Best Badass Books You May Have Missed this Year
2020. How is it that some months felt like a blur - and yet some days seemed 59 hours long?
Despite all the many challenges presented by this year, there were some bright spots! And one of those definite bright spots was the continued publication of amazing books FOR badass women, BY badass women!
Below I’ve collected some favorites that you may have missed this year. Believe me, they are all worth checking out!
Women of all ages will nod in recognition at the stories of thirteen diverse, mission driven professional women as they share their career obstacles and how they've overcome bias, stereotypes, and being passed over for raises and promotions. If you've ever wondered what a true firebrand is, you'll find out in Mikaela Kiner's powerful first book.
Full of practical examples and easy to use checklists, Female Firebrands is an honest, modern guide for dealing with situations working women know all too well. Mikaela's book addresses not only how to navigate #MeToo situations, but ways to address workplace challenges including privilege, pregnancy and parenting, and female rivalry - all without shaming or blaming.
Mid-career professional women will read this book and know they're not alone--and women earlier in their careers can save years of heartache and frustration by learning what's worked for women who came before them.
Are you tired of feeling pressured to Lean In and Have it All?
Are you grateful for your professional opportunities but wish they were given to you as a choice instead of as a directive?
For millions of modern professional women, the popular "Lean In" message falls flat and is too one-sided.
Fortunately, there is another option.
In Leaning Out, self-proclaimed "average" modern working woman, Monica Pierce discusses thought-provoking ideas for why our generation feels so pressured to Lean In, explores how professional ambition can change once you realize you don't want to "have it all", and offers plenty of practical tips to help you Lean Out and right-size your life
Julia Curtis is a busy mother of three, with a husband often away for work, an ever-present mother-in-law, a career, and a house that needs doing up. Her fourteen-year-old daughter, Milla, has fallen in love for the first time, and her youngest, Ruby, is a nine-year-old fashionista who can out-negotiate anyone.
But Julia’s eleven-year-old son, Jackson, is different. Different to his sisters. Different to his classmates. In fact, Jackson is different from everyone. And bringing up a child who is different isn’t always easy.
Then, one Monday morning, Jackson follows his new friend Digby into the school toilets. What happens inside changes everything, not only for Jackson, but for every member of his family. Julia faces the fight of her life to save her unusual boy from a world set up for ‘normal’.
A dramatic and inspiring adventure story based on the lives of trailblazing mountaineer Christine Boskoff and her partner Charlie Fowler. Edge of the Map traces Christine's life as a high-altitude climber and mountain guide - from a two-day climbing course while a Lockheed engineer in Atlanta to her remarkable leadership of Seattle's Mountain Madness guiding company following Scott Fischer's death on Mount Everest in 1996.
Christine was a rarity at the time - a woman leading otherwise all-male expeditions. Despite challenges both personal and professional, she persevered to find freedom and a balance with nature on the earth's wildest peaks. And, in legendary Colorado rock climber Fowler, she discovered her perfect partner.
Edge of the Map captures each step of the pair's story, culminating in their disappearance among the remote peaks of western China and the desperate search to find them which gripped the world.
Why would anyone leave everything she knows, abandon those she loves, in fact, flee from her very life, choosing instead to make a treacherous journey for the slim chance of finding something better?
The reader serves as constant companion to Cece as she casts herself into the maze of peril and possibility that is the world of the immigrant. Throughout her journey she encounters a variety of people whose actions and values help her to forge an appreciation for the American character. Some offer solace and comfort, others offer pain and betrayal. She takes all challenges as they arise.
Every day, all over the entire planet, millions of people are doing just this-leaving everything they know to cast themselves into the unforgiving arms of the unknown-to endure confusion, humiliation, intimidation and even violence as they land in a place they neither know nor understand.
For thousands of years, women have been taught to be “good” instead of powerful. But when we embody the good girl, we hold back their voices and gifts in a world that desperately needs female perspectives.
Drawing on countless coaching sessions and conversations with female leaders, Majo identifies five self-sabotaging tendencies (“the five Good Girl Myths”) every woman must overcome to unleash her power and design a more purposeful life.
While there are many women’s leadership books, Majo uses her knowledge and training in design thinking (which is used by the world’s most innovative people and companies) to help you build creative confidence and break free from these disempowering myths once and for all.
Discover how each myth negatively affects your relationships, career, and well-being and identify your primary good girl myth – the blindspot that’s zapping most of your power as a creative badass.
If you’re a woman who can’t seem to get your voice or ideas out into the world, Break the Good Girl Myth will finally help you understand why and light the way out so you can become the woman you’re meant to be.
When two-time Gold-album selling alternative rock band Cold’s 2020 tour was postponed due to the pandemic, bassist Lindsay Manfredi found herself quarantined on a farm in Fallbrook, California. The result is an insightful and inspiring memoir and personal development book, Unfuckwithable: A Guide to Inspired Badassery.
Manfredi has a no-hold back attitude towards life. Yes, life happens and things happen to all of us, but she makes it clear that we also have choices to make. We need to accept where we went wrong and we need to start taking action so we can be the badasses we were meant to be.
Manfredi invites readers to share her journey and also get to a place where they ask the hard questions to truly get to know themselves and become unfuckwithable as well.
On a cold day in 1997, student Sara Morgan was killed in the woods surrounding her liberal arts college in upstate New York. Her boyfriend, Blake Campbell, confessed, his plea of temporary insanity raising more questions than it answered.
In the wake of his acquittal, the case comes to haunt a strange and surprising network of community members, from the young woman who discovers Sara's body to the junior reporter who senses its connection to convicted local serial killer John Logan. Others are looking for retribution or explanation: Sara's half sister, stifled by her family's bereft silence about Blake, poses as a babysitter and seeks out her own form of justice, while the teenager Sara used to babysit starts writing to Logan in prison.
A propulsive, taut tale of voyeurism and obsession, Nothing Can Hurt You dares to examine gendered violence not as an anomaly, but as the very core of everyday life. Tracing the concentric circles of violence rippling out from Sara's murder, Nicola Maye Goldberg masterfully conducts an unforgettable chorus of disparate voices.
Set in the coastal town of Danvers, Massachusetts, where the accusations began that led to the 1692 witch trials, We Ride Upon Sticks follows the 1989 Danvers High School Falcons field hockey team, who will do anything to make it to the state finals—even if it means tapping into some devilishly dark powers. In chapters dense with 1980s iconography—from Heathers to "big hair"—Barry expertly weaves together the individual and collective progress of this enchanted team as they storm their way through an unforgettable season.
Helmed by good-girl captain Abby Putnam (a descendant of the infamous Salem accuser Ann Putnam) and her co-captain Jen Fiorenza (whose bleached blond “Claw” sees and knows all), the Falcons prove to be wily, original, and bold, flaunting society's stale notions of femininity in order to find their glorious true selves through the crucible of team sport and, more importantly, friendship.
In this collection of new and previously published essays, New York Times bestselling author Laura Lippman offers her take on a woman's life across the decades. Her childhood and school years, her newspaper career, her experiences as a novelist—Lippman finds universal touchstones in an unusual life that has as many twists as her award-winning crime fiction.
These candid essays offer long-time readers insight into the experiences that helped Lippman become one of the most successful crime novelists of her generation.