Add some or all of these titles by women leaders to your reading list this summer.

Whether you are settling down with an e-reader on your favorite screen or thumbing through pages on a beach or from a backyard hammock, this summer season offers many exciting new reads from fiction to nonfiction, advice, memoir and biography by some familiar and new favorite authors.

Take The Lead frequently recommends what new books you might like to dive into, share in your book club or recommend to a friend, colleague, mentor or mentee.

Here are a delightful bakers’ dozen of Take The Lead suggestions (alphabetically listed because we can’t possibly rank them as we love them all), with an addendum of four irresistible Young Adult offerings you may want to share with a younger person whom you mentor, love and intend to inspire.

“Each summer @Takeleadwomen recommends what books you might like to dive into, share in your @rebeccaminkoff #bookclub or recommend to a friend, colleague, mentor or mentee. #mustreads #booklist #womenleaders”

While Justice Sleeps by Stacey Abrams. We all know her as the powerhouse who ran for governor of Georgia in 2018, and as the force behind getting out the vote as she founded the New Georgia Project, which submitted more than 200,000 registrations for voters of color between 2014 and 2016 and changed the 2020 election. A graduate of Yale Law School, she also writes fiction on the side, with eight suspense novels under her pen name of Selena Montgomery. Her latest book under her own name “is a legal thriller set within the halls of the U.S. Supreme Court, involving a law clerk for one of the court's swing votes—who mysteriously slips into a coma ahead of a critical case,” Fortune reports.

Our Separate Ways: Black and White Women and the Struggle for Professional Identity by Ella Bell Smith and Stella Nkomo. Both are long time academic professionals, as Smith is a professor of business administration at the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth University, and Nkomo is a professor of human resources management at the University of Pretoria. “The book chronicles the experiences of 120 Black and white female managers to show that gender isn’t the only factor that defines a woman’s career. Race, gender, and class weigh heavily on the outcomes. There was an assumption that the struggle for all women was universal, and that women supported each other in some mythical sisterhood,” reports Knowledge at the Wharton School of Business.

The Flowering by Judy Chicago. In her autobiography, the 81-year-old artist, “takes stock of a lifetime of now-historic experiences that effectively broke barriers in an industry built to favor white men. Combining engrossing, urgent storytelling with illustrations, personal images and a foreword by Gloria Steinem, Chicago relays the story of an artist determined to ensure that women’s cultural achievements are permanently valued,” Time reports.

Stay tuned for early pre-sales information on this fall’s release of Take The Lead Co-founder and President Gloria Feldt’s Intentioning: Sex, Power, Pandemics, and How Women Will Take The Lead for (Everyone's) Good.

The Other Black Girl by Zakiya Dalila Harris. An editor in real life, Zakiya Dalila Harris takes to fiction for her first novel. “There is truly no drama like publishing drama, and in this dynamite debut, Zakiya Dalila Harris takes advantage of every juicy nugget. Nella Rogers is the new editorial assistant at Wagner Books, not to mention the company's only Black employee. She's ecstatic when Hazel joins the team—as a young, Black girl from Harlem, surely she can understand the daily frustrations Nella endures from her white colleagues. But when Hazel becomes Wagner's new star, Nella is left spiraling as the two are pitted against each other,” Elle reports.

“This summer, @Takeleadwomen recommends you add “The Other Black Girl” by @Ominibob to your #readinglist. An editor in real life, Zakiya Dalila Harris takes to fiction for her first novel. #bestreads #womenleaders”

Somebody's Daughter: A Memoir by Ashley C. Ford. Lauded as a journalist, creative voice, podcaster and more, Ford is the former host of The Chronicles of Now podcast, co-host of The HBO companion podcast Lovecraft Country Radio, former host of MasterCard’s Fortune Favors The Bold, as well as the video interview series PROFILE by BuzzFeed News, and 112BK. This is her first memoir. “Growing up, Ford idolized her father, who was incarcerated throughout her childhood. Only in the aftermath of trauma does she start to untangle the complicated threads of her inheritance,” reports Win2All.

““Somebody’s Daughter: A Memoir” by @iSmashFizzle. Ford is lauded as a journalist, creative voice, podcaster and more. #womenleaders #readinglist”

Women and Leadership: Real Lives, Real Lessons by Julia Gillard and Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala. These high powered and high profile authors have the professional pedigree to garner access to the scores of women leaders they interviewed. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala is director-general of the World Trade Organization, Brookings Institute nonresident distinguished fellow, and former minister of finance in Nigeria. Julia Gillard is a Brookings nonresident distinguished fellow and former prime minister of Australia. This book is described as “A powerful call to action for achieving equality in leadership. Women make up fewer than 10 per cent of national leaders worldwide, and behind this eye-opening statistic lies a pattern of unequal access to power. Through conversations with some of the world's most powerful and interesting women—including Jacinda Ardern, Hillary Rodham Clinton, Christine Lagarde, Michelle Bachelet, and Theresa May—Women and Leadership explores gender bias and asks why there aren't more women in leadership roles,” reports Forum Network.

““Women and Leadership: Real Lives, Real Lessons” by @JuliaGillard and @NOIweala. These high powered and high profile authors have the professional pedigree to garner access to the scores of #women #leaders they interviewed. #booksforwomen”

Meeting at The Table: African-American Women Write on Race, Culture and Community by Tina McElroy Ansa and Wanda S. Lloyd. McElroy Ansa is a former journalist with the Atlanta Constitution and the Charlotte Observer, author of five award-winning novels, and founder of the Sea Island Writers Retreat. She is also founder and publisher of the independent publishing company DownSouth Press. Wanda S. Lloyd is a retired newspaper editor and former chair and associate professor in the Department of Journalism and Mass Communications at Savannah State University and author of Coming Full Circle: From Jim Crow to Journalism. Lloyd was the founding executive director of the Freedom Forum Diversity Institute at Vanderbilt University. In 2019 she was inducted into the NABJ Hall of Fame. She writes for The Washington Post and the Savannah Morning News. ”The book is a collection of essays critical to the conversation and discussion by African-American women, some of them journalists, who write about how their lives and communities are shaped by family dynamics, faith, sexual orientation, colorism, the exhaustion of racism, culture and the arts.”

Why They Stay: Sex Scandals, Deals, and Hidden Agendas of Eight Political Wives by Anne Michaud. A veteran political journalist, Michaud is a reporter for The Wall Street Journal. She previously wrote a nationally syndicated op-ed column for Newsday and has won more than 25 writing and reporting awards. She was named “Columnist of the Year,” by the New York News Publishers Association. Examining the patterns of behaviors among political wives from Eleanor Roosevelt to Melania Trump, as well as Jackie Kennedy and Hilary Clinton, Michaud offers keen insights, some inspired by Medieval queens.

“In “Why They Stay: Sex Scandals, Deals, and Hidden Agendas of Eight Political Wives,” @Ammichaud examines the patterns of behaviors among political wives from Eleanor Roosevelt to Melania Trump. #summerreading #bestbooks”

Susan, Linda, Nina and Cokie: The Extraordinary Story of the Founding Mothers of NPR by Lisa Napoli. Author, journalist, advocate, creator and director, Napoli also directed two video documentaries, and has done live interviews of the world’s most interesting newsmakers. She led an award-winning volunteer cooking group at the Downtown Women’s Center on Skid Row in Los Angeles and is founding board president of the Bhutan Media Service, an all-volunteer news outlet. This is her fifth book and it “begins with the early life story of each woman and grows into an abridged history of National Public Radio as Napoli weaves their careers into it. She chronicles NPR’s chaotic origins and later its dramatic financial rescue after the ouster of President Frank Mankiewicz, ‘the man who brought NPR to prominence — and then nearly killed it,’” the Washington Post reports.

Fearless: The New Rules for Unlocking Creativity, Courage, and Success by Rebecca Minkoff. Even if right at the moment you are not wearing something that Minkoff created (and you just might be a regular consumer in her fashion empire), this book may guide you to build your own dreams. “By never giving up, she has created a space for herself on the shelves of luxury department stores across the world. From Rebecca’s experience, readers will learn how to: Take on challenges they initially didn’t know how to complete, using Rebecca’s fearless approach to push themselves to meet each and every one. Overcome the fear and trials female entrepreneurs often face. Break the rules and find success in places they previously thought to be inaccessible. Reach their goals, no matter how unattainable they may seem,” the publisher reports.

Pure Flame by Michelle Orange. Author, journalist and former producer in the education and children's divisions of TV Ontario, Orange is a faculty mentor in the graduate writing program at Goucher College and an adjunct assistant professor of writing at Columbia University. “Taking a kaleidoscopic approach to motherhood, Michelle Orange's cultural criticism-meets-memoir Pure Flame follows Orange's discovery of her mother's alter ego: Janis Jerome. Jerome was her mother's name as part of a case study, ultimately published in the Harvard Business Review, in which she left her family to pursue a career in a big city. Sometimes achingly sad, but often warm and evocative, this reckoning between mothers and daughters is a brilliant work of feminist critique,'“ Elle reports.

Creating an LGBT+ Inclusive Workplace: The Practical Resource Guide for Business Leaders by Kryss Shane. Named by The New York Times and many national and international platforms as America's go-to Leading LGBT Expert, Shane, MS, MSW, LSW, LMSW has 25+ years of experience guiding the world's top leaders in business, education, and community via individual, small group, and full-staff trainings. Shane reports, “Setting out best practices and professional guidance for creating LGBT+ inclusive workplaces, this approachable and easy to follow book guides current and future leaders of all industries toward appropriate and proven ways to create safer working environments, update company policies, enhance continuing education and training, and better support LGBT+ people in the workplace.”

“@ItsKryss, author of “Creating an LGBT+ Inclusive Workplace: The Practical Resource Guide for Business Leaders,” was named by @Nytimes and many national and international platforms as America’s go-to Leading LGBT Expert. #leadership #books”

Three Girls from Bronzeville: A Uniquely American Memoir of Race, Fate, and Sisterhood by Dawn Turner. An award-winning journalist and novelist, Turner is a former columnist and reporter for the Chicago Tribune, who served as a 2017 and 2018 juror for the Pulitzer Prize in commentary. Her powerful new memoir is her story of three Black girls growing up in Bronzeville, a neighborhood of Chicago. “These third-generation daughters of the Great Migration come of age in the 1970s, in the warm glow of the recent civil rights movement. It has offered them a promise, albeit nascent and fragile, that they will have more opportunities, rights, and freedoms than any generation of Black Americans in history. There’s heartbreak, loss, displacement, and even murder. Dawn struggles to make sense of the shocking turns that consume her sister and her best friend, all the while asking herself a simple but profound question: Why?” the publisher reports.

“Dawn Turner’s @dawnturnertrice powerful new memoir,”Three Girls from Bronzeville: A Uniquely American Memoir of Race, Fate, and Sisterhood,” is her story of three Black girls growing up in Bronzeville, a neighborhood of Chicago. #memoir #booksforwomen #summerreads”

Book Recs For Your Younger Mentees:
Yours for Justice, Ida B. Wells: The Daring Life of a Crusading Journalist by Philip Dray, illustrated by Stephen Alcorn

Thanks to Frances Perkins: Fighter for Workers’ Rights by Deborah Hopkinson, illustrated by Kristy Caldwell

Fearless World Traveler: Adventures of Marianne North, Botanical Artist by Laurie Lawlor, illustrated by Becca Stadtlander.

Stitch by Stitch: Elizabeth Hobbs Keckly Sews Her Way to Freedom by Connie Schofield-Morrison, illustrated by Elizabeth Zunon

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About the Author

Michele Weldon is editorial director of Take The Lead, an award-winning author, journalist, emerita faculty in journalism at Northwestern University and a senior leader with The OpEd Project. @micheleweldon www.micheleweldon.com