't read Monroe. You will think that every girl she writes is you, the previous you, and the future you.
Summary:
This is always the case. You put something aside for a while, sometimes you go to the closet to find something else and then you remember, do you think, it’s almost time to use it.
So it becomes the same thing that is there, in the closet, and other things are squeezed in and piled in front of and on top of it, and in the end, you don't even think about it.
Many women live the ordinary lives of all living beings. After marriage, women always have their own worries. Life is like rape. You can only follow it and make yourself more comfortable. And "Escape" deeply portrays the emotional life of ordinary women.
"Escape" is not a single feminine novel, but a novel that explores the eternal theme of female growth. It is not only a reproduction of rural life in Western Canada but also a deep exploration of human nature in the universal sense.
9. Little Women
by Louisa May Alcott
The life of an ordinary family is actually more likely to resonate with women. "Little Women," tells the story of four sisters in an ordinary family.
Although poor, they have been living positively. It is one of the famous American books.
10. Gone with the Wind
by Margaret Mitchell
In fact, every girl had an Ashley in her heart when she was a girl, and she won’t realize until the end that she loves Ben Reid
Summary:
It's right not to look back. Memories make people sad, always worry about things, make people do nothing, and have to indulge in the past. She loves him, and she needs him, but she doesn't understand him.
She is straightforward and simple, just like having eaten the wind over Tara and the river flowing by Tara, and even when she is old, she cannot understand a complicated matter.
"Gone with the Wind," tells the story of Scarlett, the daughter of a plantation owner during World War II. Scarlett can be said to be the representative of independent women in that period.
Through the love entanglement between Scarlett and Rhett, the novel successfully reproduces the civil war led by Lincoln and the social life in the southern United States.
11. To Kill a Mockingbird
by Harper Lee
If I have children in the future, I will show them this book. I want him to know that no matter how the world changes, integrity, honesty, and kindness are the most precious qualities of a person.
No sense of humor may make him too likable, but having these three qualities is enough to make him have no regrets in his life. In the same way, they don’t need to be sleek, they only need to be respectful, and then society will give them a pass.
Summary:
Bravery is: when you know you will lose before you start, but you still have to do it, and you have to stick to it anyway. You rarely win, but sometimes you do.
"Killing a Mockingbird" is a novel published in 1960 by American female writer Harper Lee. The theme of the story involves serious issues such as racial inequality and rape, and its style is still warm and interesting.
The novel is written in the first person. The narrator’s father Atticus Finch plays a morally upright role in the book and is also a model of upright lawyers.
12. Stories of the Sahara
by Sanmao
The first time I take it seriously and really envy a person's life.
Summary:
In this world, I have never felt that I am a part of the masses of beings. I often have to run out of track of ordinary people's lives and do things that cannot explain why.
13. The Lover
by Margaret Duras
Reasons for reading:
- Write down the different aspects of emotional life in the Western world.
- It expresses some of the most fundamental and secret qualities of human nature.
- A hopeless love between a poor woman and a rich man.
Summary:
An international best-seller with more than one million copies in print and a winner of France's Prix Goncourt, The Lover has been acclaimed by critics all over the world since its first publication in 1984.
Set in the prewar Indochina of Marguerite Duras's childhood, this is the haunting tale of a tumultuous affair between an adolescent French girl and her Chinese lover.
In spare yet luminous prose, Duras evokes life on the margins of Saigon in the waning days of France's colonial empire, and its representation in the passionate relationship between two unforgettable outcasts.
Long unavailable in hardcover, this edition of The Lover includes a new introduction by Maxine Hong Kingston that looks back at Duras's world from an intriguing new perspective--that of a visitor to Vietnam today.
14. I Feel Bad About My Neck
by Nora Ephron
Summary:
With her disarming, intimate, completely accessible voice, and dry sense of humor, Nora Ephron shares with us her ups and downs in I Feel Bad About My Neck, a candid, hilarious look at women who are getting older and dealing with the tribulations of maintenance, menopause, empty nests, and life itself.
The woman who brought us When Harry Met Sally..., Sleepless in Seattle, You've Got Mail, and Bewitched, and the author of best sellers Heartburn, Scribble Scribble, and Crazy Salad, discusses everything—from how much she hates her purse to how much time she spends attempting to stop the clock: the hair dye, the treadmill, the lotions and creams that promise to slow the aging process but never do. Oh, and she can't stand the way her neck looks. But her dermatologist tells her there's no quick fix for that.
Ephron chronicles her life as an obsessed cook, passionate city dweller, and hapless parent. She recounts her anything-but-glamorous days as a White House intern during the JFK years (“I am probably the only young woman who ever worked in the Kennedy White House that the President did not make a pass at”) and shares how she fell in and out of love with Bill Clinton—from a distance, of course. But mostly she speaks frankly and uproariously about life as a woman of a certain age.
Utterly courageous, wickedly funny, and unexpectedly moving in its truth-telling, I Feel Bad About My Neck is a book of wisdom, advice, and laugh-out-loud moments, a scrumptious, irresistible treat.
15. Bossypants
by Tina Fey
Summary:
Once in a generation, a woman comes along who changes everything. Tina Fey is not that woman, but she met that woman once and acted weird around her. Before 30 Rock, Mean Girls, and Sarah Palin', Tina Fey was just a young girl with a dream: a recurring stress dream that she was being chased through a local airport by her middle-school gym teacher. She also had a dream that one day she would be a comedian on TV. She has seen both these dreams come true.
At last, Tina Fey's story can be told. From her youthful days as a vicious nerd to her tour of duty on Saturday Night Live; from her passionately halfhearted pursuit of physical beauty to her life as a mother eating things off the floor; from her one-sided college romance to her nearly fatal honeymoon - from the beginning of this paragraph to this final sentence. Tina Fey reveals all and proves what we've all suspected: you're no one until someone calls you bossy.
16. Invisible Man
by Ralph Ellison
Amazon's synopsis:
A milestone in American literature--a book that has continued to engage readers since its appearance in 1952. Nominated as one of America's best-loved novels by PBS's The Great American Read.
The first novel by an unknown writer, it remained on the bestseller list for sixteen weeks, won the National Book Award for fiction, and established Ralph Ellison as one of the key writers of the century.
The nameless narrator of the novel describes growing up in a black community in the South, attending a Negro college from which he is expelled, moving to New York and becoming the chief spokesman of the Harlem branch of "the Brotherhood", and retreating amid violence and confusion to the basement lair of the Invisible Man he imagines himself to be.
The book is a passionate and witty tour de force of style, strongly influenced by TS Eliot's The Waste Land, Joyce, and Dostoevsky.
17. One Hundred Years of Solitude
by Gabriel García Márquez
Summary:
One of the 20th century's enduring works, One Hundred Years of Solitude is a widely beloved and acclaimed novel known throughout the world and the ultimate achievement of a Nobel Prize-winning career.
The novel tells the story of the rise and fall of the mythical town of Macondo through the history of the family. It is a rich and brilliant chronicle of life and death, and the tragicomedy of humankind.
In the noble, ridiculous, beautiful, and tawdry story of the family, one sees all of humanity, just as in the history, myths, growth, and decay of Macondo, one sees all of Latin America.
Love and lust, war and revolution, riches and poverty, youth, and senility - the variety of life, the endlessness of death, the search for peace and truth - these universal themes dominate the novel.
Whether he is describing an affair of passion or the voracity of capitalism and the corruption of government, Gabriel Garcia Marquez always writes with the simplicity, ease, and purity that are the mark of a master.
Alternately reverential and comical, One Hundred Years of Solitude weaves the political, personal, and spiritual to bring a new consciousness to storytelling. Translated into dozens of languages, this stunning work is no less than an accounting of the history of the human race.
18. Lonesome Dove
by Larry McMurtry
Summary:
The Pulitzer Prize–winning American classic of the American West follows two aging Texas Rangers embarking on one last adventure. An epic of the frontier, Lonesome Dove is the grandest novel ever written about the last defiant wilderness of America.
Journey to the dusty little Texas town of Lonesome Dove and meet an unforgettable assortment of heroes and outlaws, whores and ladies, Indians and settlers. Richly authentic, beautifully written, and always dramatic, Lonesome Dove is a book to make us laugh, weep, dream, and remember.
19. Slouching TOWARDS Bethlehem
by Joan Didion
Summary:
Beautifully repackaged as part of the Picador Modern Classics Series, this special edition is small enough to fit in your pocket and bold enough to stand out on your bookshelf.
Celebrated, iconic, and indispensable, Joan Didion’s first work of nonfiction, Slouching Towards Bethlehem, is considered a watershed moment in American writing. First published in 1968, the collection was critically praised as one of the “best prose written in this country.”
More than perhaps any other book, this collection by one of the most distinctive prose stylists of our era captures the unique time and place of Joan Didion’s focus, exploring subjects such as John Wayne and Howard Hughes, growing up in California and the nature of good and evil in a Death Valley motel room, and, especially, the essence of San Francisco’s Haight-Ashbury, the heart of the counterculture.
As Joyce Carol Oates remarked: “[Didion] has been an articulate witness to the most stubborn and intractable truths of our time, a memorable voice, partly eulogistic, partly despairing; always in control.”
20. Savage Beauty: The Life of Edna St. Vincent Millay
by Nancy Milford
Summary:
If F. Scott Fitzgerald was the hero of the Jazz Age, Edna St. Vincent Millay, as flamboyant in her love affairs as she was in her art, was its heroine. The first woman ever to win the Pulitzer Prize, Millay was dazzling in her performance of herself.
Her voice was likened to an instrument of seduction and her impact on crowds, and on men, was legendary. Yet beneath her studied act, all was not well. Milford calls her book "a family romance"—for the love between the three Millay sisters and their mother was so deep as to be dangerous. As a family, they were like real-life Little Women, with a touch of Mommie Dearest.
Nancy Milford was given exclusive access to Millay's papers, and what she found was an extraordinary treasure. Boxes and boxes of letters flew back and forth among the three sisters and their mother—and Millay kept the most intimate diary, one whose ruthless honesty brings to mind, Sylvia Plath. Written with passion and flair, Savage Beauty is an iconic portrait of a woman's life
21. We Should All Be Feminists
by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
What does “feminism” mean today? That is the question at the heart of We Should All Be Feminists, a personal, eloquently argued essay—adapted from her much-viewed Tedx talk of the same name—by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, the award-winning author of Americanah and Half of a Yellow Sun.
With humor and levity, here Adichie offers readers a unique definition of feminism for the twenty-first century—one rooted in inclusion and awareness.
She shines a light not only on blatant discrimination but also on the more insidious, institutional behaviors that marginalize women around the world, in order to help readers of all walks of life better understand the often masked realities of sexual politics.
Throughout, she draws extensively on her own experiences—in the US, in her native Nigeria, and abroad—offering an artfully nuanced explanation of why the gender divide is harmful to women and men, alike.
Argued in the same observant, witty, and clever prose that has made Adichie a bestselling novelist, here is one remarkable author's exploration of what it means to be a woman today—and an of-the-moment rallying cry for why we should all be feminists.
22. The World According to Garp
by John Irving
Summary:
Famous contemporary American writer John Owen is a rich, wise and humorous work. The main axis of the story is a man named Gap. He has a celebrity mother Jenny who was born into a wealthy family.
Jenny is an unmarried mother. She said: "I want a job and live alone. I want a child, but I don't want to share my body or life with others." So she raised Gap and grew up.
He spent a lot of energy to expand Gap’s horizons and even spent money to let him spend the night with a prostitute... In Owen’s brilliant writings, Gap’s world is an imaginary world, but the fear, happiness, and anger in this world The stories of love, complexity, and innocence, and the cycle between tragedy and comedy, illuminate real life. This book won the 1980 American National Book Award.
23. Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood
by Marjane Satrapi
Wise, often funny, sometimes heartbreaking, "Persepolis," tells the story of Marjane Satrapi's life in Tehran from the ages of six to fourteen, years that saw the overthrow of the Shah's regime, the triumph of the Islamic Revolution, and the devastating effects of war with Iraq.
The intelligent and outspoken child of radical Marxists, and the great-granddaughter of Iran's last emperor, Satrapi bears witness to a childhood uniquely entwined with the history of her country.
"Persepolis" paints an unforgettable portrait of daily life in Iran and of the bewildering contradictions between home life and public life. Amidst the tragedy, Marjane's child's eye view adds immediacy and humor,
and her story of a childhood at once outrageous and ordinary, beset by the unthinkable and yet buffered by an extraordinary and loving family, is immensely moving. It is also very beautiful; Satrapi's drawings have the power of the very best woodcuts.
24. Depression Hates a Moving Target
by Nita Sweeney
Amazon's synopsis:
Before she discovered running, Nita Sweeney was 49 years old, chronically depressed, occasionally manic, and unable to jog for more than 60 seconds at a time.
Using exercise, Nita discovered an inner strength she didn’t know she possessed, and with the help of her canine companion, she found herself on the way to completing her first marathon.
In her memoir, Sweeney shares how she overcame emotional and physical challenges to finish the race and come back from the brink.
Anyone who has struggled with depression knows the ways the mind can defeat you.
However, it is possible to transform yourself with the power of running. You may learn that you can endure more than you think and that there’s no other therapy quite like the pavement beneath your feet.
25. The Year of Magical Thinking
by Joan Didion
Summary:
From one of America's iconic writers, a stunning book of electric honesty and passion. Joan Didion explores an intensely personal yet universal experience: a portrait of a marriage–and a life, in good times and bad–that will speak to anyone who has ever loved a husband wife, or child.
Several days before Christmas 2003, John Gregory Dunne and Joan Didion saw their only daughter, Quintana, fall ill with what seemed at first flu, then pneumonia, then complete septic shock. She was put into an induced coma and placed on life support.
Days later–the night before New Year's Eve–the Dunnes were just sitting down to dinner after visiting the hospital when John Gregory Dunne suffered a massive and fatal coronary.
In a second, this close, symbiotic partnership of forty years was over. Four weeks later, their daughter pulled through. Two months after that, arriving at LAX, she collapsed and underwent six hours of brain surgery at UCLA Medical Center to relieve a massive hematoma.
This powerful book is Didion's attempt to make sense of the “weeks and then months that cut loose any fixed idea I ever had about death, about illness... About marriage and children and memory... About the shallowness of sanity, about life itself."
26. The 21-Day Financial Fast
by Michelle Singletary
Amazon's synopsis:
In The 21-Day Financial Fast, award-winning writer and The Washington Post columnist Michelle Singletary proposes a field-tested financial challenge.
For twenty-one days, participants will put away their credit cards and buy only the barest essentials. With Michelle's guidance during this three-week financial fast, you will discover how to:
- Break bad spending habits
- Plot a course to become debt-free with the Debt Dash Plan
- Avoid the temptation of overspending on college
- Learn how to prepare elderly relatives and yourself for future long-term care expenses
- Be prepared for any contingency with a Life Happens Fund
- Stop worrying about money and find the priceless power of financial peace
As you discover practical ways to achieve financial freedom, you'll experience what it truly means to live a life of financial peace and prosperity.
Thousands of individuals have participated in the fast and as a result, have gotten out of debt and become better managers of their money and finances . . . and you can too!
27. The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference
by Malcolm Gladwell
THE TIPPING POINT is the biography of an idea, and the idea is quite simple. Is that many of the problems we face- from crime and teenage delinquency to traffic jams- behave like epidemics?
They aren't linear phenomena in the sense that they steadily and predictably change according to the level of effort brought to bear against them.
They are capable of sudden and dramatic changes in direction. Years of well-intentioned intervention may have no impact at all, yet the right intervention at just the right time can start a cascade of change.
Many of the social ills that face us today, in other words, are inherently volatile as the epidemics that periodically through the human population: little things can cause them to tip at any time and if we want to understand how to confront and solve them we have to understand what those tipping Points' are.
In this revolutionary new study, Malcolm Gladwell explores the ramifications of this. Not simply for politicians and policy-makers, his method provides a new way of viewing everyday experience and enables us to develop strategies for everything from raising a child to running a company.
28. The Purpose-Driven Life: What on Earth Am I Here For?
by Rick Warren
Amazon's synopsis:
Before you were born, God already planned your life. God longs for you to discover the life he uniquely created you to live--here on earth, and forever in eternity. Let The Purpose Driven Life show you how.
As one of the bestselling nonfiction books in history, with more than 35 million copies sold, The Purpose Driven Life is far more than just a book; it's the road map for your spiritual journey. A journey that will transform your life.
Designed to be read in 42 days, each chapter provides a daily meditation and practical steps to help you discover and live out your purpose, starting with exploring three of life's most pressing questions:
- The Question of Existence: Why am I alive?
- The Question of Significance: Does my life matter?
- The Question of Purpose: What on earth am I here for?
The book also includes links to 3-minute video introductions and a 30- to 40-minute audio Bible study message for each chapter. Plus questions for further study and additional resources.
The Purpose Driven Life is available in audiobooks, ebooks, softcover, and hardcover editions. Also available: The Purpose Driven Life video study and study guide, journal, devotional, book for kids, book for churches, Spanish edition, Large Print edition, and more.
29. White Teeth
by Zadie Smith
Amazon's synopsis:
At the center of this invigorating novel are two unlikely friends, Archie Jones, and Samad Iqbal. Hapless veterans of World War II, Archie and Samad, and their families become agents of England's irrevocable transformation.
A second marriage to Clara Bowden, a beautiful, albeit tooth-challenged, Jamaican half his age, quite literally gives Archie a second lease on life and produces Irie, a knowing child whose personality doesn't quite match her name (Jamaican for "no problem").
Samad's late-in-life arranged marriage (he had to wait for his bride to be born), produces twin sons whose separate paths confound Iqbal's every effort to direct them, and a renewed, if selective, submission to his Islamic faith.
Set against London's racial and cultural tapestry, venturing across the former empire and into the past as it barrels toward the future, White Teeth revels in the ecstatic hodgepodge of modern life, flirting with disaster, confounding expectations, and embracing the comedy of daily existence.
30. Persuasion
by Jane Austen
Jane Austen's last completed novel, Persuasion is a delightful social satire of England's landed gentry and a moving tale of lovers separated by class distinctions.
After years apart, unmarried Anne Elliot, the heroine Jane Austen called “almost too good for me,” encounters the dashing naval officer others persuaded her to reject, as he now courts the rash and younger Louisa Musgrove. Superbly drawn, these characters and those of Anne's prideful father, Sir Walter, and the scheming Mrs.
Clay, and the duplicitous William Elliot, heir to Kellynch Hall, become luminously alive—so much so that the poet Tennyson, visiting historic Lyme Regis, where a pivotal scene occurs, exclaimed: “Don't talk to me of the Duke of Monmouth. Show me the exact spot where Louisa Musgrove fell! "
Tender, almost grave, Persuasion offers a glimpse into Jane Austen's own heart while it magnificently displays the full maturity of her literary power.
31. It’s Called a Breakup Because It’s Broken
by Greg Behrendt and Amiira Ruotola-Behrendt
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Summary:
The latest book by Greg Behrendt, author of the multi-million plus copy bestseller Just Not That Into You, is another hilarious, wry, and wise take on relationships and how to move on when one goes sour.' He's Just Not That Into You is more than a book. It's a revolution.
The phrase, coined by Behrendt for an episode of Sex and the City, has now entered the language: it features in ads, it's referred to in newspaper headlines and it has spawned spin-off spoof books and more.'
It's Called A Break-up Because It's Broken promises to do this and more. It will help you get over anyone and move on.
Behrendt's voice is unique - combining tell-it-like-it-is advice with humor and the guy's eye view'.The book is filled with solid advice to help you let go of your ex - for example: ' It's 3 a.m., the bottle of wine is empty, do you really want to make that call?'
Each insightful chapter is complemented by a Q -and-A with Greg on what he's thinking, case studies, and games. Greg and Amiira tackle tough issues such as break-up sex, how not to lose your friends during a break-up, and 10 great places to cry.
It's the ultimate read and reference for anyone who has ever been in a relationship. and 10 great places to cry. It's the ultimate read and reference for anyone who has ever been in a relationship. and 10 great places to cry. It's the ultimate read and reference for anyone who has ever been in a relationship.
32. #GirlBoss
by Sophia Amoruso
Summary:
#GIRLBOSS includes Sophia’s story, yet is infinitely bigger than Sophia's. It’s deeply personal yet universal. Filled with brazen wake-up calls (“You are not a special snowflake”), cunning and frank observations (“Failure is your invention”), and behind-the-scenes stories from Nasty Gal’s meteoric rise, #GIRLBOSS covers a lot of ground.
It proves that being successful isn’t about how popular you were in high school or where you went to college (if you went to college).
Rather, success is about trusting your instincts and following your gut, knowing which rules to follow and which to break.
33. Lean In
by Sheryl Sandberg
Summary:
Sheryl Sandberg--Facebook COO, ranked eighth on Fortune's list of the 50 Most Powerful Women in Business--has become one of America's most galvanizing leaders, and an icon for millions of women juggling work and family.
In Lean In, she urges women to take risks and seek new challenges, to find work that they love, and to remain passionately engaged with it at the highest levels throughout their lives.
Lean In --Sheryl Sandberg's provocative, inspiring book about women and power--grew out of an electrifying TED talk Sandberg gave in 2010, in which she expressed her concern that progress for women in achieving major leadership positions had stalled.
The talk became a phenomenon and has since been viewed nearly two million times. In Lean In, she fuses humorous personal anecdotes, singular lessons on confidence and leadership, and practical advice for women based on research, data, her own experiences, and the experiences of other women of all ages.
Sandberg has an uncanny gift for cutting through layers of ambiguity that surround working women, and in Lean In, she grapples, piercingly, with the great questions of modern life.
Her message to women is overwhelmingly positive. She is a trailblazing model for the ideas she so passionately espouses, and she's on the pulse of a topic that has never been more relevant.
34. Americanah
by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Summary:
Chimamanda Ngozi Adic was born in Enugu in southern Nigeria in 1977. He first studied medicine at the University of Nigeria, then studied media and political science at Eastern Connecticut State University in the United States, and then at John. Hopkins University received a Master of Arts degree in Creative Writing.
In 2003, her first novel "Purple Hibiscus" was nominated for the 2004 Orange Fiction Award. The novel tells the story of the political turmoil in Nigeria in the 1990s and the tragedy of a family trapped by faith.
Her second novel "Half a Yellow Day" peeked into Nigeria's civil war trauma and won the 2007 Orange Novel Award. In 2009, her novel "Things Around the Neck" was nominated for the Frank O'Connor International Short Story Award.
In 2010, Adichie was selected as one of the "Twenty Novelists Under 40" by The New Yorker. In 2015, "Time" magazine selected Adichie as "the 100 most influential people in the world".
In 2014, her TED talk was assembled into a collection of essays of the same name "We should all be feminists". Her latest novel "The Yankee" presents her deep thoughts and feelings about American racial politics.
The book won the 2013 National Association of Book Critics Fiction Award and was also among the top ten best books of 2013 by The New York Times.
35. Everything I Never Told You
by Celeste Ng
Summary:
Lydia is dead. But they don't know this yet...
So begins the story of this exquisite debut novel, about a Chinese American family living in 1970s small-town Ohio. Lydia is the favorite child of Marilyn and James Lee; their middle daughter, a girl who inherited her mother's bright blue eyes and her father's jet-black hair.
Her parents are determined that Lydia will fulfill the dreams they were unable to pursue—in Marilyn's case her daughter becomes a doctor rather than a homemaker, in James's case, Lydia is popular at school, a girl with a busy social life and the center of every party.
When Lydia's body is found in the local lake, the delicate balancing act that has been keeping the Lee family together is destroyed, tumbling them into chaos. James, consumed by guilt, sets out on a reckless path that may destroy his marriage. Marilyn, devastated and vengeful, is determined to find a responsible party, no matter what the cost.
Lydia's older brother, Nathan, is certain that the neighborhood bad boy Jack is somehow involved. But it's the youngest of the family—Hannah—who observes far more than anyone realizes and who may be the only one who knows the truth about what happened.
A profoundly moving story of family, history, and the meaning of home, Everything I Never Told You is both a gripping page-turner and a sensitive family portrait, exploring the divisions between cultures and the rifts within a family, and uncovering the ways in which mothers and daughters, fathers and sons, and husbands and wives struggle, all their lives, to understand one another.
36. The Goldfinch
by Donna Tartt
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Summary:
An explosion at the Metropolitan Museum in New York killed the boy Theo’s mother and the thirteen-year-old Theo miraculously survived. But because his father had abandoned their mother and son, Theo could only live in the homes of wealthy classmates.
The unfamiliar environment made him at a loss, and the new interpersonal relationship made him feel frustrated, but what made him most unbearable was the pain of losing his mother.
But he accidentally owned the famous painting "Goldfinch" in the museum. This painting was his only consolation when he remembered his mother and brought him into the deep and dark world of art...
As an adult, Theo wandered between the celebrity studio and the antique shop where he worked. He did not become close to this world, he fell in love with a girl. What he didn't know was that he was in the center of a dangerous circle that was shrinking.
"Goldfinch" was created by the famous American female writer Donna Tate for more than ten years. It is a great novel that you will read at night and recommend to all your friends.
37. Beloved
by Toni Morrison
Summary:
Staring unflinchingly into the abyss of slavery, this spellbinding novel transforms history into a story as powerful as Exodus and as intimate as a lullaby.
Sethe was born a slave and escaped to Ohio, but eighteen years later she is still not free. She has too many memories of Sweet Home, the beautiful farm where so many hideous things happened. Her new home is haunted by the ghost of her baby, who died namelessly, and whose tombstone is engraved with a single word: Beloved.
Filled with bitter poetry and suspense as taut as a rope, Beloved is a towering achievement by Nobel Prize laureate Toni Morrison
38. Mistakes I Made at Work
by Jessica Bacal
Amazon's synopsis:
In Mistakes, I Made at Work, a Publishers Weekly Top 10 Business Book for Spring 2014, Jessica Bacal interviews twenty-five successful women about their toughest on-the-job moments.
These innovators across a variety of fields - from the arts to finance to tech - reveal that they're more thoughtful, purposeful, and assertive as leaders because they learned from their mistakes, not because they never made any. Interviewees include:
- Cheryl Strayed, bestselling author of Wild
- Anna Holmes, founding editor of Jezebel.com
- Kim Gordon, a founding member of the band Sonic Youth
- Joanna Barsch, Director Emeritus of McKinsey & Company
- Carol Dweck, Stanford psychology professor
- Ruth Ozeki, New York Times bestselling author of Tale for the Time Being
And many more...
Ideal for millennials just starting their careers, for women seeking to advance at work, or for anyone grappling with issues of perfectionism, Mistakes I Made at Work features fascinating and surprising anecdotes, as well as tips for readers.
39. The Queen’s Code
by Alison Armstrong
Amazon's synopsis:
The long-standing war between the sexes is the stuff of legend. In TV ads, sitcoms, and chick flicks everywhere, we've all seen the images - the long-suffering woman and the clueless, insensitive man.
But what if it's all a misunderstanding?
In this fairy tale for the contemporary woman, Kimberlee seeks advice and discovers a treasure chest of esoteric knowledge hidden within her own family. As she unravels the mysteries of men's behavior in this romantic journey, so will you. As she learns the Language of Heroes and transforms how she relates to men, so will you.
Whether you're in love with men or frustrated by them - or both - The Queen's Code creates a new ethic and approach for interacting with men in a way that honors both sexes. From eight distinct points of view, you'll get an intimate look inside the hearts and minds of both men and women as we
struggle to understand ourselves and each other.
40. Teaching Kids to Buy Stocks
by J.J. Wenrich
Summary:
If today's youth are tomorrow's future, we the village need to properly equip ourselves in order to equip our youth for success.
That means not only parents but - grandparents
- aunts and uncles
- teachers
- friends
- neighbors... You get the picture.
This book seeks to educate the general population in a way that can be passed on to younger generations for years to come. It's adulting for all ages!
41. How to Think Strategically
by Greg Githens
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Amazon's synopsis:
How to Think Strategically is the ideal primer for those who want to develop their mental acumen and make a strategic impact. This book will help you understand what it means to “be strategic” and how to craft a strategy that is effective, powerful, and clever.
A competent strategic thinker tolerates ambiguity, notices weak signals, defines the core challenge facing the organization, and designs effective responses with a winning strategic logic.
How to Think Strategically provides numerous real-world examples of individual strategic thinkers in action describing how they constructed a winning strategic logic. Through these examples, you'll learn useful lessons that can be applied in any organization and in your personal life. This book will show you how to:
- Internalize the 20 micro-skills of strategic thinking
- Develop your personal brand as a competent strategic thinker
- Pose high-quality questions that spark strategic insights
- Write a concise one-page statement strategy, with five essential concepts that will help you distinguish effective strategy from a list of goals
- A design strategy that is clever and powerful
- Recognize and mitigate blind spots and decision traps
- Distinguish strategic thinking from operational thinking and appropriately apply each
- Overcome the excuse of “I'm too busy to be strategic"
- Recognize and exploit the four X-factors of strategic thinking: Drive, Insight, Chance, and Emergence
- Practice extra-ordinary leadership to confront issues and leap into an unknown future
- Improve conversations with other strategists
The author brings a unique perspective that reflects years of experience as a corporate manager, educator, strategy consultant, facilitator, executive leadership coach, and board member.
He writes with an engaging style that unpacks the broader concepts into easy-to-remember nuggets. Anyone can improve their strategic thinking if they know where to focus their attention. This book will be an indispensable guide for anyone interested in developing their personal brand.
Conclusion: Thriving in Your 30s: Essential Reads for Women
Reading is the continuation of the charm of a woman beyond her face. Reading can make women's mouths into chapters, reading can make women have more topics after chatting, and reading can expand their horizons.
Shakespeare once said:
"Books are the nourishment of the world. Without books in life, it is like no sunlight; without books in wisdom, it is like birds without wings."
Books are the source of femininity and the eternal youth of the spirit. Women become intelligent and mature so women understand that packaging appearance is important, but more important is the nourishment of the soul.
In addition to the appearance of a woman, her inner temperament is also very important. The charm of a woman plays a very crucial role in a woman's life.
Attractive women are outstanding and popular wherever they go.
No matter what an attractive woman does, she is so successful and her life is so wonderful.
Maybe some women look very beautiful, like a blooming flower, but the face will always age and the flowers will fade.
Once a woman's face is absent, then her inner temperament is very important. The inner temperament is like a perfume made of flowers, which lasts for a long time and makes people memorable.