For fans of My (Not So) Perfect Life and Jasmine Guillory’s While We Were Dating, a disarmingly fun debut novel follows Carlisa Henton as her life comes undone after a chance meeting with a rising pop star. With fresh and honest prose, Good Morning, Love examines the uncertainty of being a new professional looking to chase a dream while also trying to survive in a world that’s not always kind to ambitious women. Let’s flip the script. Ambition is healthy, it’s a good thing, and it’s something to be proud of. It’s what changes the world. Yes, in both good and bad ways – but you can’t have progress and change without ambition, and all the push/pull that comes with it. Ambition can look different in different people, too. It can be fiery and loud, or it can be the quiet daily work done when no one’s watching. To illustrate this, here is a list of 20 must-read books, both fiction and non-fiction, that I think portray different kinds of ambition in a variety of settings.
Fiction
Nonfiction
All of these books showcase ambitious women – women who believed in something and forged ahead to achieve or make a difference. If you’re looking for more books about ambitious women, check out this post about ambitious women in SFF, and this post about leadership books for women.
