Visit the NEW Book Club each month for best-selling business books of special interest to executive women. You’ll get great insights and great savings—and a portion of each sale will support NEW’s education and networking programs.

Main Selection

She Wins, You Win

The Most Important Rule Every Businesswoman Needs to Know

by Gail Evans

Gotham Books, 190 pp., hardcover, $17.50*

Gail Evans knows about climbing the corporate ladder. She was the first female executive vice president at CNN, and she wrote the New York Times bestseller, "Play Like A Man, Win Like A Woman."

Now Evans is expanding on the empowerment theme with She Wins, You Win, a manual intended not just to empower individual women in business, but all women in business. Writes Evans: “Every time any woman succeeds in business, your chances of succeeding in business increase. And every time a woman fails in business, your chances of failure increase.”

Evans maintains that one of the reasons men still dominate the upper echelons of American business is that they work together. Men just naturally seem to form alliances. Women, still treated like a minority group in too many companies, are often pitted against each other for scarce, high-level jobs.

The author says women must band together to build the critical mass necessary to break through the glass ceiling. To do that, they must build teams, form alliances, coach, mentor, lead, and network among themselves.

Sound impossibly ambitious? Maybe. But Evan’s doesn’t ask readers to change the world, just themselves. This book is a good place to start.

Alternate Selections

Just Ask A Woman

Cracking the Code of What Women Want and How They Buy

by Mary Lou Quinlan

Wiley Books, 260 pp. Hardcover, $27.95; Amazon E-Book, $19.0

Studies show that women shoppers are more perceptive, more sensitive, and often more loyal than male shoppers. And while women comprise just over 51 percent of the U.S. population, they make or influence 85 percent of all purchases.

“Brand therapist” Mary Lou Quinlan says women have a different “shopping list” than male customers. Women, for example, will not tolerate a dirty store. They crave comfort and they reward businesses that treat them with respect. This book is critical reading for marketers, brand managers and retailers who want to understand these powerful consumers ; it’s even more recommended for those who don’t.

Her Corner Office: A Guide to Help Women Find a Place and a Voice in Corporate America by Trudy

A Guide to Help Women Find a Place and a Voice in Corporate America

by Trudy Bourgeois

Brown Books, 228 pp., softcover, $19.95

NEW board member and leadership consultant Trudy Bourgeois knows what it takes to break through the glass ceiling. The former Brown & Williamson executive says “You’re not ready to live your life until you know what you want on your tombstone,” Trudy writes. To determine that, you need to know what you want to do, what talents you have, and what skills you need to acquire.Armed with an accurate self-appraisal and clear objectives you are ready to take on the rest of Trudy’s program. Her straight-forward guidance on how to value your values, work for balance, control your own destiny, communicate positively, build relationships, tie into community and market yourself, are powerful lessons for any executive who wants to grab the brass ring without losing themselves.

Build Your Own Life Brand!

A Powerful Strategy to Maximize Your Potential and Enhance Your Value for Ultimate Achievement

by Stedman Graham

Free Press, 244 pp., hardcover, $17*

Positive or negative, everybody has a brand identity, good or bad, according to author and consultant Stedman Graham. The challenge is creating a powerful “life brand out of the genuine values of your life.” Life branding goes beyond selling yourself, Graham writes. It’s about authentic action and communication on the job, in your family and in your community. This book empowering book shows you how to use the techniques of branding to add value to your life and career.

Editor’s Note: Stedman Graham will be the keynote speaker at the NEW Summit Wednesday, September 29, at the Embassy Suites in Chicago. For information or reservations contact Anna N. Duran of NEW member services at aduran@newonline.org, call 713-888-5305 or click here.

Suggest a selection for the NEW Book Club. Email NetworkNews at editor@newnewsletter.org

© Copyright 2009 by the Network of Executive Women. All rights reserved.