Falling All Over Books by Mentors this Month
I couldn't love the fall season more.
From fashion week walks to non-fiction drops, there is a freshness and jolt of insight running through the air like a current. As we fill backpacks with glossy books and our calendars with circled dates, let us also jot down some September titles for our own TBR stacks! Written by mentors we admire and releasing throughout the month, here are eight epic role model reads you won't want to miss as we all head back to class...
Four already on shelves...
Lovely One for Supreme wisdom and insight. Written by Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson and released on September 3rd, Lovely One "reveals what it takes to advance in the legal profession when most people in power don’t look like you, and to reconcile a demanding career with the joys and sacrifices of marriage and motherhood." Justice Jackson's journey, the publisher promises, "will resonate with dreamers everywhere, especially those who nourish outsized ambitions and refuse to be turned aside."
The Home Edit For Teens for the next gen under your (newly-organized) roof. Brought to us by The Home Edit founders Clea Shearer and Joanna Teplin and similarly released on September 3rd, this book could not be better timed for back to school. I was lucky enough to meet both authors when the book dropped in NYC last week, and the line around the block was enough to tell any parents seeking order to order The Home Edit For Teens.
The Leadership Journey for small readers with big dreams. What do I hope the younger set is reading as election coverage fills grown up feeds? Pulitzer Prize winning author Doris Kearns Goodwin's middle grade guide to four major presidents. Released on September 10th, The Leadership Journey examines the qualities that Lincoln, Roosevelt, FDR and Johnson not only possessed individually...but interestingly shared in common. Want to inspire tomorrow's leaders? Start their journey here.
Bone of the Bone for a masterclass on socioeconomic class. Collected for the first time in a single volume, National Book Award finalist Sarah Smarsh's 30+ essays on class in America has been an eagerly-awaited fall syllabus. Released on September 10th and featuring a previously unpublished essay as well as a new intro, Bone of the Bone has been called "required short-form nonfiction reading."
...and four more hitting stores soon:
Everything To Play For for gamers with serious game. Releasing tomorrow, Marijam Did's newest work offers an expertly-researched "account of the videogame industry telling how gaming can become a force for good." Diving deeply into the gaming community and the political actors leading within it, Everything To Play For argues that the videogame industry's power (did you know that it is larger than the film and music industries combined?) can and should be harnessed for good.
Something Lost, Something Gained for clear-eyed, candid perspective. When Être students sat in class at Columbia University with former Secretary of State, US Senator and First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton, they couldn't stop talking about her stories and anecdotes. How freely she shared her views on leadership, liberty and love - and how they wished they could hear more. Well, wish granted. Releasing tomorrow, Something Lost, Something Gained notes that HRC has “looked at life from both sides now"...and here's what she wants us to know.
Burnt Out to Lit Up for replacing work chaos with chill confidence. I was lucky enough to interview author Daisy Auger-Domínguez (she/her/ella) about Burnt Out to Lit Up (which releases this Wednesday) earlier in the month, and our conversation can be found here. Having shared previous book launch events with Daisy when her first book Inclusion Revolution and The Epic Mentor Guide celebrated Women's History Month (yep, we rode the escalator at Barnes & Noble all afternoon), my joy knows no bounds watching her newest book light the season.
A Little Less Broken for realizing that differences can make us whole. Releasing at the end of the month on September 24th, Marian Schembari shows us how a single diagnosis can take us from feeling broken to whole. Learning that she was autistic at age 34, author Schembari - whose first byline was in Highlights for Kids at age 11 - investigates "the ways women and girls are socialized to mask the symptoms" and encourages all of us to lean into and love our truest selves.
What else could we want for fall?
When role models release riveting works and mentors write memoirs that make us think, going back to school energizes us all. September shelves hold something for everyone, and we have these rockstar women to thank.
Looking forward with late-night reading lights on,
Illana
ÊXTRAS: Excited for more books coming this fall? Here are three October 2024 releases you won't want to miss: Be Ready When the Luck Happens by Ina Garten coming on October 1st, The Elements of Marie Curie: How the Glow of Radium Lit a Path for Women in Science by Dava Sobel coming on October 8th, and Confidence Unleashed by Sheri West coming on October 10th.
