This month’s Books & Company column in The Copenhagen Post!

Books to keep you Company! Check it out.

I wasn’t sure about The Fever Tree at first. I thought it was wordy and self-conscious and I rolled my eyes at the three hundred odd pages ahead. But it was a book club book so I had to at least give it a go. And I am so glad I did. I couldn’t put it down.

The Fever Tree is set in the 1880’s, starting within the unforgiving class system of London and then against the vibrant backdrop of South Africa, it’s spectacular landscape and the harsh diamond-mining town of Kimberly.

Francis Irvine’s beloved father dies, leaving her penniless and she is forced to leave her privileged London life to marry a virtual stranger in South Africa. This is a story of a young woman finding herself, making mistakes, growing up and trying to work out where she fits in and what she wants from her life.

How do I describe this book? A sweeping saga, a rollicking read. Perhaps a bit dramatic but it is definitely a book that took me on an intense journey. I found myself snatching five minutes here and there at the most inopportune times, amid chaotic family life, just so I could find out what happened next.

This is Jennifer McVeigh’s first book. What a fantastic start as an author.

Lara (The Books & Company Book Club)

Warren Buffett once stated that one of the reasons for his great success was that he was competing with only half the population.

Yes, it’s back – the discussion of women in leadership roles. This time thanks to Sheryl Sandberg, the 43-year old COO of Facebook, and her new book Lean in – Women, Work and the Will to Lead.

The book starts out with all the necessary caveats; that not all women are able to lead due to cultural, social and economic circumstances; that not all women want to lead; that there are institutional barriers to women climbing the ladder or as Sandberg (aptly) prefers to  call it “the jungle gym”; and that men must learn to be true partners in order for the women in their lives to advance.

That said, the emphasis in the book is clearly on the women themselves and their will to lead; most interestingly on how woman are conditioned culturally and otherwise to NOT take the lead and how they therefore so often are their own worst enemies.

Lean in has been criticized for putting the onus too heavily on women, for blaming the victim, so to speak, and for not understanding the lives of “normal” women, who don’t happen to be Harvard graduate COOs of Fortune 500 companies.

This may well be true, but as a woman it is difficult to remain unaffected by the many poignant observations in the book.

While we must continue to address the hurdles and damaging assumptions that the predominately male driven society sets up for women’s advancement, it is essential that women take a hard look at their own behavioral patterns and how these are holding us back.

We have to deal with our need to be liked, our self-doubt, our risk adverse nature and for many mothers the ever present sense of guilt at not being everything at all times for our children. While many of these discussions are known entities and in some cases perhaps more relevant in an American than a European context, Sheryl Sandberg succeeds in presenting her case in an interesting, eye opening – and entertaining – manner.

Yes, she is a Harvard graduate COO of a Silicon Valley tech company known across the globe, and yes, the fact that she has time to have children, run Facebook AND write a book is indicative of a considerable amount of support, but that’s fine.

The “normal” mother of two with a full time job, or the single mother of four juggling two jobs does not have the time to write a book about the need for more women in leadership positions and just as we all stand on the shoulders of the women who went before us, I am certain that in time we (and our daughters) will appreciate Sheryl Sandberg’s call to “…have the ambition to lean in to your career and run the world.”

Perhaps then we can give the Warren Buffetts of the world more of a run for their money.