The Making of A Phenomenal Woman is a joyfully written self-help book with wonderful anecdotes and exercises. Women hoping to increase their effectiveness in leadership roles and in their personal lives will find much to motivate and inspire them. It covers the many aspects of a woman's life but with a twist to how characters in some of the stories use strategies from the chessboard to evaluate their next moves as if playing a game of chess or checkers.

A collection of beloved poems about women from the iconic Maya Angelou These four poems, “Phenomenal Woman,” “Still I Rise,” “Weekend Glory,” and “Our Grandmothers,” are among the most remembered and acclaimed of Maya Angelou's poems. They celebrate women with a majesty that has inspired and touched the hearts of millions. “Phenomenal Woman” is a phenomenal poem that speaks to us of where we are as women at the dawn of a new century. In a clear voice, Maya Angelou vividly reminds us of our towering strength and beauty.

'We not only dream, we do. We not only see what has been, we see what can be. We shoot for the moon ... We are bold, fearless, and ambitious. We are undaunted in our belief that we shall overcome; that we will rise up.' - Kamala Harris; Inauguration night address On 20 January 2021, Kamala Harris was sworn in as the Vice President of the United States of America, making her the first person of Indian descent, and the first woman to reach this position. This was hardly surprising, for Kamala - the daughter of a breast-cancer scientist Indian mother and a Stanford University emeritus professor of economics Jamaican father - has been known to blaze a trail for herself in her chosen fields. Fun 'momala' and aunt at home but hard-nosed, unsparing prosecutor and senator elsewhere, Kamala dons many hats. This biography focuses on the micro-histories that shaped Kamala Harris and celebrates her Asian and Jamaican heritage - with special attention to her India connect - and her barrier-shattering ascent as a woman of colour coming to occupy one of the highest offices in the USA. Chidanand Rajghatta's masterful chronicling of Kamala's life - her rise to candidature, the struggles and triumph in a messy, hard-won election despite coming from a 'non-traditional' background - delivers an inspirational story of a phenomenal woman.

Gabriel García Márquez’s novel One Hundred Years of Solitude seemed destined for obscurity upon its publication in 1967. The little-known author, small publisher, magical style, and setting in a remote Caribbean village were hardly the usual ingredients for success in the literary marketplace. Yet today it ranks among the best-selling books of all time. Translated into dozens of languages, it continues to enter the lives of new readers around the world. How did One Hundred Years of Solitude achieve this unlikely success? And what does its trajectory tell us about how a work of art becomes a classic? Ascent to Glory is a groundbreaking study of One Hundred Years of Solitude, from the moment García Márquez first had the idea for the novel to its global consecration. Using new documents from the author’s archives, Álvaro Santana-Acuña shows how García Márquez wrote the novel, going beyond the many legends that surround it. He unveils the literary ideas and networks that made possible the book’s creation and initial success. Santana-Acuña then follows this novel’s path in more than seventy countries on five continents and explains how thousands of people and organizations have helped it to become a global classic. Shedding new light on the novel’s imagination, production, and reception, Ascent to Glory is an eye-opening book for cultural sociologists and literary historians as well as for fans of García Márquez and One Hundred Years of Solitude.

Told with an unflinchingly honest voice as real as the flawed people that populated her world, The Making of a Woman is an unexpected memoir exploring the path less traveled. Childhood abuse and trauma powered an alcoholism that would nearly defeat Jewels. Yet Jewels assures us that even when we lose those things that give shape to our soul--belonging, the need for touch, and safety in our own home--we can go on to devise a new way of being that surpasses our childhood haunts. Jewels was seven years old when her father attempted a family suicide, so her mother whisked her away to the arms and family of another man. Ruled by her mother's delusional survival aspirations and the ignored evidence of her suffering at the hands of her new relatives, life became a daily struggle for survival for Jewels. But when the truth could no longer be hidden, the family split, leaving Jewels to navigate a new world, not of her making. Deciding to use her earlier trauma to enter recovery, sexually liberate herself, and enter the competitive world of professional bodybuilding, Jewels created a life that inspires others to push forward no matter the details. In this uncommon ode to survival, Jewels creates a quite unexpected career from her truth--underscored by her complicated relationship with the allure of sexuality. Through a tangle of forgiveness and understanding emerges an elevated journey of the mechanisms for survival, of pain and joy, and of discovering that family is what you make of it.

“An incredible book about the strength of women . . . an important book and a read that is nothing if not timely with current politics.” —FangirlNation A #1 Bestseller in 21st Century U.S. History for Teens Still I Rise takes its title from a work by Maya Angelou and it resonates with the same spirit of an unconquerable soul, a woman who is captain of her fate. It embodies the strength of character of the inspiring women profiled. Each chapter will outline the fall and rise of great women heroes who smashed all obstacles, rather than let all obstacles smash them. The book offers hope to those undergoing their own Sisyphean struggles. Intrepid women heroes are the antithesis of the traditional damsels in distress; rather than waiting for the prince, they took salvation into their own hands. Celebrate girl power! Women leaders in history celebrated in this book include: Madame C. J. Walker—first female American millionaireAung San Suu Kyi—Burma’s first lady of freedomBetty Shabazz—civil rights activistNellie Sachs—Holocaust survivor and Nobel Prize recipientSelma Lagerlof—first woman Nobel LaureateFannie Lou Hamer—American voting rights activistBessie Coleman—first African-American female pilotWilma Rudolph—first woman to win three gold medalsSonia Sotomayor—first Hispanic Supreme Court justiceWangari Maathai—Nobel Prize winnerWinnifred Mandela—freedom fighterLois Wilson—founder of Al-AnonRoxanne Quimby—cofounder of Burt’s Bees “Inspirational . . . If you need a little encouragement in your life during these difficult times, the lives of these women will give you hope.” —Says Me Says Mom

From the beloved and bestselling author of I KNOW WHY THE CAGED BIRD SINGS, this memoir chronicles Maya Angelou's involvement with the civil rights movement. 'A brilliant writer, a fierce friend and a truly phenomenal woman' BARACK OBAMA Maya Angelou's seven volumes of autobiography are a testament to the talents and resilience of this extraordinary writer. Loving the world, she also knows its cruelty. As a black woman she has known discrimination and extreme poverty, but also hope, joy, achievement and celebration. The fourth volume of her enthralling autobiography finds Maya Angelou immersed in the world of black writers and artists in Harlem, working in the civil rights movement with Martin Luther King Jr. 'She moved through the world with unshakeable calm, confidence and a fierce grace . . . She will always be the rainbow in my clouds' OPRAH WINFREY 'She was important in so many ways. She launched African American women writing in the United States. She was generous to a fault. She had nineteen talents - used ten. And was a real original. There is no duplicate' TONI MORRISON