Books are the best material for self-development. If you’re passionate about self-development and becoming an exceptional leader within your industry—whether those entails thought leadership as a subject matter expert, leading successful teams, departments, and projects, or all of the above—you’ll want to start by refreshing your library. Reading analysis and how-to’s from experts who have been in your shoes and have studied your industry, is key to ensuring continued professional growth and success in your leadership career, as you aspire to progress up the ladder.
Plus, telling your boss that you’re currently reading a particular book to hone your skills, signals to your employer that you are committed, self-aware, and ready to take the leap into the next dimension of your career, for example, a promotion.
Piglet by Lottie Hazell Books
A devastating secret cracks the façade of a couple’s domestic bliss. In the hours before their wedding, the bride-to-be needs to make a decision that could change the course of her life. Described as ‘brilliantly dark’, this debut writer is one to watch.
The Woman on the Ledge by Ruth Mancini
A woman falls to her death from a London bank’s 25th-floor roof terrace. The main suspect, however, claims that they were trying to save her.
Murder on Lake Garda by Tom Hindle
A wealthy family gather on a private island for their son’s wedding. But as the ceremony begins, a blood-curdling scream brings the proceedings to a devastating halt. This is the third unputdownable murder mystery from Tom Hindle, who has been hailed as a ‘new heir to Agatha Christie’.
Come and Get It by Kiley Reid
If you haven’t yet read Kiley Reid’s exceptional 2019 debut, Such a Fun Age, then bookmark this list for another day and read that first. If you have, then you’ll be pleased to know she’s got a new release arriving in early 2024.
Not to be confused with the Selena Gomez track of the same name, this upcoming novel is about a senior resident assistant, Millie Cousins, who “wants to graduate, get a job, and buy a house. So when Agatha Paul, a visiting professor and writer, offers Millie an easy yet unusual opportunity, she jumps at the chance.
But Millie’s starry-eyed hustle becomes jeopardised by odd new friends, vengeful dorm pranks, and illicit intrigue.” Kiley’s first book was wry, smart and very of the moment, so hopefully expect more of the same. You can pre-order Come and Get It here.
Splinters: Another Kind of Love Story by Leslie Jamison
The bestselling author of The Recovering and The Empathy Exams, Leslie Jamison is back, this time with her first memoir. If you’re anything like me, and love hearing the innermost details of other people’s personal lives from behind closed doors, then this one could be for you.
In Splinters, Jamison dives into her most intimate relationships: “her consuming love for her young daughter, a ruptured marriage once swollen with hope, and the shaping legacy of her own parents’ complicated bond.” Weaving through joy and grief, this one’s for anyone who’s ever loved and lost. You can pre-order Splinters here.
“The Heiress” by Rachel Hawkins
Rachel Hawkins is the reigning queen of the Gothic thriller, and we can’t wait for her latest. In The Heiress, she turns her eyes to Jules and Camden McTavish, a married couple who are pulled into the thrall of a mysterious inheritance at a family estate in the Blue Ridge mountains.
Cam once rejected everything his adoptive mother, Ruby, left to him — but when he has no choice to confront his past, what will he discover as he learns that it is not only material property that we inherit, but the sins of our parents too?
