Must Reads About Real-Life Fabulous Businesswomen
Each of them Impacted the World and Their Stories Will Amaze You!
August 2025 Issue
By Elizabeth Skenes Millen
I love reading true stories and historical fiction about women who made an impact in the business world against all odds. These women usually have incredible stories laden with challenges, hurdles, and naysayers. Amazingly, with all their determination and grit, they show us how to rise, overcome, and win despite the struggles. It’s astounding to discover the level of savviness and resourcefulness these women go to in order to follow through on their visions, dreams, and beliefs.
Beyond learning so much about these women who have literally shaped all of our lives in some way and became world-wide household names, they really are very similar to you and me. Their feelings of overwhelm, defeat, fear, doubt, accomplishment, and triumph are all universal. It’s intriguing to see the power of how women can come from nothing and become everything. Enjoy the reads!
The Magnificent Lives of Marjorie Post:
A Novel
Author: Allison Pataki | About: Marjorie Merriweather Post
Genre: Historical Fiction
Claim to Fame: The Post Cereal Company, building Mar-a-Lago, and so much more! You won’t believe all that Marjorie Post accomplished, experienced, and helmed during her lifetime.
Synopsis: Mrs. Post, the President and First Lady are here to see you. ... so begins another average evening for Marjorie Merriweather Post. Presidents have come and gone, but she has hosted them all. Growing up in the modest farmlands of Battle Creek, Michigan, Marjorie was inspired by a few simple rules: always think for yourself, never take success for granted, and work hard—even when deemed American royalty, even while covered in imperial diamonds. Marjorie had an insatiable drive to live and love and to give more than she got. From crawling through Moscow warehouses to rescue the Tsar’s treasures to outrunning the Nazis in London, from serving the homeless of the Great Depression to entertaining Roosevelts, Kennedys, and Hollywood’s biggest stars, Marjorie Merriweather Post lived an epic life few could imagine.
Marjorie’s journey began gluing cereal boxes in her father’s barn as a young girl. No one could have predicted that C. W. Post’s Cereal Company would grow into the General Foods empire and reshape the American way of life, with Marjorie as its heiress and leading lady. Not content to stay in her prescribed roles of high-society wife, mother, and hostess, Marjorie dared to demand more, making history in the process. Before turning 30 she amassed millions, becoming the wealthiest woman in the United States. But it was her life-force, advocacy, passion, and adventurous spirit that led to her stunning legacy.
Bestselling and acclaimed author Allison Pataki has crafted an intimate portrait of a larger-than-life woman, a powerful story of one woman falling in love with her own voice and embracing her own power while shaping history in the process.
Park Avenue Summer
Author: Renée Rosen | About: Helen Gurley Brown
Genre: Historical Fiction
Claim to Fame: This is the fascinating story of Gurley Brown’s rise to become the first female Editor in Chief at Cosmopolitan magazine. What an emotional fight! Better than Rocky!
Synopsis: It’s 1965 and Cosmopolitan magazine’s brazen new editor in chief, Helen Gurley Brown, shocks America and saves a dying publication by daring to talk to women about all things off-limits.
New York City is filled with opportunities for single girls like Alice Weiss, who leaves her small Midwestern town to chase her big-city dreams and unexpectedly lands a job working for the first female editor in chief of Cosmopolitan magazine.
For Alice, who wants to be a photographer, it seems like the perfect foot in the door, but nothing could have prepared her for the world she enters. Editors and writers resign on the spot, refusing to work for the woman who wrote the scandalous bestseller Sex and the Single Girl, and confidential memos, article ideas, and cover designs keep finding their way into the wrong hands. When someone tries to pull Alice into a scheme to sabotage her boss, she is more determined than ever to help Helen succeed.
While pressure mounts at the magazine, Alice struggles not to lose sight of her own dreams as she’s swept up into a glamorous world of five-star dinners, lavish parties, and men who are certainly no good. Because if Helen Gurley Brown has taught her anything, it’s that a woman can demand to have it all.
Fifth Avenue Glamour Girl
Author: Renée Rosen | About: Estée Lauder | Genre: Historical Fiction
Claim to Fame: This books follows Estée Lauder’s brave trek from extreme humble beginnings to world-wide cosmetic empress.
Fun Fact: When Time magazine published its list of the 20 most influential business geniuses of the 20th century in 1998, Estée Lauder was the only woman on the list.
Synopsis: It’s 1938, and a young woman selling face cream out of a New York City beauty parlor is determined to prove she can have it all. Her name is Estée Lauder, and she’s about to take the world by storm.
In New York City, you can disappear into the crowd. At least that’s what Gloria Downing desperately hopes for as she tries to reinvent herself after a devastating family scandal. She’s ready for a total life makeover and a friend she can lean on—and into her path walks a young, idealistic woman named Estée. Their chance encounter will change Gloria’s life forever.
Estée dreams of success and becoming a household name like Elizabeth Arden, Helena Rubinstein, and Revlon. Before Gloria knows it, she is swept up in her new friend’s mission and while Estée rolls up her sleeves, Gloria begins to discover her own talents. After landing a job at Saks Fifth Avenue, New York’s finest luxury department store, Gloria finds her voice, which proves instrumental in opening doors for Estée’s insatiable ambitions.
But in a world unaccustomed to women with power, they’ll each have to pay the price that comes with daring to live life on their own terms and refusing to back down.
The Personal Librarian
Authors: Marie Benedict & Victoria Christopher Murray
About: Belle da Costa Greene
Genre: Historical Fiction
Claim to Fame: J. P. Morgan’s personal librarian, Belle da Costa Greene, is the Black American woman who became one of the most respected and powerful women in the world of books and art.
Synopsis: In her twenties, Belle da Costa Greene is hired by American banking giant J. P. Morgan to curate a collection of rare manuscripts, books, and artwork for his newly built Pierpont Morgan Library. Belle becomes a fixture in New York City’s society and one of the most powerful people in the art and book world, known for her impeccable taste and shrewd negotiating for critical works as she helps create a world-class collection.
But Belle has a secret, one she must protect at all costs. She was born not Belle da Costa Greene but Belle Marion Greener. She is the daughter of Richard Greener, the first Black graduate of Harvard and a well-known advocate for equality. Belle’s complexion isn’t dark because of her alleged Portuguese heritage that lets her pass as white—her complexion is dark because she is African American.
The Personal Librarian tells the story of an extraordinary woman, famous for her intellect, style, and wit, and shares the lengths she must go to—for the protection of her family and her legacy—to preserve her carefully crafted white identity in the racist world in which she lives.
Be sure to catch these inspirational films about successful female entrepreneurs that showcase the challenges and successes of women in business, highlighting their determination and spirit to never give up.
• Joy (2015): This film is about Joy Mangano, who invented the Miracle Mop.
• Coco Before Chanel (2008): A drama about the early life of Coco Chanel and the beginnings of her brand.
• Erin Brockovich (2000): Based on a true story, this movie shows Erin Brockovich’s efforts against a corporation polluting water.
• Hidden Figures (2016): This movie tells the true story of three African American women at NASA who contributed to the space race.
• Self Made: Inspired by the Life of Madam C.J. Walker (2020): A miniseries about Madam C.J. Walker, who built a business empire and became a self-made millionaire.
• Widow Clicquot (2023): The story behind the Veuve Clicquot champagne family that began in the late 18th century.
When Women Ran Fifth Avenue:
Glamour and Power at the Dawn of American Fashion
Author: Julie Satow | Genre: Non-fiction
About: The golden age of American department stores and three visionary women who led them.
Claim to Fame: Retail giants Bonwit Teller, Lord & Taylor, and Henri Bendel and how their futures were shaped by women who were all before their time.
Synopsis: The twentieth century American department store: a palace of consumption where women, shopper and shopgirl alike, could stake out a newfound independence. Whether in New York, Chicago, or on Main Street, USA, men owned the buildings, but inside, women ruled.
In this hothouse atmosphere, three women rose to the top. In the 1930s, Hortense Odlum of Bonwit Teller came to her husband’s department store as a housewife and wound up running the company. Dorothy Shaver of Lord & Taylor championed American designers during World War II—before which US fashions were almost exclusively Parisian copies—becoming the first businesswoman to earn a $1 million salary. And in the 1960s, Geraldine Stutz of Henri Bendel re-invented the look of the modern department store and inspired a devoted following of ultra-chic shoppers, as well as decades of copycats. Journalist Julie Satow draws back the curtain on three visionaries in this stylish account, rich with personal drama and trade secrets, and showcases the women who made that beautifully curated world go round.