Motivational Books for Women Whether you’re looking for a great book to motivate your next big life change, a book to inspire your creativity, a book to boost your attitude and/or self-confidence, you’ve come to the right place!
I spoke to a number of my favorite women to compile a list of the best motivational books for women. From personal-development to soulful inspirational stories, there is literally a book in this collection for every woman.
So…are you ready to cozy up on a weekend afternoon with a great book to truly inspire your soul? Let’s go!
50 MOTIVATIONAL BOOKS For WOMEN
This list was updated in 2020 for the most up-to-date selection! Just a note: if you purchase from one of my links, I will receive a small comission, but your support is very valuable to me! 🙂
“ONLY LOVE TODAY” BY RACHEL MACY STAFFORD
“She presents these devotions in an easy-to-digest (sometimes poetic) style that moms of every age will relate and benefit from immensely. Only Love Today is the gift book to give yourself and order several more for the moms in your life who are fresh out of perspective and overfull of self loathing and self-condemnation. Stafford’s ability to cut through the “yuck” and to the “yes!” of life is a rare skill indeed.” – Christian MARKET
“UNFU*K YOURSELF” BY GARY JOHN BISHOP
If you like your self-help without any BS, look to Gary John Bishop’s Unfu*k Yourself, [which] aims to help readers who feel f*cked up work through their challenges. You’ll get advice and tools to combat negative self-talk and feel more empowered.” – Bustle
“SORRY I’M LATE, I DIDN’T WANT TO COME: ONE INTROVERT’S YEAR OF SAYING YES” BY JESSICA PAN
“Charming. Brave. Hilariously honest. Whether you buy this book for yourself, your favorite introvert, or the chatty friend you’re hoping to shut up for a few solid hours, you can’t go wrong with Jessica Pan’s revealing and delightful memoir.” – David Litt, New York Times bestselling author of Thanks, Obama
“THE LAST BLACK UNICORN” BY TIFFANY HADDISH
“The Last Black Unicorn is an inspiring story that manages to be painful, honest, shocking, bawdy and hilarious.” – The New York Times Book Review
“TINY BEAUTIFUL THINGS” BY CHERYL STRAYED
“A fascinating blend of memoir and self-help. Strayed is an eloquent storyteller, and her clear-eyed prose offers a bracing empathy absent from most self-help blather.” — Nora Krug, The Washington Post
“CHOOSING ME BEFORE WE” BY CHRISTINE ARYLO
“With wit and wisdom, Arylo teaches us how to find the answers about love and relationships inside ourselves. From here we can accomplish our most heartfelt dreams.” — Marcia Wieder, founder of Dream University
“UNINVITED” BY LYSA TERKEURST”
Motivational Books for Women “TerKeurst doesn’t just share empathetic anecdotes for readers in a rut; she focuses on digging down to the roots of anxiety and providing tools for overcoming self-doubt and handling the pain of rejection.” – Publisher’s Weekly
“THE SELF-LOVE EXPERIMENT” BY SHANNON KAISER
“[A] profound book and a must-read for anyone that prioritizes happiness. . . . This is the playbook for making small changes and shifts that will yield you large results in your happiness.” — Kristine Carlson, author of Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff for Women
“I AM THAT GIRL” BY ALEXIS JONES
“Alexis is here to transform the reality of what it is to be female and I AM THAT GIRL isn’t just a book, it’s a call to action. It’s a manifesto for the 21st century GIRLS movement and Alexis leads this mission with the truest grace and humility. I am honored to call her my friend, and I am honored to follow her lead.” – Bryce Dallas Howard
“GIRL, STOP APOLOGIZING” BY RACHEL HOLLIS
Motivational Books for Women “Hollis’s writing is beautifully blunt, and she humbly thanks her fans for her success. Her actionable ideas and captivating voice will encourage women to believe in themselves.” – Publisher’s Weekly
“YOU CAN HEAL YOUR LIFE” BY LOUISE HAY
“Her key message is: “If we are willing to do the mental work, almost anything can be healed.” The author has a great deal of experience and firsthand information to share about healing, including how she cured herself after being diagnosed with cancer.”
“MASTERING YOUR MEAN GIRL” BY MELISSA AMBROSINI
“Mastering Your Mean Girl will set hearts on fire and light up people’s minds with positivity and inspiration.” — Lisa Messenger, editor of The Collective
“WILD: FROM LOST TO FOUND ON THE PACIFIC CREST TRAIL” BY CHERYL STRAYED
Motivational Books for Women “Devastating and glorious. . . . By laying bare a great unspoken truth of adulthood—that many things in life don’t turn out the way you want them to, and that you can and must live through them anyway—Wild feels real in many ways that many books about ‘finding oneself’ . . . do not.” — Slate
“EVERYTHING IS FIGUREOUTABLE” BY MARIE FORLEO
“Everything is Figureoutable is a whirlwind of power, humor, pragmatism, and grace. Marie Forleo writes exactly the way she lives—with full-on enthusiasm, no-bullshit directness, and a ferocious commitment to self-accountability. This woman is the real deal, people. This book will change lives.” – Elizabeth Gilbert, author of “Eat, Pray, Love” and “Big Magic”
“BECOMING” BY MICHELLE OBAMA
“Warm, wise, and revelatory, Becoming is the deeply personal reckoning of a woman of soul and substance who has steadily defied expectations—and whose story inspires us to do the same.” – Amazon
“WHEN GOD SAYS WAIT” BY ELIZABETH LAING THOMPSON
“Author Elizabeth Laing Thompson invites you to walk alongside people of the Bible who had to wait on God…imperfect heroes like David, Miriam, Naomi, Sarah, Joseph, and others. Their stories will provide a roadmap for your own story, helping you navigate the painful, lonely territory of waiting, coming out on the other side with your faith, relationships, and sense of humor intact.”
“BIG MAGIC: CREATIVE LIVING BEYOND FEAR” BY ELIZABETH GILBERT
“Big Magic is a celebration of a creative life…Gilbert’s love of creativity is infectious, and there’s a lot of great advice in this sunny book…Gilbert doesn’t just call for aspiring artists to speak their truth, however daffy that may appear to others; she is showing them how.” —Washington Post
“RISING STRONG” BY BRENÉ BROWN
Motivational Books for Women “With a fresh perspective that marries research and humor, Brown offers compassion while delivering thought-provoking ideas about relationships—with others and with oneself.” — Publishers Weekly
“GIRL, WASH YOUR FACE” BY RACHEL HOLLIS
Motivational Books for Women “Girl, Wash Your Face is a dose of high-octane straight talk that will spit you out on the other end chasing down dreams you hung up long ago.” — Jen Hatmaker, author of ‘For the Love’.
“OVER THE TOP: A RAW JOURNEY TO SELF-LOVE” BY JONATHAN VAN NESS
“There is plenty to laugh at in the ways “Queer Eye”’s grooming expert frames his story, but it’s the battles he’s waged against the darker corners of his soul to become the bright light we know today that provide the necessary context for this book to shine.” – The New York Times
“THE LIFE-CHANGING MAGIC OF TIDYING UP” BY MARIE KONDO
Motivational Books for Women “[It is] enough to salute Kondo for her recognition of something quietly profound: that mess is often about unhappiness, and that the right kind of tidying can be a kind of psychotherapy for the home as well as for the people in it . . . Its strength is its simplicity.” — The London Times
“CARRY ON, WARRIOR: THE POWER OF EMBRACING YOUR MESSY, BEAUTIFUL LIFE” BY GLENNON DOYLE MELTON
“Glennon embodies all that we want to be and fear we are not: she is authentic, funny, wise, loving, and resilient in the face of extraordinary challenges. But the magic of Carry On, Warrior is that by the time you finish the book, you realize you ARE all those things, and more. It is a book that actually makes you feel that you are loved and cherished. Has a book ever accomplished anything more marvelous than that?” — Vanessa Diffenbaugh, author of The Language of Flowers
“THE GIFTS OF IMPERFECTION” BY BRENÉ BROWN
“This book is an invitation to join a wholehearted revolution. A small, quiet, grassroots movement that starts with each of us saying, ‘My story matters because I matter.’ Revolution might sound a little dramatic, but in this world, choosing authenticity and worthiness is an absolute act of resistance.” – Brene Brown
“OPEN WIDE” BY MELISSA AMBROSINI
Motivational Books for Women “Want deeper, more soulful connections with the people you care about? Melissa Ambrosini’s Open Wide provides powerful tools for enriching all the relationships in your life, including the most important one of all, the one with yourself.” — Selina Soo, creator of Impacting Millions
“FEMINASTY: THE COMPLICATED WOMAN’S GUIDE TO SURVIVING THE PATRIARCHY WITHOUT DRINKING HERSELF TO DEATH” BY ERIN GIBSON
“Erin Gibson–one-half of the crazy-popular Throwing Shade podcast–is as sharply funny as she is unabashedly feminist. Damn smart, too. Each of the essays in this book is an eye-opening lesson in how the patriarchy is working against us, and how to fight back. ” ― Cosmopolitan
“BARE” BY SUSAN HYATT
Motivational Books for Women “This is the perfect book if you want to take excellent care of yourself, upgrade your mental and physical health, build confidence, conquer your goals, crush the patriarchy, and look and feel damn good while doing it. Bare is not a weight-loss plan. It’s a life-gain plan.” – Amazon
“QUIET: THE POWER OF INTROVERTS IN A WORLD THAT CAN’T STOP TALKING” BY SUSAN CAIN
“Cain offers a wealth of useful advice for teachers and parents of introverts…Quiet should interest anyone who cares about how people think, work, and get along, or wonders why the guy in the next cubicle acts that way. It should be required reading for introverts (or their parents) who could use a boost to their self-esteem.” – Fortune.com