If I could recommend a book to any young female professional, it would be “Something Wicked: Why Feminism Can’t Be Fused with Christianity” by Carrie Gress, Ph.D. The insights she shares about the dangers of feminism are ones that I have spent the last several years untangling as a mid-career professional and full-time, stay-at-home mom. This book would have saved younger me some heartache in terms of how I viewed the working world and myself.

Every once in a while, you come across a book and think: Every woman I know should read this. Teenagers, mothers, religious sisters, women who are committed single and those beyond menopause. When you find this book, you pray that tools like social media and the natural interconnected way women communicate will disperse the message worldwide. The Language of Your Body is that book.

The book Leadership Unblocked: Break Through the Beliefs that Limit Your Potential by Muriel M. Wilkins was a book I struggled to read. As a naturally introspective person who feels like I already have a strong awareness of my strengths and weaknesses, I was humbled to realize how much growth I still need in many areas. However, that realization was not discouraging, but instead inspiring.

Before reading Feast, Faith and Flourish by the Ember Collective, I had no idea just how deeply my Catholic faith is woven into every season of life.

In All the Cool Girls Get Fired, authors Laura Brown and Kristina O’Neil offer an honest discussion on being laid off and coming back stronger. Along with actionable steps, they share other well-known women’s firing experiences in various industries, highlighting that being laid off – fired – is a shared experience that can become a setup for the next chapter in your professional life. 

Pope Leo XIII was concerned with the rise of socialism and cultural and economic problems caused by the Industrial Revolution. He wrote Rerum Novarum: Rights and Duties of Capital and Labor to address these concerns and light a better way for the world.