What to Read

Are you tired of only reading meeting notes and industry newspapers? Don't want to waste your time reading something that isn't good? We go through a lot of books each month, and we only recommend those that really make us think or change something in our lives. And we share these in our Women in Business Newsletter each month.

Invincible by Leah Lagos

She guides you through a 10-week breathing program which helps with stress, anxiety and performance at important events. It feels similar to meditation and you need a heart rate monitor that can read HRV to get biofeedback while doing the exercises. We’ve all been told to “breathe with our stomachs” to de-stress, but no one has taught us how to actually do it and achieve results.

Stop telling working women they just need an equal partnership at home

Bobbi Thomason brilliantly explains why we should stop blaming women for not having partners who take on 50% of the responsibility at home.

Why We Sleep by Matthew Walker

If one of your friends haven’t already told you to read this book on sleep science you should rescind your half of their bracelet. This is the book to share with anyone you care about for the new year. It has the perfect level of facts and walk-throughs of studies to scare you from all-nighters to a peaceful 8-hour hibernation. If you’re not going to sleep in 2022, when will you?

The Authority Gap by Mary Ann Sieghart

She brilliantly explains how people perceive women as less competent than men even by using relevant research and sharing thought-provoking stories. One of the most interesting examples comes from a researcher who had transitioned from woman to man and suddenly found himself taken more seriously, and even had people compliment that he was so much better than his “sister” which of course was himself before transitioning. Sieghart also lists the things we can do to help decrease gender-based biased both at home, in schools, at work and in general conversations with other people. Would you have said that about her if she were a man?

Come As You Are by Emily Nagoski

You might have watched The principles of pleasure on Netflix lately, and this book was written by one of the women with a PhD in health behaviour. She talks about how sex is affected by things like trauma, a shaky relationship or when your body and your brain don’t get aroused at the same time. Nagoski is very research-driven, and she explains things that we never thought we needed to ask about in sex-ed. So while we might all be adults who have practised safe, sane and consensual sex for decades, it can’t hurt to get a researcher’s perspective on what’s going on.

Attached by Amir Levine and Rachel Heller

At some point a few years ago, people started buzzing about attachment styles and how this affects your dating life. It might sound like a load of bullshit, but this book went around my group of friends (including some psychotherapists) who found it extremely helpful. The book identifies three main attachment styles which are secure, anxious and avoidant and describes how people with each of these styles might react to each other and why some styles are better suited to dating a specific type of people. You can talk about love languages all you want, but if you haven’t read this, you have missed out on a great opportunity for self-awareness.

The 5 Second Rule by Mel Robbins

It sounds too stupid to work, but this rule to stop procrastinating and get things done is surprisingly motivating. It tries to make us tap into our instincts to do the things we need to do and block the critical voice in our head that quickly pops in to tell us what a bad idea it is and makes us drop our plan to do something within 5 seconds. Whenever you have a natural push to do something, you count backwards from 5 to 1 and at or before 1, you have to do a physical movement that brings you closer to doing it. The idea came from a Ted talk Robbins did in 2011 were at the end of the talk, she mentions counting down from 5 and then moving to get out of bed in the morning. The talk blew up, and people and people kept contacting her to tell her how well it worked for them. Robbins then started researching what had worked for these people and wrote a book about the rule. Count down from 5 and start reading it.