Lean In

Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead

by Sheryl Sandberg : Alfred A. Knopf 2013

Summary: Sheryl Sandberg’s Lean In is a massive cultural phenomenon and its title has become an instant catchphrase for empowering women. The book soared to the top of bestseller lists internationally, igniting global conversations about women and ambition. Sandberg packed theatres, dominated opinion pages, appeared on every major television show and on the cover of Time magazine, and sparked ferocious debate about women and leadership.

Ask most women whether they have the right to equality at work and the answer will be a resounding yes, but ask the same women whether they'd feel confident asking for a raise, a promotion, or equal pay, and some reticence creeps in.

The statistics, although an improvement on previous decades, are certainly not in women's favour – of 197 heads of state, only twenty-two are women. Women hold just 20 percent of seats in parliaments globally, and in the world of big business, a meagre eighteen of the Fortune 500 CEOs are women.

In Lean In, Sheryl Sandberg – Facebook COO and one of Fortunemagazine's Most Powerful Women in Business – draws on her own experience of working in some of the world's most successful businesses and looks at what women can do to help themselves, and make the small changes in their life that can effect change on a more universal scale.

My Review: This book changed my life and where I stand as a women and the leader I want to be. As someone who is hoping for a place in the career world its going to take alot of courage to challenge the process, enable other to act, and to put yourself out there. Sheryl Sandberg is truly inspirational.  It is a must read! Here are some highlighted themes worth mentioning in her book. 

1. The Leadership Ambition Gap: What Would You Do if You Weren't Afraid? 
2. Sit at the Table 
3. Success and Likeability
4. It's a Jungle Gym, Not a Ladder 
5. Are You My Mentor?
6. Seek and Speak Your Truth 
7. Don't Leave before you Leave 
8. Make your Partner a real Partner 
9. The Myth of Doing it All 
10. Let's Start Talking about it
11. Working Together Toward Equality

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Becoming Jane Austen (150 Review)

Becoming Jane Austen

By Jon Spence; Continuum International Publishing Group 2007

Summary: Jon Spence's biography of Jane Austen paints an intimate portrait of the much-loved novelist. Spence's meticulous research has uncovered evidence that Austen and the charming young Irishman Tom Lefroy fell in love at the age of twenty and that the relationship inspired "Pride and Prejudice," one of the most celebrated works of fiction. "Becoming Jane Austen" gives the fullest account we have of the romance, which was more serious and more enduring than previously believed. Seeing this love story in the context of Jane Austen's whole life enables us to appreciate the profound effect the relationship had on her art and on subsequent choices that she made in her life. Full of insight and with an attentive eye for detail, Spence explores Jane Austen's emotional attachments and the personal influences that shaped her as a novelist. The narrative provides a point of entry into Jane Austen's world as she herself perceived and experienced it. It is a world familiar to us from her novels, but in "Becoming Jane Austen," Austen herself is the heroine.

My Review: If I haven’t told you all this already I will do it now. I am a huge Jane Austen fan. I devour her books and any biographies on her. I was randomly walking through a local book store when I saw the cover of Becoming  Jane Austen, I stopped in my tracks, picked it up, and bought it. I had just watched my favorite movie Becoming Jane the night before and could not get enough about the Tom Leffory and Jane Austen almost love story.  This book is a biography of Jane Austen’s life that showed that Jon Spence truly knows about Jane and her life. The only thing that I didn’t like about this book is that at time Jon Spence put  some of his own theories  instead of fact.  The best chapter in this book is when it talks about Jane’s love life and the relationships she had. If you love Jane Austen, then you will love this book.