Today marks World Book Day and across the UK, children will be dressing up as their favourite characters from books.
World Book Day is an annual celebration of authors, illustrators, books and reading.
The initiative, created by UNESCO, is marked in more than 100 countries around the globe and aims to celebrate books and reading, particularly among children.
Here at WeAreTheCity, we’ve put together some of our recommended reads to celebrate World Book Day. These books cover career advice, women in the workplace, women in history and many more.
Bloody Brilliant Women: The Pioneers, Revolutionaries & Geniuses Your History Teacher Forgot to Mention | Cathy Newman
A fresh, opinionated history of all the brilliant women you should have learned about in school but didn’t.
For hundreds of years we have heard about the great men of history, but what about herstory?
In this freewheeling history of modern Britain, Cathy Newman writes about the pioneering women who defied the odds to make careers for themselves and alter the course of modern history; women who achieved what they achieved while dismantling hostile, entrenched views about their place in society. Their role in transforming Britain is fundamental, far greater than has generally been acknowledged, and not just in the arts or education but in fields like medicine, politics, law, engineering and the military.
The Monday Revolution | David Mansfield
Get more done. Seize control. Start today.
Simple immediate, actionable examples show how directors, managers and business owners can get more done, more quickly. If you want to look back on your working week with satisfaction and eagerly anticipate the next, read this book. And start your own Monday Revolution, this week.
Equal: A story of women, men and money | Carrie Gracie
EQUAL is BBC journalist Carrie Gracie’s urgent call to arms – a powerful story about how women can fight for equal pay, and how men and employers can help them.
Gracie joined a group of high-profile BBC women who challenged the national broadcaster over equal pay after enforced disclosures revealed huge gaps between top men and women. Gracie had insisted on equal pay at the time of her China posting, and after trying with other BBC women to put things right through negotiation, she eventually resigned her post complaining publicly of a ‘secretive and illegal’ pay culture. Her protest triggered a parliamentary inquiry into BBC pay, and after a protracted internal complaints process, she won an apology from the BBC and a settlement which she donated to the Fawcett Society.
Rise: Life Lessons in Speaking Out, Standing Tall & Leading the Way | Gina Miller
Gina Miller came to prominence when she brought one of the most significant constitutional cases ever to be heard in the British Supreme Court.
Gina successfully challenged the UK government’s authority to trigger Article 50 – the formal notification to leave the European Union – without parliamentary approval. For standing up for what she believed was right, Miller became the target of not just racist and sexist verbal abuse, but physical threats to her and her family.
One question she kept being asked was how could she keep going at the cost of so much pain and aggravation? To her the answer was obvious: she’d been doing it all her life.
Life is a four-letter word: A mental health survival guide for professionals | Andy Salkeld
As a high-flying, high-performing Big 4 accountant, Andy Salkeld struggled with depression, anxiety, stress and ultimately suicide.
In his new book Life is a Four-Letter Word, he gives a brutally honest critique of the toll the professions can place on mental health and well-being.
Searingly honest and laced with black humour, Life is a Four-Letter Word equips readers with the confidence, tools and understanding to save themselves and their colleagues when they are struggling to balance their life.
Goodbye Glossophobia: Banish your fear of public speaking | Esther Stanhope
Goodbye Glossophobia: Banish your Fear of Public Speaking is the new self-help book from author and Impact Guru, Esther Stanhope.
In the book, Esther reveals her quirky but effective secrets to help anyone with a fear of public speaking banish nerves, blushes and missed career opportunities.
As well as tackling common questions like, ‘what if I fall?’, she steals a secret from President Obama, and shares a trick about candles and roses that clearly lower your cortisol (stress) levels in seconds.
Create a gender-balanced workplace | Ann Francke
Equality at work expert Ann Francke reveals how to understand and tackle the damaging consequences of gender imbalance in the workplace.
Gender balance is first and foremost a business issue. McKinsey estimates we could add 28 trillion to global GDP if we achieved gender equality everywhere – that is more than the GDPs of the US and China combined. But it is so much more than that. Gender balance is one of the best levers we can pull to build better managers and leaders at every level, improve team performance and create better cultures where everyone can thrive.
A good time to be a girl | Helena Morrissey
Five years have passed since women were exhorted to ‘Lean In’.
Over that time, the world has transformed beyond all expectations. But why should anyone ‘lean in’ to a patriarchal system that is out of date? Why not change it entirely for the good of us all?
Drawing on her experience as a City CEO, mother of nine, and founder of the influential 30% Club which campaigns for gender-balanced UK company boards, her manifesto for new ways of working, living, loving and raising families is for everyone, not just women. Making a powerful case for diversity and difference in any workplace, she shows how, together, we can develop smarter thinking and broader definitions of success. Gender balance, in her view, is an essential driver of economic prosperity and part of the solution to the many problems we face today.
Deeds Not Words | Helen Pankhurst
On the 100th anniversary of women getting the vote, Helen Pankhurst – great-granddaughter of suffragette leader Emmeline Pankhurst and a leading women’s rights campaigner – charts how women’s lives have changed over the last century, and offers a powerful and positive argument for the way forward.
Dr Helen Pankhurst is a women’s rights activist and senior advisor to CARE International, working in the UK and in Ethiopia. She is a trustee of ActionAid, a Visiting Senior Fellow at LSE and Visiting Professor at MMU. Helen is the great-granddaughter of Emmeline Pankhurst and granddaughter of Sylvia Pankhurst, leaders of the British suffragette movement. She has extensive media experience including national and international radio and print interviews and was involved in the 2015 film Suffragette. The Sunday before International Women’s Day each year, Helen leads an annual march in London, joined by the Olympic Suffragettes #March4Women.