Why My Reading List is All Fiction, it did not dawn on me as I always like to share my current reading list with you, and when I get in routine, what others notice, I forget why I have chosen certain paths and or directives but no always the reason why I have chose them.

But this week, one email stopped me cold. I read it, and then I read it again: “Audrie, I noticed all the books on your list are fiction. Am I missing something?”

She was right. Every single title. Not one business book. Not one marketing book. Not a millionaire morning routine anywhere in sight. This book list is coming from the woman who runs an influencer and brand marketing agency and talks about business for a living. The irony, right?

I have talked about this to colleagues for years and possibly shared it a long time ago on my social stories. I have shared pieces of it in passing conversations. But I have never sat down and explained it from start to finish. So today you are getting the whole story behind my all-fiction reading list, and why it is one of the healthiest decisions I have ever made. And then, because you all have been asking for years, I have curated the top-selling books and the top podcasts in every category: business, marketing, motivation, sports, a brand new book-to-screen section, and of course, the escape shelf. All of it organized exactly the way I organize my own life. Learning in one container. Escape in another.

Grab a coffee (or a martini depending on the time of day). This is a long one on purpose.

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I Mistook Burnout for Ambition

Back in 2019, I was going to a therapist. I was working through anxiety, and if you have ever met me in person, none of the reasons will surprise you. I am overly hard on myself. When I miss a goal by an inch or don’t reach it fast enough, I do not see everything I covered to get there. I see the inch. What if I fail someone? What if I fail myself? It would all build, and not feeling good enough still rings in my ears. But how was my routine impacting my brain while I was putting in all of that work?

My routine was not a great one. I would listen to a business or marketing podcast while I got ready at 1.5x speed because, apparently, even my learning needed to hurry. Then another one in the car. At the time, life was full to the brim. Jason and I owned an event venue. We owned a cupcakery, and I ran a full six figure photography business while pouring every spare minute I could find into building what would become Parlay Collective. I was not rich. I wanted more for my family. More for my kids, my husband, my parents. And yet our finances were not moving the way I needed them to, and I felt horrible about it. Frankly, I was no fun to be around, and I knew it.

Do you know what I remember most about that season? Sitting in my driveway.I would pull in after a shoot or a venue walkthrough, put the car in park, and just sit there answering emails because the second I walked through that door, I belonged to everyone inside, and I was not done yet. My family was on the other side of that door, and I sat in the driveway with my phone. If you have ever done that, you know exactly the feeling I am describing. Physically home, mentally still at work, and guilty in both directions.

I remember driving to photoshoots just wanting to get them over with so I could get back to working on the agency. Don’t get me wrong, I loved my photography clients. They were influencers. They were the foundation of the business that inspired me to build my agency. But I felt the pull that I could offer more. I was physically at one business while mentally chasing another. And I wore the exhaustion like a credential. Tired meant serious. Tired meant I wanted it enough. I wanted “success” bad. 

Do I think putting in work when others won’t makes a difference? Absolutely. Do I think I was beating myself up? Absolutely. I was not feeding my mind. I was beating it up.

The whole time, I was comparing. Every entrepreneur I followed online seemed to be scaling faster, earning more, launching bigger. I genuinely believed the gap between me and them was information. I confused consumption with execution for years and called the whole thing hustle. Hustle. Eww. I hate that word now.

And here is the thing I did not know then: I was a statistic. A famous University of California, San Francisco study found that 72% of entrepreneurs report mental health concerns and that founders are twice as likely to struggle with depression than the general population. Read that number again. Nearly three out of four of us. That is not a personal failing. That is an occupational hazard, and nobody hands you the safety briefing when you file the LLC. The same wiring that makes us build is the same wiring that can quietly break us. Nobody puts that on the motivational graphics.

The Best Business Advice I Never Expected

I remember one particular session more clearly than almost any business meeting from that entire year.

I came in doing the thing I always did. Talking fast, running through everything on my plate like it was a badge of honor. The venue. The cupcakery. Photography. The kids. And somewhere in the middle of my list, I got stopped with two questions that sounded almost too simple.

What are you reading? What are you listening to?

I answered a little proudly. Honestly? More than a little. Self help books. Entrepreneurial books. Goal setting books. Money and wealth books. Leadership books. Motivational speakers. Business podcasts. Achievement content from the moment I woke up until the moment I fell asleep. I rattled it off like I was about to get a gold star for being such a dedicated student of success.

There was no gold star. Every single thing I consumed was teaching me how to build faster, earn more, optimize harder, set the bar higher, and become a better entrepreneur. And as we walked through my day, hour by hour, from the podcast in the shower to the audiobook at midnight, it hit me like a ton of bricks.

That was part of the problem.

My therapist knew. Apparently I was the last one to figure it out.

Every free moment of my day, I was consuming content that reminded me of everything I was not yet. Another goal I had not hit. Another habit I had not built. Another millionaire routine I had not adopted. I was feeding my anxiety in the car, in the kitchen, in the shower, and before bed. And I was calling it growth.

If you are doing the same thing right now, I want you to see the scale of the machine we are both swimming in. The self improvement industry in the United States is worth roughly $12 billion according to Marketdata research. Around 15,000 new self help books are published in this country every single year. Fifteen thousand. Stop and think about what that number actually means: if the last one worked, why do we need this year’s batch? A $12 billion industry does not run on solved problems. It runs on people like you and me believing we are exactly one book away from finally being enough, and then it sells us the next one.

In 2019, the exact season I was drowning in them, U.S. self help book sales grew 13% with over 40 million units sold. Self improvement audiobooks alone are a $655 million market. Self help podcasts account for roughly 14% of all podcast listening by genre, and business podcasts specifically attract what the industry calls power listeners, people consuming five or more hours of episodes every single week. Five hours. That was me, easily, and I would bet it is some of you. That is not a media habit. That is a part time job you took without noticing, and the pay is feeling perpetually behind.

And the statistic that made me feel the most seen of all: 70% of self improvement book buyers are women.

Women like me, circa 2019, filling every quiet moment with one more lesson about who we were not yet. We are the ones carrying the businesses, the households, the mental load, and then spending our only free minutes being told, gently and profitably, that we should also be optimizing. No wonder we were tired.

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Then came the assignment I did not see coming.

You spend your entire workday learning. You are researching, solving problems, leading people, making decisions, and educating yourself constantly. Your workday is already a classroom. Your free time does not have to be another one.

The prescription was almost laughably simple. In your free time, if you want to read, read something that lets your mind escape. If you want a podcast, choose something soothing or something that makes you laugh. Watch shows that have absolutely nothing to do with becoming a better entrepreneur. Protect your peace with the same intensity you protect your business.

Unproductive time. On purpose. I remember thinking there was absolutely no way this was going to work.

And I want to be honest with you, because this is the part I have never said publicly: I hated this advice at first. Hated it. Every instinct I had told me it was wasted time. Fiction? While every other agency owner was reading another marketing book? It felt like being told to slow down in the middle of a race I was already losing. I remember thinking, very clearly, “She does not understand how far behind I am, or what it takes to achieve. ” It scared me.

But here is the thing: she made sense. I used to love John Grisham when I was younger, and Nicholas Sparks. So I made the move and I hopped on Amazon and bought several Colleen Hoover, Lucy Score, and Ellin Hilderbrand. Then it happened.. I had me time, in the bath, in the backyard hearing birds chirp I got a mind refresh, laughs, giggles, and if you have read these books I even blushed.

That was seven years ago, and I have not looked back and in fact I listen to sports, music, and to be honest if I hear be consistent as a makreitng plan from one more marketing expert I would have pulled my ears off. Learning did not get cut from my life. It got a container. A monitored, dedicated window inside working hours, where the business books, the marketing podcasts, and yes, the mindset content still live. When I close the laptop, my brain gets to breathe. It’s not to say I don’t have late nights or early mornings but I stopped overloading my brain. So to answer my sweet follower; That is why my after-hours list is all fiction. Not because learning strategy is bad. Because it already has a home, and that home is not my bathtub at 9 p.m. or my sunday morning on my patio.

In my daily routine each morning I make sure I read my daily devotionial being a Christian it centers me it is the way I want to lead and this is for a greater purpose bigger than myself. This devoitional not only is very important to the way I live my life, this specifc one is my father’s. Upon his tragic passing, it was what he read everyday that he had in his work bag the day of his passing. I highly reccomend this one if you are a person of faith.

My favorite Devotional: Jesus is Calling

The facts are the tips, and even my strategies are from my own experiences. I know what works best for my audience, my business, my lifestyle, my finances, my marriage, my children, and where funds are flowing or not. When I do listen to podcasts or read, I take it with a grain of salt, because although they could share some perspective, it’s my education on how I want to align my business and where it needs to grow and how it needs to get there. Often many people have opinions on what “YOU” should do, but they are not fully in the day-to-day or know how your team operates, so be open but adjust; don’t compare.

And the research says that prescription was onto something bigger than I knew. A well known University of Sussex study found that reading for pleasure reduces stress by up to 68% in as little as six minutes, beating out music, tea, and walking. Six minutes. You have spent longer than that today deciding what to watch. For an entrepreneur, that might be the highest ROI activity that exists, and it costs less than any course in your inbox. Research published in Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience found that reading fiction strengthens empathy and social understanding by activating the same brain regions we use to read real people. Think about what that means for those of us in business: my entire job is reading people. Creators in hard negotiations. Brands with unspoken expectations. A team member who says “I’m fine” in a tone that means anything but. So those hours inside a novel are not wasted. They are quietly making me a sharper leader, a better listener, and honestly a better strategist for every creator and brand we serve.

Millions of readers have figured out the same thing. Romance print sales roughly doubled from 18 million units to 39 million in 2023, and Circana BookScan recently tracked about 51 million print units in a single year. Romance has been the fastest growing fiction genre, at one point driving 66% of all adult fiction growth and generating over $1.4 billion in revenue, the highest earning fiction genre there is. Booksellers credit one thing: escapism, and the guarantee that everything works out in the end. Even during the 2008 financial crisis, romance sales at one major publisher jumped as much as 32% while nearly everything else fell. When the world gets heavy, smart people reach for stories.

So when you see my summer list full of romance, thrillers, and historical fiction, now you know. Those books are not random. They are intentional. They are how I fill my cup so I can pour into my family, my team, and my clients.

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Okay. Here is what you actually came for. Sorry, I am a talker.

You already know by now podcasting is not a niche habit anymore. Over 584 million people worldwide listen to podcasts. 55% of Americans listen monthly, around 90 million listen every single week, and 88% of American listeners say they tune in specifically to learn something new. The average listener consumes eight episodes a week. Pair that with the tens of millions of books sold in these categories every year, and your eyes and ears are prime real estate. Be intentional about what gets access to them and when. Take bits that align with where you are now; don’t judge yourself!

So here is my rule, and I want you to steal it! The learning categories below live inside working hours only. The escape shelf is for everything after. Same content, completely different assignment.

Business and Entrepreneurship

The Top Business and Entrepreneurship Selling Books

These are the titles that built the category, and their numbers are staggering.

1. Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill. Over 70 million copies sold, still the best selling business book of all time nearly a century later. I will be honest with you: parts of it have aged badly and I disagreed with plenty. Read it anyway, once, if only to recognize where half of modern business advice was borrowed from. During work hours. Obviously.
2. The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey. More than 40 million copies and one of the best selling books in the world, period. If you are perpetually busy but never actually done, habit three alone pays for the book.
3. How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie. Published in 1936, over 30 million copies, and still the foundation of every sales training you have ever sat through. This is the first book I would hand anyone starting out in a relationship business like ours. The original playbook, and somehow still the best one.
4. Rich Dad Poor Dad by Robert Kiyosaki. The best selling personal finance book in history at over 40 million copies. It will permanently change how you look at every dollar your business makes.
5. The Psychology of Money by Morgan Housel. The modern money classic. Short, story driven chapters on why smart people make dumb money decisions. This is the one I hand creators cashing their first big brand deal check.
6. Shoe Dog by Phil Knight. The Nike founding story, and the rare business memoir that reads like a novel. Nike almost died about fourteen times, which will make you feel wildly normal about your own duct tape seasons.
7. Good to Great by Jim Collins. The research backed answer to why some companies break through and most do not. Read it before you build a team, not after your worst hire.
8. The Lean Startup by Eric Ries. The book that gave every founder the vocabulary of testing before building. If you are waiting for your idea to be perfect, consider this your permission slip to launch the ugly version.
9. Zero to One by Peter Thiel. Contrarian thinking on building something genuinely new instead of fighting over someone else’s turf. In a saturated creator economy, differentiation is the whole game, and this is the book on it.
10. $100M Offers by Alex Hormozi. The self published phenomenon that rewrote the business book playbook. Also the most practical title on this list: package what you sell so people feel silly saying no.

The Top Business and Entrepreneurship Podcasts

1. The Diary of a CEO with Steven Bartlett. Raw, long form conversations about the messy reality of building, from a founder who took a company public before thirty. The emotional side of entrepreneurship nobody puts on LinkedIn.
2. How I Built This with Guy Raz. The origin stories behind the brands you know, told masterfully. Every giant started as somebody’s kitchen table chaos, and this show never lets you forget it.
3. Acquired. Deep dives into companies like Nike, Nvidia, and Hermes. Episodes regularly clear one million downloads each despite publishing monthly, because each one is basically a free MBA case study.
4. My First Million with Sam Parr and Shaan Puri. Two founders who have built and sold companies, brainstorming business ideas in real time. Listen long enough and your brain starts spotting opportunities on its own.
5. Founders with David Senra. One biography of a great entrepreneur per episode. History as strategy, and proof your hardest quarter has been survived before.
6. The Tim Ferriss Show. The original long form interview show, deconstructing world class performers so you can steal their specific habits and tools.
7. Young and Profiting with Hala Taha. Mini masterclasses across sales, marketing, and mindset, from a woman who built her own media network. You will apply something the same day.
8. REAL AF with Andy Frisella. Unfiltered daily business commentary from the founder of 1st Phorm. For the days you need a drill sergeant, not a cheerleader.
9. The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway. Brutally honest markets commentary from a professor who built and sold multiple companies. The macro forces he covers hit your small business about eighteen months later.
10. Entrepreneurs on Fire with John Lee Dumas. Daily founder interviews and living proof that consistency compounds.

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Marketing

My industry, and where my own monitored learning time actually goes. If you work anywhere near brands, creators, or content, start here.

The Top Marketing Selling Books

1. Influence by Robert Cialdini. Millions of copies sold, and every persuasion tactic you have ever seen traces back to it. Once you read it, you will spot the seven principles in every ad, every landing page, and every influencer campaign, including your own.
2. Building a StoryBrand by Donald Miller. The clearest framework ever written for making your customer the hero. This one completely changed how I look at messaging, and I recommend it to every creator who writes their own copy. If your website is all about you instead of them, this is the fix.
3. This Is Marketing by Seth Godin. The modern manifesto from the most quoted marketer alive. Find your smallest viable audience and serve them obsessively. That is the entire strategy behind every successful niche creator you follow.
4. Contagious by Jonah Berger. The Wharton research on why things catch on and spread. Six science backed reasons content travels, which beats guessing at the algorithm every time.
5. Purple Cow by Seth Godin. Twenty years old and still the best argument for being remarkable instead of louder. Read it before your next rebrand.
6. Made to Stick by Chip and Dan Heath. Why some ideas survive and others die. Secretly a copywriting book. It will sharpen every caption, pitch, and subject line you write.
7. Ogilvy on Advertising by David Ogilvy. The original, and still shockingly relevant. Half the “new” hooks trending right now are Ogilvy headlines wearing a Gen Z outfit.
8. Crushing It! by Gary Vaynerchuk. Personal branding through the lens of every major platform. Dated in its specifics, evergreen in its thesis: your personal brand is the one asset no algorithm change can take from you.
9. Hooked by Nir Eyal. The playbook behind every product you cannot stop opening. Explains how to build content habits in your audience, and why you cannot put your own phone down.
10. One Million Followers by Brendan Kane. Audience growth mechanics for the creator economy era. Take the tactics with a grain of salt, keep the framework: test fast, double down on what earns shares.

The Top Marketing Podcasts

1. The Colin and Samir Show. The single best show on the business of the creator economy. They analyze creators as media CEOs. Revenue streams, brand deals, audience strategy. If you work in influencer marketing, this one is required.
2. Marketing School with Neil Patel and Eric Siu. Short daily episodes on SEO, social, and influencer marketing. Current in under ten minutes a day.
3. Online Marketing Made Easy with Amy Porterfield. Over 440 episodes of practical digital strategy from a woman who built an empire teaching it. Launches, list building, digital products, step by step.
4. Marketing Against the Grain. The sharpest ongoing coverage of how AI is rewriting demand generation, content, and search. Because the ground is moving whether you are watching or not.
5. Social Media Marketing Podcast with Michael Stelzner. The pulse of every platform change affecting your content calendar. Hear about the shift before your reach drops, not after.
6. Nudge with Phill Agnew. Consumer psychology explained through what actually makes people buy, in episodes short enough to apply to your very next post.
7. Uncensored CMO with Jon Evans. What marketing leaders really think, straight from CMOs at major brands. Also known as the people approving your influencer budgets. Read between those lines, creators.
8. Everyone Hates Marketers with Louis Grenier. Over one million downloads of fluff free marketing truth. The antidote for when everything on your feed is a funnel.
9. Perpetual Traffic. The tactical show for paid media as AI changes the job in real time. If you spend actual dollars on ads, subscribe.
10. Marketing Over Coffee. Weekly trends and tools in a relaxed conversation format. The easiest listen on this list, and a very good Monday.

Motivational and Mindset

Yes, I still believe in these, and yes, I still share them. In a container. If motivation content is your entire media diet, reread the first half of this post. If it is one intentional part of a balanced one, these are the best in cla ss.

The Top Selling Motivational Mindset Books

1. Atomic Habits by James Clear. The best selling self help book of this century, north of 20 million copies and still topping charts years after release. If someone held my escape shelf hostage and made me pick one book from this entire category, it is this one. The one percent better system works exactly the same on content calendars as it does on gym habits. Learning window only. Do not take James Clear into the bathtub.
2. The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho. Technically fiction, spiritually self help, and over 65 million copies sold. The crossover proves my whole point. Sometimes the story teaches what the workbook cannot.
3. The Power of Positive Thinking by Norman Vincent Peale. A bestseller for over 60 years, and the great grandparent of every mindset book on this list.
4. The Secret by Rhonda Byrne. Over 190 weeks on the New York Times bestseller list. Whatever you think of manifestation, understanding this book means understanding half the wellness content on your feed.
5. The Four Agreements by Don Miguel Ruiz. More than 8 million copies and over a decade on the bestseller list. “Don’t take anything personally” is worth the cover price for anyone who reads their own comment section.
6. The Let Them Theory by Mel Robbins. The runaway hit of the current era, dominating every chart it touches. Stop managing other people’s reactions. For recovering control freaks (hi), it lands hard.
7. Can’t Hurt Me by David Goggins. The self published memoir that sold millions and redefined the genre. Read it for the story, borrow the 40% rule, and do not adopt the 4 a.m. runs out of guilt.
8. You Are a Badass by Jen Sincero. The friendliest entry point in all of self help. If the genre intimidates you, start here.
9. Daring Greatly by Brené Brown. The research on vulnerability that changed how we talk about courage. Essential for anyone whose job requires being visible, which, these days, is all of us.
10. Untamed by Glennon Doyle. Part memoir, part permission slip, entirely a phenomenon. The book most likely to make you close it and stare at a wall reevaluating things. In the best way.

The Top Motivational Mindset Podcasts

1. The Mel Robbins Podcast. Science backed tools for confidence and habits, from a voice who leads with research over hype.
2. The Ed Mylett Show. Peak performance conversations, particularly strong for high output entrepreneurs running on fumes who need fuel with substance.
3. The School of Greatness with Lewis Howes. Credentialed guests across business, athletics, and growth. One feed, every flavor of high performer.
4. On Purpose with Jay Shetty. Consistently one of the most listened to wellness shows in the world. This one slows your nervous system down instead of revving it up.
5. We Can Do Hard Things with Glennon Doyle, Abby Wambach, and Amanda Doyle. Honest conversations about the hard stuff, with guests like Michelle Obama and Dolly Parton. You will feel less alone in whatever you are carrying.
6. The Happiness Lab with Dr. Laurie Santos. A Yale professor on the actual science of happiness. Data over hustle culture assumptions, every episode.
7. Unlocking Us with Brené Brown. Vulnerability, courage, and leadership from the researcher who mainstreamed all three. For leaders who manage people and want to do it like a human.
8. Good Life Project. Gentle, thoughtful conversations about meaning and living well. The opposite energy of everything else in this category, on purpose.
9. The GaryVee Audio Experience. He called every major platform early. Take the motivation with a grain of salt, take the platform calls seriously.
10. A Bit of Optimism with Simon Sinek. Short conversations on leadership and hope from the Start With Why author. A fifteen minute reset between meetings.

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Sports

Here is where the line starts to blur, because for a lot of us sports content IS escape content. And the data backs your feed up: sports is currently the fastest growing podcast genre in the United States. File these wherever they belong in your system. Both answers are correct.

The Top Selling Sports Books

1. Open by Andre Agassi. Widely considered the greatest sports memoir ever written, and I did not expect it to hit me the way it did. It is really a book about being world class at something you quietly hate, which is why I recommend it to every burned out high achiever I meet. If the driveway story earlier in this post felt familiar, this book is for you.
2. The Boys in the Boat by Daniel James Brown. Millions of copies, years on the bestseller lists, and now a major film. The best book ever written about what a team can do that talent alone cannot.
3. The Mamba Mentality by Kobe Bryant. Kobe on his craft, in his words. The purest distillation of obsession as craft you will ever hold.
4. Moneyball by Michael Lewis. The book that changed how every front office in every sport thinks. Really a business book in a baseball cap: find the undervalued asset everyone else overlooks. Sound like influencer marketing in 2016? It should.
5. Shoe Dog by Phil Knight. Yes, it earns two lists. The greatest sports business story ever told.
6. Relentless by Tim Grover. The trainer behind Jordan and Kobe on what separates good from unstoppable. Intense. Schedule it for a season you want to push, not a season you need rest.
7. The Inner Game of Tennis by W. Timothy Gallwey. Fifty years old and still handed out in locker rooms everywhere. Secretly the best book on performance anxiety in any field, including posting content and watching the numbers.
8. Legacy by James Kerr. Fifteen lessons in leadership from the All Blacks, beloved by coaches and CEOs alike. “Sweep the sheds” will change how you lead a team of any size.
9. When Breath Becomes Air is not sports, so instead: Eleven Rings by Phil Jackson. Championship leadership from the coach with the most rings in NBA history, and a masterclass in managing superstar egos, which is useful if you have ever managed talent of any kind.
10. The Woman in Me by Britney Spears is not sports either, so the real number ten: Mind Gym by Gary Mack. The mental skills classic athletes pass to each other like a secret.

Okay, you caught me having fun with that list. The point stands. Numbers one through ten are all worth your monitored learning window.

The Top Sports Podcasts

1. New Heights with Jason and Travis Kelce. Two brothers, one of the biggest shows in all of podcasting. Also, quietly, a masterclass in personality driven brand building. Take notes while you laugh.
2. The Pat McAfee Show. Daily, chaotic, and enormous. Proof that authentic beats polished, every single time.
3. Pardon My Take. The comedy sports giant that made irreverence a format.
4. The Bill Simmons Podcast. The godfather of sports podcasting, still setting the agenda.
5. Mind the Game. LeBron James and Steve Nash talking basketball at a level you cannot get anywhere else. Two masters breaking down mastery itself.
6. Club Shay Shay with Shannon Sharpe. Long form athlete interviews that regularly make national news.
7. Good Game with Sarah Spain. Daily coverage of women’s sports, the fastest growing corner of the entire sports world. If your brand is not paying attention yet, start here and thank me later.
8. Sports Are Fun! with Kelley O’Hara. A World Cup champion and Olympic gold medalist on the biggest stories in women’s sports, with genuine joy.
9. The GIST of It. Everything from the NFL to the WNBA through a refreshingly inclusive lens. One short show, every league covered.
10. The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz. Sports, absurdity, and media commentary from one of the most original voices in the space.
11. The Mom Game: Emily Jones & Julie Dobbs Talk Sports, Mom Life, and real shit that make us women with laughs mxied in.
12. The Dumb Zone Dan McDowell Jake Kemp, and Blake Jones

Women Leading the Charts, Hosted and Written

This category matters to me, and the numbers explain why. Women make up nearly half of all monthly podcast listeners, a record 47 million women listening monthly, and women purchase roughly 74% of self help books and the majority of fiction. Yet fewer than 35% of top 200 podcast chart spots belong to shows with a female lead host, only 29% of weekly podcast creators are women, and women host just 7.7% of business and technology shows. The audience showed up. Representation is still catching up. So we support the women behind the mic and the pen.

And yes, a few names below already appeared in earlier categories. That is not sloppy editing. That is what dominance looks like.

The Top Selling Books by Women Right Now

1. The Let Them Theory by Mel Robbins. The defining self help hit of the moment.
2. Becoming by Michelle Obama. More than 17 million copies worldwide, one of the fastest selling memoirs in history, and a masterclass in owning your own story.
3. Untamed by Glennon Doyle. Over 2 million copies and the launchpad for one of the biggest podcasts in the world. The book to media empire pipeline, executed perfectly.
4. Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus. The debut novel that sold millions and became a global series. Garmus published it at 64, in case you needed proof it is never too late.
5. It Ends With Us by Colleen Hoover. The BookTok phenomenon. At her peak, Hoover accounted for 48% of ALL romance print sales in America. One author. Nearly half a category.
6. Fourth Wing and Onyx Storm by Rebecca Yarros. Onyx Storm became the fastest selling adult title in the entire 20 year history of BookScan tracking. Dragons did that.
7. The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid. Published in 2017 and still refusing to leave the charts. That is word of mouth money cannot buy.
8. The Women by Kristin Hannah. The historical fiction blockbuster of the past two years, finally giving the women who served in Vietnam their story.
9. I’m Glad My Mom Died by Jennette McCurdy. The memoir that sold out everywhere for months. Devastating, funny, and unlike anything else in the genre.
10. Funny Story by Emily Henry. Henry drives roughly 32% of all print romance sales. She and Hoover alone have accounted for 80% of the category. Two women. Eighty percent.

The Top Podcasts Hosted by Women

1. Call Her Daddy with Alex Cooper. One of the biggest podcasts on the planet and a masterclass in building a media brand around a single voice. Study the trajectory even if the content is not your cup of coffee.
2. Crime Junkie with Ashley Flowers. The true crime juggernaut, and a full media company built from a spare bedroom. The single best podcast to empire case study that exists.
3. The Mel Robbins Podcast. Yes, she earns three mentions in this post. That is called a brand.
4. We Can Do Hard Things. Glennon, Abby, and Amanda again, because this show belongs everywhere.
5. Giggly Squad with Hannah Berner and Paige DeSorbo. Pure comedic escape and one of the fastest growing shows among women. This is a cup filler, and also, quietly, a lesson in turning friendship chemistry into a business.
6. Wiser Than Me with Julia Louis Dreyfus. Conversations with iconic older women about what they know now. The wisdom per minute rate is unmatched.
7. Baby, This Is Keke Palmer. Curiosity, culture, and comedy from one of the most magnetic personalities working.
8. Good Hang with Amy Poehler. Exactly what it sounds like. Warm, funny, zero homework.
9. The Toast with Claudia and Jackie Oshry. Daily pop culture news, perfect for a morning that is not another lecture.
10. Female Startup Club with Doone Roisin. Short, actionable interviews with women behind high growth ecommerce and beauty brands. The one learning show on this list, and worth it.

One more statistic while we are here, because it deserves its own paragraph. Women now own 40.6% of all businesses in the United States, employing 12.6 million people and generating $2.8 trillion in revenue. We are not a niche. We are an economy.

Book to Screen: Read It, Then Watch It

New category this year, by popular demand. Mine. Because here is the thing about the escape shelf: Hollywood has been raiding it. Nearly every book I have recommended in the last three summers either has an adaptation streaming right now or one on the way. And I believe in the correct order of operations. Read the book first. The book is always the director’s cut. Then watch the adaptation and enjoy yelling about what they changed. Two escapes for the price of one. That is the math I choose to do.

Watch Tonight

1. The Housemaid. Book by Freida McFadden, film with Sydney Sweeney and Amanda Seyfried. The thriller everyone on your feed read finally hit theaters last December and made over $300 million. Read the book first. The twist hits different on the page.
2. It Ends With Us. Book by Colleen Hoover, film with Blake Lively. The BookTok phenomenon turned box office event. Heavier themes than the flower shop marketing suggested, in both formats. Go in knowing that.
3. Lessons in Chemistry. Book by Bonnie Garmus, series on Apple TV+ with Brie Larson. One of the rare adaptations that book people actually defend.
4. Reminders of Him. Book by Colleen Hoover, film with Maika Monroe. Hit theaters this March, now streaming. Bring tissues. Bring backup tissues.
5. People We Meet on Vacation. Book by Emily Henry, film on Netflix. The first Emily Henry novel to make it to screen, and a perfect summer night double feature with the book.
6. Daisy Jones & The Six. Book by Taylor Jenkins Reid, series on Prime Video. Comes with a real album you will actually stream afterward.
7. Firefly Lane. Book by Kristin Hannah, series on Netflix. Three decades of a female friendship. Comfort watch rotation, permanently.
8. Where the Crawdads Sing. Book by Delia Owens, film with Daisy Edgar Jones. Book first, always. The marsh deserves the full treatment.
9. The Boys in the Boat. Book by Daniel James Brown, film directed by George Clooney. The sports crossover pick, and a beautiful watch with the whole family.
10. The Five Star Weekend: Hollis Shaw, a famed food influencer known for her delicious recipes, impeccable taste, and warm demeanor suffers a devastating loss.

Read It Now, Before It Hits Screens

This is your head start. Read these before the trailers take over your feed and the spoilers take over your group chats.

1. Verity by Colleen Hoover. In theaters October 2, 2026, with Anne Hathaway, Dakota Johnson, and Josh Hartnett. The twistiest thriller CoHo ever wrote and the most anticipated adaptation of the fall. The book will be everywhere again. Get ahead of it.
2. Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros. Officially ordered to series at Prime Video this May, with Westworld co creator Lisa Joy directing the first episode. You have a rare gift: enough lead time to read the entire Empyrean series before casting arguments consume the internet. Use it wisely.
3. The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah. In theaters February 2027, starring real life sisters Dakota and Elle Fanning. Cameras are already rolling. Read it this summer and be insufferably early.
4. The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid. The Netflix film just landed Anna Kendrick as director, announced last month. No cast yet, which means right now is the perfect window: read it before the internet assigns Evelyn a face forever.
5. Beach Read by Emily Henry. Headed to theaters in 2027 with Phoebe Dynevor and Patrick Schwarzenegger, filming underway. The queen of the beach read, getting an actual theatrical release. Poetic.

Notice something? Every single one of those authors is a woman. The escape shelf is not just filling cups. It is running Hollywood’s development slate.

The Escape Shelf: What I Actually Read and Listen To After Hours

And finally, the shelf that started this whole post. When the laptop closes, these are the assignments. No goals allowed. My Kindle has carried more of my mental health than I will ever admit in a marketing meeting, and honestly, it deserves workers’ compensation.

This Summer Will Be Different | Dreamland

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The Books That Let Your Mind Escape

The fiction bestseller lists right now are pure proof that the whole world needs a break. Here is where to start.

1. Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros. Dragons, romance, and the series that pulled millions of new readers into fiction. If you have not started it yet, I envy you.
2. It Ends With Us and Verity by Colleen Hoover. Emotional, propulsive, impossible to put down. Verity especially. Do not start it on a work night. I warned you.
3. Funny Story and Happy Place by Emily Henry. The queen of the beach read, for good reason. Witty banter, real depth, guaranteed soft landing.
4. The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid. Old Hollywood glamour with a gut punch. The book I hand people who say they “don’t really read fiction.” Works every time.
5. Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus. Smart, funny, and satisfying, with the most quietly furious heroine in modern fiction.
6. The Women by Kristin Hannah. Historical fiction that will wreck you in the best way. Schedule recovery time.
7. The Housemaid by Freida McFadden. Short chapters that turn “one more” into 2 a.m. Consider yourself warned.
8. The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah. The modern historical classic, and per the section above, on the clock.
9. Anything dark romance. Circana reports darker escapist themes are the biggest growth trend in all of fiction right now, giving readers a safe place to process heavy emotions. The data literally says the escape is the point.
10. Whatever is on my current summer list.  Which, as we established, contains exactly zero millionaire habits.

Things We Never Got Over | The Five-Star Weekend

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The Podcasts That Fill Your Cup

For laughing: SmartLess with Jason Bateman, Sean Hayes, and Will Arnett. Conan O’Brien Needs a Friend. Handsome with Tig Notaro, Fortune Feimster, and Mae Martin. Giggly Squad, again, forever.

For winding down: Nothing Much Happens, bedtime stories for grown-ups that work embarrassingly well. Sleep With Me, designed to bore you to sleep in the most loving way possible. Yes, that is the entire premise. Yes, it works.

My shameless podcast plug: For some influencer marketing, some real-life CEO thoughts, some personal takes, and some straight talk, yours truly, Audrie Dollins, Founders & Fortitude!

Before You Add Fifty Books to Your Cart

Do not add fifty shows and forty books to your library tonight, number one because i did it for you, use my list but number two start slow and intentional with your choices.

Ask yourself two questions, and I want you to actually answer them instead of skimming past. Can you finish a chapter without checking your phone? When was the last time you sat quietly, with nothing playing, and it did not feel like an emergency? If either of those made you flinch, you did not stumble onto this post by accident.

And one more, the hardest one. Do you actually need another business book? Or are you avoiding the harder work of applying the last one? I asked myself that question years too late. You get to ask it today.

So do what I did. Pick two or three learning titles and give them a container, a dedicated window inside working hours. Your commute counts if you want it to, but I honestly choose listening to music and winding down from the day or calling my friends to catch up. Then let the escape shelf have your evenings, guilt-free. Considering 73% of listeners say they trust their favorite podcast hosts more than almost any other form of media, be as picky about these voices as you would be about the people at your dinner table. Because functionally, that is what they are.

And one more filter while we are being honest, because it belongs here. I am extremely selective about whose voices I let sink in, and experience is my bar. The personal coaching market in the United States is worth over $2.3 billion, with more than 31,000 active coaches asking for your attention and your money. Some are phenomenal. Many have never built the thing they are selling you guidance on. If someone has never made payroll, never led a team, never sat across from a client in a hard conversation, their voice passes right by me. Apply that same filter to every book and show on this page. Lived experience first. Always.

The Permission I Did Not Know I Needed

The best business advice I ever received did not come from a bestselling author or a keynote stage. It came from two questions I answered proudly and heard back like a diagnosis. What are you reading? What are you listening to? Seven years later, I finally love my answer.

Protect your peace the same way you protect your business. Not because it sounds nice on a graphic, but because your business is built out of you. Your judgment, your creativity, your presence in hard conversations. Every one of those things runs on the reserves you refill after hours.

If you have been ending twelve hour workdays by picking up another book that lists everything you have not yet accomplished, consider this your permission slip. Close the business book. Open the novel. Cue up the show that makes you laugh. The research says six minutes is all it takes to feel the difference. I say give it a whole summer.

Now tell me, what are you reading and listening to right now? And be honest with me. Is it Fourth Wing and Giggly Squad, or is it another goal-setting book? No judgment.

As always, I hope my insight helps you guide your business, and your mind, to the most success. I love assisting fellow entrepreneurs, business owners, and content creators to find their footing and capitalize on it. For more business insights and entrepreneurial tips, be sure to view some of my latest blog posts below. You being here means the world to me! I am driven daily by your continued support.

Here’s to continuing to learn, continuing to evolve, and continuing to build businesses that serve people exceptionally well.

As always, I hope my insight helps you navigate your business with more clarity, strategy, and confidence as you continue building and scaling your brand online. One of my favorite parts of this space is being able to share real experiences, real data, and real perspective with fellow entrepreneurs, business owners, and content creators who are trying to grow intentionally in such a fast moving digital landscape.

For more business insights, creator strategy, marketing conversations, and entrepreneurial tips, make sure to explore some of my latest blog posts below. Your support, your readership, and simply you being here genuinely mean more to me than you know, and I am incredibly grateful for the community we continue building together every day.

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