10 Best Self-Development Books By Women To Get Stuck Into Reading During The COVID-19 Lockdown

Losing yourself in a great book is a great joy to be had in life, and right now could never be a better time to dive nose deep. Let’s just make sure that these books are exactly what you are looking for by asking yourself first if you want to feel inspired by female authors who are still hugely underrepresented in this male-dominated industry. Then secondly, whether you are curious to see what new learnings you can obtain and apply from other successful women out there making big changes.

Now, if you answered ‘yes’ to any of those above, then you have come to the right place. We have whittled this list down to the top 10 books written by equally talented female authors, and believe us when we say it was a tough cut to slice. From discussions focused around entrepreneurship to self-help issues, to covering the biographies of these women and their journey to the top, we hope you enjoy the selection as much as we do!

#1 Neeta Oza – My Mini-Micro Mindset Manual and others in the mini-micro self-help series

#2 Maria Afentakis – The Spiritual Scientist, Eclipse Publishing & Media

Maria Afentakis is a scientist in cancer research, with degrees in Biochemistry and Neuroscience from the Institute of Psychiatry, King’s College, London. She has worked in prestigious scientific institutes throughout her scientific career, including London School of Pharmacy, Imperial College and The Royal Marsden Hospital, London. Maria is a gifted third-generation spiritual psychic, incarnated angel, clairvoyant, intuitive reader, angelic reiki practitioner, Atlantean healing practitioner, qualified animal healer and communicator, crystal healer, Einstein channel, public speaker, teacher and author.

The book covers the scientific concepts of energy and the human body and relates these concepts to their spiritual aspects. The scientific concepts will be written in an accurate and a simple fashion, so the reader will be able to understand these concepts without having a high degree of scientific knowledge. The book will discuss the scientific concept first then relate these to the spiritual aspect.

#3 Jacquie Flecknoe-Brown – The Dreamer’s Odyssey

Jacquie Flecknoe-Brown worked in an acute psychiatric ward where she realised that a person’s suffering and behaviour carried meaning for that person, even when it was not fully understood. She trained in Milan school of Systemic Family Therapy, a therapy that helped to unearth this meaning in the context of family.

The 10-week guide has been adapted from the courses that the author, Jacquie Flecknoe-Brown, has run successfully for many years. Closely linked to the theory of C. G. Jung, each chapter includes an interpreted dream relevant to the weekly content. It also includes analysis of dream-theory, and interpretation of mythical material to illustrate theoretical points. Working with dreams and their images helps us to be more conscious of ourselves, our shadows, our opposites, and our purpose. Dreams can ease our burdens, help us problem-solve, improve our memories, and enlighten us. The dream is a natural, and living phenomenon – working to understand our dreams will have an effect on many aspects of our lives.

#4 Hira Ali – Her Way To The Top

Award-winning Hira Ali examines the myriad of challenges women face on their road to professional success. Informed by her 13 years of coaching experience and survey responses from 300 working women, she reveals the universal internal and external roadblocks that can impede a woman’s climb to the top, regardless of her culture or geography. This go-to guide for working women explores FOMO (the Fear of Missing Out), Imposter Syndrome, perfectionism and sexual harassment, among other issues.

She moves beyond problems and empowers her readers with real solutions to help them break the glass ceiling. Written by a successful career woman for the benefit of career women around the world, Her Way to the Top demonstrates that women are all in this together, and together they can make a difference for each other.

#5 Carol Stewart – Quietly Visible: Leading with influence and impact as an introverted woman

#6 Shola Kaye – How to Be A DIVA At Public Speaking

Written for both women and men, in a lively, accessible style, the book uses examples from the world of pop music, referring to DIVAs such as Beyonce and Adele. Although the book seeks to use female role models, there is plenty of content here that men can use too. You are shown how to be a dynamic, inspiring, valuable and authentic presenter.

#7 Lucia Knight – X Change

This rebellious generation has been tamed by the corporate master and trained into submission. Lucia Knight challenges you to step back, look at what you wanted, where you are now and what you want to create next.

#8 Margaux Noel – Creating An Audience

You’ve likely heard of how to capture an audience, but do you know how to create one? Too often, leaders try to tailor their message to suit their audience, when they should instead be creating their own one-of-a-kind audience to suit their message. Creating an Audience provides straightforward guidelines for identifying audience backgrounds and motives and constructing an audience identity and goal.

Armed with a rich supply of insight into audience psyche and analyses of profiling tactics, Margaux Noël shares secrets that have, until now, been reserved for experts. Writers, speakers, educators, and leaders alike will learn a new process by which to create and grow their audience. Creating an Audience outlines a newly-proposed presentation planning process based on group psychology and audience profiling theories. Do you have trouble gathering an audience? Look no further. This book will provide you with a proper awareness of your audience’s psyche and give you the steps necessary to build a more united audience.

#9 Alison Edgar – Secrets Of Successful Sales

If you don’t sell, you don’t have a business. In Secrets of Successful Sales, Alison Edgar, The Entrepreneur’s Godmother, brings together psychology and sales to help you develop a winning strategy for increasing sales and growing your business. Centred around Alison’s Four Key Pillars of Sales methodology, this book enables you to understand customer behaviours, provides you with a foolproof process, explains how to create an effective strategy, and close with confidence.

#10 Jessica Hule – Purpose: Find Your Truth and Embrace Your Calling

Jessica Huie went from being a teenage mother, expelled from school and living in a hostel, to having a glittering career in Public Relations, working with some of the world’s biggest stars and business people, including Samuel L. Jackson, Simon Cowell, Sir Bob Geldof and Meghan Markle. When she set up her own first business, it earned her invitations to round tables with the UK Prime Minister, the chance to deliver inspiring assemblies to school children in Johannesburg, and an MBE award for services to entrepreneurship – all by the age of 34. In this book, Jessica shares the lessons she has learnt in evolving from an individual who was once purposeless and unhappy, to someone who recognises her complete power to design and create a successful, meaningful life, built from an authentic foundation.

She offers the reader the tools she has honed throughout her 18-year career to empowering them to get unstuck, look at how they can make real change to the lives of others and experience more genuine fulfilment from what they do every day. Featuring her own incredible story, celebrity anecdotes and examples of how each lesson applies in the “real world”, this book will inspire the reader to take action towards living their purpose and a life that lights them up.

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