Pretty ProgressiveIt’s important to read about other women’s journeys through life. Feel empowered and energized after reading any one of these books, no matter how difficult your situation may be.
These authors prove that no matter how impossible a goal may seem for a woman, there is always a way to get there.Check out each book’s description to find the story that you relate to, and be impacted by the incredible stories that lie within.
#1 Do It Scared By Ruth Soukup
Do you feel your life lacks focus or that you are too scared to take those important first steps to a brighter and better future? You need Ruth Soukup. She inspires, encourages and with clear-eyed honesty draws your attention to the flaws all women struggle with, then motivates you to take the right path through life’s challenging maze. Do It Scared allows you to understand what ‘type’ of scared you are, how to combat your fears and provides practical solutions to your ‘what if’ questions encouraging and inspiring women to step out of the shadows and become who they really want to be.
#2 Find Your Mantra By Aysel Gunar
Be mindful and present in your daily life with these 75 uplifting messages, organized by theme. Founder of MantraBand Aysel Gunar provides an inspiring introduction on the importance of positive, meaningful mantras in your life. By reading these affirmations-one a day, several at a time, or just by opening the book at random-you’re taking the first step toward building a more rewarding life.
#3 So Here I Am: Speeches By Great Women To Empower And Inspire By Anna Russell
This anthology of outspoken women throughout history is essential reading for anyone who believes that change is not only possible, it is necessary. The first dedicated collection of seminal speeches by women from around the world, So Here I Am is about women at the forefront of change – within politics, science, human rights and media; discussing everything from free love, anti-war, scientific discoveries, race, gender and women’s rights.
#4 Women Kind: Unlocking The Power Of Women Supporting Women By Dr. Kristin Ferguson
Women are rallying together in a massive and unstoppable force to make their voices heard around the world in ways we have never seen before. When Dr Kirstin Ferguson, an Australian company director, decided she was fed up with the vicious online abuse of women she turned the tables and used social media to create the #CelebratingWomen campaign, profiling two women from all walks of life and from anywhere in the world, every day for a year.
#5 Grit And Grace By Quotabelle
From the founders of Quotabelle.com, Grit & Grace is a collection of quotes, stories and sage advice from female trailblazers, creatively designed to inspire modern-day leaders. Grit & Grace is the perfect companion for dreaming up fresh possibilities and translating vision into action. Its pages pair sourced quotations with the uncommon stories of a host of remarkable women, readying today’s leaders to imagine new futures.
#6 Mrs. Pankhurst’S Purple Feather: Fashion, Fury And Feminism – Women’S Fight For Change By Tessa Boase
This gripping narrative explores two singular heroines – one lionized, the other forgotten – and their rival, overlapping campaigns. Moving from the feather workers’ slums to the highest courtly circles, from the first female political rally to the first forcible feeding, Mrs Pankhurst’s Purple Feather is a unique journey through a society in transformation.
#7 Power In Numbers: The Rebel Women Of Mathematics By Talithia Williams
Power in Numbers: The Rebel Women of Mathematics is a full-color volume that takes aim at the forgotten influence of women on the development of mathematics over the last two millennia. You’ll see each eminent mathematician come to life on each page, women like the astronomer-philosopher Hypatia, theoretical physicist Emmy Noether, and rocket scientist Annie Easley. This book is an affirmation of female genius and a celebration of the boundless applications of mathematics.
#8 Beautifully Said By Quotabelle
Beautifully Said is a personal inspiration gallery, containing 21 themed chapters spotlighting women and girls who believe, build, discover, explore, heal, invent, laugh, lead, and more. You’ll love seeing quotes by incredible women from bygone eras, like Eleanor Roosevelt, Ella Fitzgerald, Harriet Tubman, and Audrey Hepburn, as well as contemporary figures like Serena Williams, Amy Poehler, and Malala Yousafzai, as well as noteworthy up-and-comers, including an Everest-scaling mountaineer, a space archaeologist, and a serial entrepreneur. Because sharing ideas and stories is how passions get sparked and role models emerge.
#9 Searching For God In The Garbage By Bracha Goetz
Experience what goes on inside the mind of a feminist Harvard grad who broke the habits that were imprisoning her in this raw and candid memoir about overcoming food addictions. Learn how to finally and forever fill the inner emptiness by nourishing your uniquely beautiful soul.
#10 Partner Betrayal Trauma Book By Douglas Weiss
The book uncovers the emotional trauma that can negatively impact a relationship when a partner cheats. Broken trust can take a toll on the relationship, but it doesn’t mean all is lost. Dr. Weiss stresses the importance of picking up the pieces, analyzing both partner’s feelings and working towards a positive change.
#11 Depression Hates A Moving Target By Nita Sweeney
At 49 years of age, grief-stricken, chronically depressed Nita Sweeney takes up running with her dog in an attempt to find a way out of the darkness. Her memoir of pounding the roads with her canine companion will entertain and motivate any reader who has ever fallen into deep despair. Whether or not readers want to follow in her footsteps, they will enjoy reading about her journey.
#12 Medicine And Miracles In The High Desert By Erica M. Elliott M.D
After her first week teaching at a boarding school on the Navajo Reservation near Canyon de Chelly, young Erica Elliott almost leaves in despair, unable to communicate with the children or understand cultural cues. But once she starts learning the Navajo language, the people begin to trust her, taking her into their homes and ceremonies. As she is drawn deeper into Navajo life, Erica has a series of profound experiences with the people, animals, and spirits of Canyon de Chelly. Fulfilling a Navajo grandmother’s prophecy, she returns years later as a medical doctor to offer her services to Navajo patients.
#13 T.R.U.T.H.: Taking Responsibility Unleashes True Healing By Mary Ellen Ciganovich
Responsibility Unleashes True Healing by Mary Ellen Ciganovich. This book consists of 366 Truth of the day posts – one for every day of the year plus one extra. Mary Ellen posts a Truth then uses it in the inspiration for that day. It can be read all at once or one day at a time – you can use it this year or next. It makes an excellent gift for anyone of any age as it was written to assist all people in their life journey’s.
#14 Peak Performance Secrets By Todd Denen
The book, Peak Performance Secrets, empowers women by showing them the secret technique that today’s Elite Entrepreneurs and Athletes are using to easily maximize their Performance on all Levels.
#15 A Woman’S Worth By Marianne Williamson
Marianne takes women on an historical and spiritual journey into how we may have lost our confidence and how the keys to reclaiming our power have been within us all this time.
#16 Big Magic By Elizabeth Gilbert
Elizabeth Gilbert has taken a unique approach to helping us understand that we all have a creative side. She externalizes and personifies ideas and makes a persuasive argument to suggest that if we are not ready for the Muse, it will go elsewhere. One thing I love about her book, is that she gives us permission to be creative and warns us against making our creativity work for us, but rather to consider ourselves in service of it.
This takes a lot of pressure off our creativity and allows us to play. In my practice, I advise my clients to find a creative outlet fast and use it often. Using creativity to process difficult emotions uses what economics call, temptation bundling by attaching an enjoyable activity to something less enjoyable, like processing one’s emotions. As Gilbert writes, at the end of your creative adventure, you have a souvenirsomething that you made, something to remind you forever of your brief but transformative encounter with inspiration.
#17 Poetic Justice: Lessons Of Love, Life & Relationships By Tami Belt
These pages hold a lifetime of lessons learned about love, life and relationships. Poetic Justice is not a typical book designed for reading from beginning to end but as individual pages that beckon your soul at a particular moment in time.
Chapters are organized by topic, not chronologically. Like a diary entry, each poem represents my innermost insights and feelings during a moment in time. Each entry is anonymous because lessons live on unlike some relationships.
I didn’t write these poems, they wrote me. When I was overwhelmed with emotions and didn’t think anyone could hear me or understand, the words poured through me onto the pages . . . sometimes between the blinding tears of heartbreak and betrayal, sometimes fueled by liquid courage on bar napkins, sometimes in the depths of depression and sometimes by the light of love.
#18 Me And The Japanese Beauty Standards By Tomomi Tsuchio
The author tells about her struggles and how she overcame them in this book. It is an inspiring book, but everyone can relate to her stories. This book will help to show you that the insecurities, struggles, mistakes, and shames we face in life are expected things, that we all go through. It is not about being perfect! It is about being YOU!!!!
#19 Soul Conversations By Wells Gc-C, Austyn
Inspirational is what this author does best. Wells writes with an uplifting tone through the book, with tips on how to cultivate your intuition, heal your heart and connect to the divine. The book is all about how to live from your soul, connect to your purpose and see the lesson in even the most difficult of situations. The book also comes with a digital portion, for downloadable guided meditations to put the practices she teaches into action. This book inspired me to finally let go of the resentment I’ve held onto for many years, and continue to lean into my spirituality to grow.
For women, this book is extraordinarily helpful as it investigates the roles we often find ourselves playing – the victim, the persecutor, the rescuer. Wells encourages the reader to let go of the need to save other people, but rather, come back to the soul and come back to love, to live a soul-centered, loving life.
#20 How I Learned To Smile From The Inside By Santoro Cec, Seth E
This book is for anyone who has lost their smile, for any reason. It reminds us that you can heal from anything. While the author shares with us 5 harrowing stories and the similar process in which he found himself for each situation, he also shares tips and tricks and the reality of each stage of “grief” or as he refers to it, “healing.” Be ready for an incredible journey filled of love, laughter and the mysterious gifts and learnings enveloped in the healing process.
#21 Born Enough: The Holistic Blueprint To Remembering By Ondrea Lynn
Research shows that only 4% of women worldwide consider themselves beautiful
About 78% of girls are not happy with their body when they reach 18 and it is a continuous battle throughout their life.
Over half of women agree that they are their own worst critic
All of these statistics equate to an epidemic among women of not feeling worthy.
Are you ready to accept that you are worthy and enough? To know that your experiences, beliefs and feelings of unworthiness are not the core of your being?
Are the patterns of feeling incomplete and not enough so embedded in your being that most of the time you aren’t even aware of the chaos these beliefs are creating in your life?
YOU ARE NOT ALONE AND YOU ARE BORN ENOUGH
By letting go of your past, restructuring your belief system, and utilizing tangible tools, you can know and experience the truth that you are born enough.
In this book you will discover:
- How not enough is showing up in your life
- Why not enough is showing up in your life
- Ways to transform your not enough to feeling empowered and worthy
- How to utilize your mind, movement and food to support knowing that you are worthy and complete just as you are
This impactful book is full of practical information and real-life stories that allow and encourage you to move from feelings of inadequacy to feeling confident and abundant.
#22 Hope: A Spiritual Journey By Dr. Jane Goodall
Jane Goodall is one of the most important scientists (female or male) of our time. She became the world’s most famous primatologist in a time where the field was dominated by men and has remained so for the past 40 plus years.
In this memoir, she shares her spiritual epiphany and why everyone can find a reason for hope. She’s an incredible inspiration to women. I finished the book questioning how I could make a positive difference in our world. It’s a must-read for all women. I’m convinced our world would be a much better place if every woman read it and took even a small action as a result.
#23 The Secret By Rhonda Byrne
The theme of The Secret has been found throughout history. The Secret has been used holistically in people’s lives to help in all aspects of life from family, wealth, and overall well-being. The secret will help to bring to light ways to overcome hardship and difficulties. It’s a must-read for any woman looking to transform her life for the better.
#24 Connect: How To Love And Accept Yourself After Divorce By Dawn Burnett
Connect How To Love And Accept Yourself After Divorce takes readers on a journey, a behind the scenes of how 9 brave women divorced what no longer served their highest good, left their toxic relationships behind and gained the courage and strength to follow their dreams by giving themselves permission to work on their inner being. Today they are all thriving and they supply a fool proof plan for readers so they too can become strong women!
#25 Indestructible: Leveraging Your Broken Heart To Become A Force Of Love & Change In The World By Allison Fallon
Indestructible tells the shocking story of a marriage that didn’t go as planned, the truth that shattered everything, and the beautiful unfolding of a woman who decided that saving her marriage wasn’t worth losing herself. Like most people, Allison Fallon didn’t get married thinking she would get divorced. In fact, marrying a pastor felt like the surest way to guarantee a safe and happy marriage. So when she found out the man she married was not the man she thought he was, she had some choices to make.
A wrestling with faith and love, romance and drama, truth and fiction, this story calls into question what it means to fall in love, stay in love, and become a force of love and change in the world. Although Indestructible is only one woman’s story, it serves as a powerful reminder to anyone who has been disillusioned by love that falling in love might be harder and easier than they ever imagined; and that “the one” they’re looking for is closer than they think.
#26 Chasing The Bright Side By Jess Ekstrom
Chasing the Bright Side (November 5, 2019, shares CEO of Headbands of Hope, Jess Ekstrom’s inspirational story of how optimism helped her overcome multiple challenges, and the dynamic ways her mindset propelled her as a young entrepreneur, international speaker, and philanthropist. After being featured on the TODAY Show and Good Morning America, and seen in Vanity Fair, Seventeen and more, Jess teaches readers to embrace the power of optimism in their own life, and help reimagine their purpose so they can create good in the world while fulfilling their own dreams—right where they are.
#27 Finding Medusa – The Making Of An Unlikely Rock Star By Donna F Brown
This is an incredible story that needed to be told. It is a story of survival, courage, and resilience in the face of adversity, and highlights how one woman overcame overwhelming health and personal challenges to make a difference in the world by becoming a role model for sheer persistence and determination in pursuing and living your dreams. Despite a difficult home life and taking many detours in her life, (i.e. working as a nurse, studying with world renown master mime, Marcel Marceau,) these detours served as stepping stones ultimately leading back to her musical roots as a member of a legendary ‘70s rock band, Medusa, where it all started.
#28 Follow Your Detour By Lindsay Mckenzie
Follow Your Detour is a perfect book for any woman facing the reality that life rarely goes as we plan it to starts to set in. Women spend a lot of their lives planning – when they’ll get married and have children, their careers, purchasing their first home, etc. We’ve always been told to follow our dreams, but what happens when those dreams aren’t working out? Divorce? Infertility? Loss of a job or a loved one? We quickly learn that often times those plans don’t work out and we run into dead ends along the paths we work so hard to create for ourselves.
Follow Your Detour is a book about just that! It shares the author, Lindsay’s, own journey of loss and how she embraced the most difficult dead end in her life as a detour. The concept of a detour is critical in life. Understanding that sometimes detours end up leading us on journeys better than we could have imagined or planned for ourselves helps us find purpose in our pain and faith in the future. No matter what you’re going through, this book will help you find the courage to accept it, overcome your fears of uncertainty, and push forward towards finding the real you and discovering the greatness that’s out there waiting for you. All you have to do is follow that detour!
#29 Hey You, Just Go! By De Vore, Sahara Rose
Women are so busy taking care of others, raising a family, taking care of the home, making sure everyone else is happy and healthy, and working one, two, or maybe even three jobs that they forget to take care of themselves and do what makes them feel fulfilled. Traveling is something that so many women dream of doing but most never get around to other than a one-time-a-year vacation that takes a big bite out of their budget.
Whether it’s fiances, a cramped scheduled, a heavy workload, lack of travel expertise, safety concerns and other travel fears, or a lack of confidence to be able to pull off the type of trip that they yearn for, women often put travel on their vision board but never in their calendar. In travel coach Sahara Rose De Vore’s travel and mindset book Hey You, Just Go!, she empowers, teaches, and inspires women of all ages to incorporate more travel into their lifestyle based on their own budget and time frame. Sahara Rose inspires women to tap into their deeper reasons for wanting to travel so they can have an experience that transforms their mind, body, and overall well-being. She empowers women to have the confidence to travel with their children even if they are a single mom, with their partner to strengthen their relationship, or even solo to build their inner confidence and be the woman that they want to be.
Whether they have a disability, struggle mentally, are introverted, going through a breakup, burned out from work, or any other real reasons that drive people to travel, this book teaches women how to take control over their travel dreams. Travel has a myriad of wellness benefits and can provide transformative experiences that inspire women to live their best life but only when done properly. From setting and sticking to a budget, finding the best travel deals, engaging in cultural experiences, saving for a trip, stepping out of your comfort zone, facing travel fears, figuring out where to go and when based on your personal obstacles and needs, navigating new destinations, and everything else that you need to plan, book, and have the best travel experience possible, this book has it all!
The recommendations of products and books within this article where sourced from industry experts. Their names and websites are listed below.
Marjorie Dawson from Dash Kitten Photo
Lydia Rasmussen from The Quarto Group
Bracha Goetz from Spiritual Books
Katie Morales from Interdependence PR
Nita Sweeney from NitaSweeney
LAVIDGE from Medicine and Miracles in the High Desert
Mary Ellen Ciganovich from R.E.A.L. Health,L.L.C.
Todd Denen from Advanced Flow University
Jennifer Convissor from LiveWork Solutions
Tami Belt from Blue Cube Marketing Solutions
Tomomi Tsuchio from TomomiTsuchio
Haley Comet from Haley Comet Astrology
Seth Eliot Santoro from IamSethEliot
Laurel Robbins from Monkeys and Mountains Adventure Travel
Adina Mahalli from EnlightenedReality
Dawn Burnett from A New Dawn Natural Solutions, Inc
Allison Fallon from AllisonFallon
Jess Ekstrom from JessEkstrom
Donna F. Brown from Write On Donna
Lindsay McKenzie from Follow Your Detour
Sahara Rose De Vore from The Travel Coach Network
