Book 2: "Awakening: Ladies, Leadership, and the Lies We've Been Told" by Areva Martin (AOC's Summer Reading Challenge 1.0 Was Crazy)

The word "empowering" gets thrown around a lot. This book is legit empowering. I love that Areva Martin stands up for herself and other women. Frankly, I found it pretty generous that she even said men should have seats at the table, albeit clearly not at the head any longer but rather listening to women (we're worse, let's be real here guys and girls et al. ...[half-joking]). 

Much of the book's advice deals with the workplace, and I feel like the game has probably changed somewhat the last couple of years. But the gist - that this country and much of the world are designed to keep women down, and that there's no sense in indulging these systems - remains a critical lesson.