In my down time or at the end of a long day on trail, I love a good book! Here are a handful of recommendations for great summer reads:

Fearless Leadership: High-Performance Lessons from the Flight Deck by Carey Lohrenz

Carey D. Lohrenz is a pilot and aviation pioneer. She learned the true meaning of fearless leadership “in some of the most demanding and extreme environments imaginable: the cockpit of an F-14 and the flight deck of an aircraft carrier”. Lohrenz shares many of her experiences, lessons learned, and provides analogies to help identify a fundamental truth: high-performing teams require fearless leaders. The first few paragraphs are thrilling!

The Right Kind of Crazy: A True Story of Teamwork, Leadership, and High-Stakes Innovation Hardcover by Adam Steltzner with William Patrick

The Right Kind of Crazy is a first-person account of innovation when working on high-tech projects for extreme environments. The context for this book is the Curiosity Mars rover landing system built by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL). The author Steltzner shares his lessons learned such as switching from fear-based to curiosity-based decision making, how to escape the creative block caused by fear, and how to foster mutual respect within teams.

The Fangirl’s Guide to the Galaxy: A Handbook for Girl Geeks Hardcover by Sam Maggs

Fangirl’s Guide is fabulous and fun, described as the “ultimate handbook for ladies living the nerdy life, a fun and feminist take on the often male-dominated world of geekdom”. This book is an easy and aesthetic read with rad illustrations, tips, definitions, and amazing interviews with incredible women like Jane Espenson, Kate Beaton, Ashley Eckstein, and Laura Vandervoort.

Rise of the Rocket Girls: The Women Who Propelled Us, from Missiles to the Moon to Mars Hardcover by Nathalia Holt

I am dying to get into this book as a I love stories about trailblazing and visionary women whom broke boundaries! This book covers the elite, quick-thinking mathematicians recruited by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Without powerful technology, they calculated velocities and plot trajectories. Their work and dedication made the first American satellites and the exploration of the solar system possible.