Looking for something new to read this summer? Our latest Innovation Women summer reading roundup brings together four very different stories, spanning fiction, memoir and true-life storytelling. These picks explore family, identity, trust, ambition and the complicated paths people take through work and life.
The Orange Blossom by Jebeh Edmunds
Jebeh Edmunds’ novella The Orange Blossom follows the Collins family across generations and continents, from Liberia to Michigan, Paris and New York. At the center is Joviah Collins, a fashion designer whose success is complicated by family secrets and a past she can no longer outrun. Her story connects with those of her grandmother, the famed Orange Vendor Woman of Liberia, and her mother, Beatrice, as buried truths force the family to reckon with its history, identity and relationships.
‘Paused.: Redefining Identity When Our Story No Longer Holds Us by Susan A. Miele, PhD
Susan A. Miele, PhD, draws on her experience as a Fortune 500 chief people officer in this memoir about what happens when the roles and achievements that shape your identity suddenly change. After a series of personal and professional disruptions upended the life she had built, Miele found herself questioning who she was beyond her career, relationships and other markers of success. Blending memoir, research and storytelling, ‘Paused examines how identity is formed, disrupted and rebuilt when the story we have relied on no longer fits.
Embracing Trust: The Ascending Ladders Series Book 3 by Karen Ann Bulluck
Three women leaders find themselves questioning what trust means in Embracing Trust, the third book in Karen Ann Bulluck’s Ascending Ladders series. Alisha Carson must repair relationships after betraying her colleagues’ trust, while Sheryl Simmon deals with betrayal at work and in her marriage; Gemma Morrison, meanwhile, finds herself in unfamiliar territory and unsure who she can rely on. As their stories intertwine, the three women face challenges in both their personal and professional lives and must decide when to take a chance on others and themselves.
On the Rocks: The Primadonna Story by co-author Maria C. Palmer
Hear how restaurateur Joseph Costanzo Jr. goes from a successful restaurateur and local celebrity to a federal prison inmate in On the Rocks: The Primadonna Story. Maria C. Palmer and Ruthie Robbins chronicle his rise in the 1990s as owner of the acclaimed Primadonna Restaurant, radio host, columnist and aspiring politician, followed by his dramatic fall in the early 2000s. Along the way, the book paints a complicated portrait of a man whose confidence, ambition and generosity were accompanied by arrogance and ego, offering plenty of lessons about the highs and pitfalls of success.
Add more summer reading with these books on living and aging well.
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