cover image In Her Power: 
Reclaiming Your Authentic Self

In Her Power: Reclaiming Your Authentic Self

Helene Lerner. Atria /Beyond Words, $14 (256p) ISBN 978-1-58270-270-4

Hear her roar: Lerner (Smart Women Take Risks), WomenWorking.com founder and former New York Times executive, tells women, “Create yourself and take full responsibility for your creation.” She offers chapter-ending exercises, charts, and a “power declaration” to guide readers toward these goals. Lerner fails to break any new ground with platitudes like “Appreciation of your whole self enables you to see the world differently,” but there’s some good advice amid the pap. When one is faced with difficult and murky choices, “Inaction is powerful,” Lerner advises, noting the importance of taking a moment to listen to one’s intuition. Still, the best guidance comes from women she interviewed on the front lines of change: like Rita, who feared confrontation with her husband, but “learned to speak up” for herself and earned his trust; Karen, who learned “to love myself, just as I am” and found a career as an actress after marriage and kids; and shopaholic Lily, who paid off her debts and learned that she could live within her means. Lerner, a corporate consultant and TV host, may occupy the podium and spotlight, but it’s the actors in the wings who are worth listening to. Agent: Loretta Barrett. (Feb.)