Hello Reader,

We know you’re always looking for your next good read, so we have some great recommendations.

Every month, you’ll receive team CGF’s top picks of books to help you improve your finances, advance your career, practice self-care, or get lost in a fantasy world.

Here is our list of August book recommendations!

• Note: This book list contains affiliate links from Amazon. Clever Girl Finance is an Amazon Associate which means we may earn commissions from qualifying purchases. These commissions help us keep our resources free!
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• We also encourage you to support your local independent booksellers! You can search by your location here.​
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• Love this email? You'll love our books too! Check out the Clever Girl Finance book series, including Clever Girl Millionaire — written to help you build real, lasting wealth.

Finance pick:Clever Girl Finance My Wealth Plan Workbook: Your Personalized Plan to Ditch Debt, Save Money and Build Real Wealth

If you want to live a life of financial security and prosperity, knowledge is the foundation. Yet it can be very easy to fall into the habit of learning without applying.

What if you had a financial workbook that allowed you to input your numbers and data, helping you come up with a strategic financial plan that works for you?

Bola Sokunbi, author of the Clever Girl Finance book series and founder and CEO of Clever Girl Finance has put together the Clever Girl Finance My Wealth Plan Workbook to help you create your long-term financial plan.

This workbook will help you control your spending by helping you define your money values so you can spend intentionally. Feeling overwhelmed with financial documents and papers? Use the workbook to organize your financial records and put your mind at ease. Looking to earn some extra money but don't know where to start?

The workbook will help you lay out a strategy to earn more, either in your career or through a side hustle. This workbook will help you go from living paycheck to paycheck to creating a budget you can actually stick to.

If you're ready to make a difference in your finances, save more money, and start earning more, the Clever Girl Finance Workbook is for you.

Self-help pick: Stop Letting Everything Affect You: How to Break Free from Overthinking, Emotional Chaos, and Self-Sabotage

​Stop Letting Everything Affect You by Daniel Chidiac is for anyone who finds themselves overthinking interactions, absorbing other people’s emotions, or allowing small setbacks to derail their entire day.

Chidiac explores how patterns like people-pleasing, guilt, emotional reactivity, and self-sabotage can keep us feeling overwhelmed, while offering practical ways to respond differently.

The book focuses on building healthier boundaries, recognizing manipulation and unhealthy relationship patterns, letting go of the need to take everything personally, and learning how to detach without becoming disconnected or cold.

At its core, it’s about becoming more intentional about what gets your energy and attention so you can protect your peace, trust yourself more, and move forward without constantly explaining or second-guessing your choices.

Business/Career pick: When I Start My Business, I’ll Be Happy: A Practical, No-BS Guide to Successful Online Entrepreneurship

Whether you need to earn some extra cash, want to take your side hustle to the next level, or wish to start a new career, there's no denying that creating a digital business is the best way to make your financial and career goals come true.

However, the digital space is flooded with videos of people dancing, shouting from rooftops, and doing whatever it takes to get you to pay attention to their business. You don't want to do that. You don't want to become a super performative person just to make money online.

The good news is you don't have to. In Sam Vander Wielen's book, When I Start My Business, I'll Be Happy, you will get all the tools, resources, and down-to-earth advice on how to create a thriving online business.

Not just for beginners, but also for those who already have a website, have spent months perfecting their offer, and feel like they're going to burn out. This book will show you how to build your business in a way that feels authentic to you.

Avoid common beginner mistakes, such as trying to please everyone and ending up selling to no one. Skip falling into the trap of working 24/7, and learn to seamlessly run your business alongside your personal life. Most importantly, learn to scale your business without burning out.

If you're looking for practical entrepreneurial advice that doesn't involve waking up at 5:00 AM or changing your whole identity, this book will act as your mentor and feel like a personal friend guiding you through creating and running your online business.

Fiction Pick: The Calamity Club: A Novel

Let's be honest: being a woman means that at some point in your life, you'll be misjudged, underestimated, and mistreated. Even in modern day, women are still fighting for more freedom and the right to exist without fear. For this reason and many more, The Calamity Club resonates with and touches the souls of so many women.

While fictional, the three main characters are written in such a relatable way that you feel connected to them, as if a part of you lives within them.

You have Meg, a young, cunning, and resilient orphan who has learned to trust no one, yet longs to know what it's like to have a family. Then there's Birdie, an outspoken and determined young woman looking for financial help for her family. Lastly, we have Charlie, Meg's biological mom, a woman who is fierce and unstoppable, unafraid to challenge society's expectations, and determined to get her daughter back.

When these three characters come together, they find the strength in each other to fight against hypocrisy and demand the lives they know they deserve.

From the author of The Help, this book will make you laugh, cry, and feel forever changed by the women in this story.

Personal development pick: Begin Again, and Again, and Again: Notes on the Art of Perpetual Renewal

Call it a midlife crisis, 2:00 AM doomscrolling, or not getting out of bed until after noon; almost everyone hits a point in their life where their mind is consumed by questions they can't seem to answer: Is this all there is to life? Am I destined for failure? Who am I?

These questions and many more have haunted author Alessandra Olanow during the darkest hours of the night. Searching for a light in that darkness, she started writing notes to herself. Through moments of self-doubt and reflection, those notes evolved into a book that speaks directly to some of the hardest parts of being human.

A beautiful tapestry of watercolor illustrations and empathetic narratives, Begin Again And Again And Again isn't a book with all the answers, but it offers a profound closeness and intimacy to help you navigate through questioning, doubting, grounding, opening, and renewal.

This book is for anyone who isn't ready to give up on themselves and wants to experience the true power of transformation.

Which book will you end the summer with?

Which book are you considering? Let us know in the comments!

Don’t forget you can stay motivated and learn other financial tips and tricks from our completely free financial courses.​

Happy reading! ❤️
Team CGF