Reshma Saujani worked hard to achieve top grades and a stellar career, only to discover that this perfection was making her miserable. So, she quit her job and became the first Indian-American woman to run for congress. She lost, which set her on a new path to achieve her true dreams and embrace a life of bravery, not perfection. Now the founder of the non-profit Girls Who Code and a leading activist, Reshma’s book aims to enable women to rewire themselves to be brave, not perfect.

As far as the writing goes, I think this book could benefit from some heavy editing. I found it very repetitive, and black-and-white in terms of the “girls behave one way, boys behave an entirely different way” view. Of course, that can be true, but I believe this gendered-thinking is rapidly changing in recent years and the views presented in the book are quite single-minded.

On the one hand, I could see and understand a lot of what Reshma talks about in this book. On the other hand, I don’t think I am her target audience. I am sure that there are cultural elements, as well as lot coming down to upbringing, but I personally do not feel a need for perfection or fear of failure, so many of her stories and strategies didn’t really resonate with me. However, I could see where this would be a helpful book for many women and girls.

A insightful read very to the point.

people should for sure read this to get a more idea on the issues and themes spoken of in the book.

An interesting book that could be very powerful and help people - more, I think, in the business/work context than the personal. She looks at how women are conditioned to be perfect from babyhood and then how we can swap over to being brave, with personal examples, reports of research and notes from other women.

I was sent this book free by NetGalley for review. I am a secondary Computer Science Teacher who has been thinking about starting a girls coding club so I was already looking forward to reading this book after watching Reshma's TED talk and looking at Girls Who Code.

What I wasn't expecting was that she would be so down to earth and un-heroine like. She sounds like the kind of woman you could have a really good chat about life with over a gin and tonic in the pub. I loved her stories and her amazing bravery in starting GWC when she had never coded a day in her life, simply because she realised that there was a need for it.

She's inspiring and humbling and brave but definitely not perfect - here's to real, kind, intelligent women!

Yes yes yes. Everyone needs to read this. What an insightful, wise and pointed book. Recommending to everyone around me, brb.

A good helpful book if your looking to break out of the cycle of how you were raised, breaking out of believing you aren’t good enough, that you have to be perfect. There are some good tips here, I found it a bit repetitive at times, but it has good sound helpful ideas. Sometimes a bit simplistic but I did find it helpful, a good starting point to jump off into further reading


Thanks to netgalley and the publisher for a free copy for an honest opinion