Lean In for Graduates

Donovan does a fine job of narrating Sandberg’s manifesto for women at work, here adapted for young graduates. Her voice is enthusiastic and fast-paced, brimming with savvy encouragement. Donovan also rolls wonderfully with Sandberg’s many self-deprecating moments, which pepper the book’s expert how-to advice with approachable, and sometimes funny, examples of her shortcomings. For example, she was one of only a handful of business school graduates to receive a monetary award for excellence after her first year, but she was the only winner—and, not coincidentally, the only woman—to keep quiet about that achievement. Donovan’s audio performance suffers in the expanded material near the end of the book. She reads all of it, including six new chapters by various experts (on finding your first job, negotiating for a salary, etc.) and a dozen short personal essays by those who have “leaned in.” Given the diversity of this cast of characters—and the book’s insistence that owning one’s story is vital to the ability to lead—it’s disappointing that other actors or even the contributors themselves don’t narrate those portions. A Knopf hardcover. (Apr.)