Becoming Bulletproof: Protect Yourself, Read People, Influence Situations, and Live Fearlessly by Evy Poumpouras

Former Secret Service agent and star of Bravo’s Spy Games Evy Poumpouras shares lessons learned from protecting presidents, as well insights and skills from the oldest and most elite security force in the world to help you prepare for stressful situations, instantly read people, influence how you are perceived, and live a more fearless life.

Becoming Bulletproof means transforming yourself into a stronger, more confident, and more powerful person. Evy Poumpouras—former Secret Service agent to three presidents and one of only five women to receive the Medal of Valor—demonstrates how we can overcome our everyday fears, have difficult conversations, know who to trust and who might not have our best interests at heart, influence situations, and prepare for the unexpected. When you have become bulletproof, you are your best, most courageous, and most powerful version of you. Poumpouras shows us that ultimately true strength is found in the mind, not the body.

Live Alone and Like It by Marjorie Hillis

One of my favorite empowerment books and one I have re-read several times through the years.

“Whether you view your one-woman ménage as Doom or Adventure, you need a plan, if you are going to make the best of it.”

Marjorie Hillis provides no-nonsense advice in this archly funny, gently prescriptive manifesto for single women. Though it was 1936 when the Vogue editor first shared her wisdom with her fellow singletons, the tome has been passed lovingly through the generations, and is even more apt today than when it was first published. Hillis, a true bon vivant, was sick and tired of hearing single women carping about their living arrangements and lonely lives; this book is her invaluable wake-up call for single women to take control and enjoy their circumstances.

Hillis takes readers through the fundamentals of living alone, including the importance of creating a hospitable environment at home, cultivating hobbies that keep her there (“for no woman can accept an invitation every night without coming to grief”), the question of whether single ladies may entertain men at home (the answer may surprise you!), and many more. Who can resist a book with chapters such as “A Lady and Her Liquor,” “Pleasures of a Single Bed,” and “Solitary Refinement?” A priceless gem from a more genteel age. 

Nice Girls Don’t Get the Corner Office: 101 Unconscious Mistakes Women Make That Sabotage Their Careers by Lois P. Frankel 

If you work nonstop without a break…worry about offending others and back down too easily…explain too much when asked for information….or “poll” your friends and colleagues before making a decision, chances are you have been bypassed for promotions and ignored when you expressed your ideas. Although you may not be aware of it, girlish behaviors such as these are sabotaging your career!

Dr. Lois Frankel reveals why some women roar ahead in their careers while others stagnate. She’s spotted a unique set of behaviors–101 in all–that women learn in girlhood that sabotage them as adults. Now, in this groudbreaking guide, she helps you eliminate these unconscious mistakes that could be holding you back–and offers invaluable coaching tips you can easily incorporate into your social and business skills. If you recognize and change the behaviors that say “girl” not “woman”, the results will pay off in carrer opportunites you never thought possible–and in an image that identifies you as someone with the power and know-how to occupy the corner office. 

Women Who Run With the Wolves: Myths and Stories of the Wild Woman Archetype by Clarissa Pinkola Estés

Within every woman there is a wild and natural creature, a powerful force, filled with good instincts, passionate creativity, and ageless knowing. Her name is Wild Woman, but she is an endangered species. Clarissa Pinkola Estes, Ph.D., Jungian analyst and cantadora storyteller shows how women’s vitality can be restored through what she calls “psychic archeological digs” into the ruins of the female unconsious. Using multicultural myths, fairy tales, folk tales, and stories, Dr. Estes helps women reconnect with the healthy, instinctual, visionary attributes of the Wild Woman archetype.

Dr. Estes has created a new lexicon for describing the female psyche. Fertile and life-giving, it is a psychology of women in the truest sense, a knowing of the soul.

You Are a Goddess: Working with the Sacred Feminine to Awaken, Heal and Transform by Sophie Bashford

You know ‘the Goddess’ as a divine feminine figure of myth, art and faith – but are you aware that, in truth, the Goddess is a life force that lives in you? Did you know that your multi-faceted experiences of life as a woman are influenced by Goddess consciousness? Do you sense that you have a hidden feminine energy that longs to be seen, accepted, valued – and used for a healing purpose?

In this highly engaging and stirring book, leading intuitive Sophie Bashford takes you on a journey to meet nine Goddess archetypes, which will help you to:

  •  understand the many ups and downs, emotions and cycles of your life through the ‘eyes of the Goddess’
  •  discover how the Goddesses can ignite your spiritual growth and uncover your feminine healing gifts
  •  learn how to work with each Goddess for self-healing, positive inner change and empowerment
  •  get in touch with a divine feminine support and healing system comprising nine archetypes – including Kali, Mary Magdalene, Aphrodite and Isis

Sharing intuitively channelled messages, beautiful guided meditations and moving personal experiences, Sophie leads you into safe territories where your darkest fears can be healed, your deepest dreams awakened and your entire life transformed.