The Girls' Guide to Power & Success

Drawing on quotes from successful executives and entrepreneurs, the author addresses issues from leadership style to personal charisma to financial planning. Some of the topics are standard women's magazine fare, such as how to handle sexual harassment, or how to learn to trust your feminine intuition, but some are far less predictable, including how to recognize a glass ceiling, even if your title includes the term vice president.

By far the best material here is on gender differences in communication and body language; Solovic offers concrete advice on avoiding the not-so-subtle signals of weakness that women unintentionally give to their male colleagues and bosses. One executive, Barbara Wilson, for instance, explains how she learned to cut extraneous, chatty detail when she spoke and wrote for men: "You don't want your audience to feel like they're drinking from a fire hose." Solovic's arguments will ring true for women in business, college women, and especially would-be entrepreneurs, who would do well to brace themselves with the savvy Girls' Guide. --Regina Marler