It’s that time of year again. The leaves are turning and all you want to do is curl up with a nice hot drink and a good book. But what should millennials read this fall? This list comprises a mix ranging from career advice to some inspirational memoirs and fun reads that can help all us 20 or 30-somethings get inspired and re-focused for this season:
Career
Becoming the Boss: New Rules for the Next Generation of Leaders by Lindsey Pollak
Pollak, a young professionals expert, reinvents the concept of management for a new generation and offers millennials a relevant approach to career success that shows us how to take the next step: becoming a leader. Written exclusively for millennials, this book is a tech-savvy manual filled with real-world tips and personal insights from Pollak’s extensive experience in the workplace.
Y-Size Your Business: How Gen Y Employees Can Save You Money and Grow Your Business by Ryan Dorsey
This book is an important multi-generational read. Dorsey offers critical insight for both employers and employees and explains how Millennials are essential to the future of business.
Promote Yourself: The New Rules for Career Success by Dan Schawbel
As a New York Times and Wall Street Journal bestseller, this book offers many tools for millennials seeking career advice. Schawbel, a millennial career expert, shares invaluable insights and advice on how to sell ourselves in the workplace, for those of us just beginning our careers.
Millennials & Management: The Essential Guide to Making it Work at Work by Lee Caraher
As a self-proclaimed millennial champion, Caraher shares an important book for young and old, managers and employees, about millennials in the workforce. She draws attention to tensions in the office that can arise between millennials and their gen X and boomer colleagues. But for Caraher, there are ways to bridge the generation gap in the workplace, which she claims is not only strategically smart, but also essential to all organizations seeking to grow.
The Gen X & Millennial Guide to a Thriving Career by Al Smith III
Where Baby Boomers once dominated the workforce, gen Xers and millennials are now starting to take up the ranks as more boomers retire. This shift will create organic opportunities for young professionals to build thriving careers, rise to key leadership positions, and boost their earning power. Smith III, a senior learning and development leader, equips you with seven key behaviors to get ahead in your career.
Inspirational fun reads
The Promise of a Pencil: How an Ordinary Person Can Create Extraordinary Change by Adam Braun
In this life-changing book, Braun captures the restless voice of young people in their 20s and explains how to craft your life into a story worth telling. The book is based on his true story of turning $25 into more than 200 schools around the world.
What I Know Now: Letters to My Younger Self by Ellyn Spragins
As a national bestseller, this book comprises anecdotes from extraordinary women who share wisdom they wish they’d had when they were younger. This is great for young and old, but millennials especially would benefit from their advice. It’s a read that puts everything into perspective, like things we worry about now that means absolutely nothing later in life. The collection of letters comes from a powerful range of women including Madeleine Albright, Maya Angelou, Ann Curry, and even Queen Noor.
Grace’s Guide: The Art of Pretending to Be a Grown-Up by Grace Helbig
Let’s face it, growing up and becoming an adult is not as easy as it sounds. For a fun pick me up, the YouTube sensation, Helbig, shares a guide that’s perfect for anyone faced with this daunting task in addition to navigating the digital world. This one is a humorous, tongue-in-cheek handbook for millennials, and has everything you need to know from how to land a job, survive a breakup, decorate a first apartment, and much more.
Tiny Beautiful Things: Advice on Love and Life from Dear Sugar by Cheryl Strayed
The bestselling author of Wild shares life insights from her Dear Sugar column. Noted as a must-read for millennials, Strayed gives us half memoir and half advice in a thoughtful book.
Thrive by Arianna Huffington
Okay, I’m sure you’ve heard of this one. You know it’s a HUGE bestseller, but maybe you just haven’t gotten around to it yet. For millennials, Huffington’s insights on a proper work-life balance make this book a millennial must-absolutely-read. Her guide to redefining success and creating a life of wellbeing, wisdom, and wonder comes from her personal experience, research, and professional insight on exhaustion and how a truly successful life means more than just money and power. She shows us the way to rethink our workplace and our overall lives.
Got ideas for what you think should be on the millennial fall reading list? Add your suggestions in the comments below!
For more reading about millennials in public service, check out this weekly GovLoop series, First 5: Advice from millennial to millennial
Photo Credit: Flickr/Daniel Go