"Leaning Out" by Monica Pierce challenges the prevailing narrative that pressures professional women to "lean in" and pursue the elusive ideal of having it all. Pierce candidly shares her own journey, highlighting a transformation that occurred when she admitted she didn't want to follow the one-size-fits-all approach to success. This thought-provoking book draws on scientific, philosophical, and social concepts to explore why many women are hesitant to fully embrace the "lean in" philosophy. It doesn't stop at critiquing the current paradigm; it provides valuable insights and practical advice for those looking to align their professional and personal lives with their true desires. "Leaning Out" is a must-read for any woman who's tired of the conventional messages and seeks an alternative perspective on success and fulfillment. It's a refreshing and empowering take on redefining one's path in the modern world of work and life.

I absolutely loved this book. For starters I'm not in the corporate world, but I really related to the author's ideas, and I think there are so many women out there that also will relate considering the constant struggle between life and work and trying to fit into the patterns or working towards that position without affecting your life as a parent or spouse. The author done a great job touching exactly what makes today's society regarding career and family. Loved and read it finding myself full of questions regarding my one life style, my one priorities

A timely book during the current trend of hustle culture. I have been weighing the pros and cons of leaning into a hectic career and slowly trying to lean out because the toll on my health and social aspects of life doesn't seem worth it. This book made me more confident about choosing to not go higher with my ambitions at work. I now feel that it is okay to be stagnant at work if it allows you to progress at home or other aspects of life that you consider more important. This book would offer food for thought for anyone who is always busy at work but not happy with what they do. It can also reassure people who are in a phase where they are tired of wanting to do it all and are trying to be kinder to themselves for leaning out.

This audiobook is about an alternative view of a woman's career and focusing on what matters. There is a great message in this book: you don't have to lean in and be successful at work if this is not something you want for yourself. You can always be good (enough) at your job and have time for things you enjoy. A career doesn't have to be your priority.

I didn't like the part where the author is talking about being mediocre. I think she could say things differently. Mediocrity is something we don't want. We all want to be above average, and we can be, but this does not necessarily mean at our workplace.

I liked the narration and content of this audiobook.

This seems to be a good audio for those in this situation. It doesn’t apply to my life at this time. I think there is good information to help women find a balance and be kinder to themselves.

Leaning Out
An Alternative Perspective for the Modern Corporate Woman
by Monica E. Pierce
Narrated by Brittany Wilkerson
Monica E. Pierce
Independent Book Publishers Association (IBPA), Members' Audiobooks
Health, Mind & Body | Parenting & Families | Self-Help
Pub Date 31 Mar 2020


I am reviewing a copy of Leaning Out through Independent Book Publishers and Netgalley.


Leaning Out is geared towards the Modern Corporate woman who feels pressured with the feeling that she needs to have it all.


The Mainstream messages have seemingly turned the choice made to have a professional career into a directive. Because of that many are chasing careers and directions and accomplishments they may not really want. Often the cost comes high, it can cost us our family, our health and or our happiness.



In Leaning Out Monica Pierce shares the story of how her personal ambition changed, when she came to realize she didn’t really want it all. She offers tips to help you figure out what is the right size for you as well.



I give Leaning Out five out of five stars!



Happy Reading!

This was an interesting perspective on the corporate work world for women. It explores the question: what about women who want to foster a balance in their lives and don’t want to go for the corner office. Leaning out is not giving up on any ambition, but is a balance of ambition and family/personal life.

I’m one who has always leaned out so I could relate. It agues strongly for choice in the work world. A great read

Leaning Out is a brief non-fiction book about women's work life balance. This book is an alternative approach to that balance than the popular [book:Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead|16071764] by [author:Sheryl Sandberg|5333595]. In Lean In, Sandberg encouraged working women to be their own champion and actively work to advance themselves at work. In Leaning Out, Pierce shares her own personal experience as a mom in the working world and offers some advice. Pierce decided that her job isn't her top priority and that she would rather focus more on her children. She stepped away from her job at Lockheed Martin to a job that was less demanding of her time. She proposes that some women don't want to non-stop climb the career ladder and don't have aspirations to be CEOs...rather, they would like to enjoy their life more and feel fulfilled by what inspires them. She suggests that women do some self reflection and determine what is important to them in their life...what do they want their legacy to be and do their best to work towards that.

As a woman who stepped back from corporate work to a smaller more flexible job closer to home, I appreciated Pierce's perspective. We are not failures as moms or working women if we decide to try to spend more time with our kids or to spend more time doing what inspires us. The books was positive and the advice offered was achievable.

I thought this book would be right up my alley but I was disappointed. I couldn't relate to it at all and was frustrated by the author's messages. I ended up DNFing it because I didn't want to finish it.

"Leaning Out" is a thought-provoking book by Monica E. Pierce that looks at the alternative perspective of Sheryl Sandberg's book "Leaning In." Pierce's book assumes that not everyone's Immortality Project is their career. The Immortality Project addresses the type of legacy a person would like to leave behind when they are gone.

Throughout the book, Pierce expresses that being a parent and not wanting to "have it all" shouldn't be a trade-off. She talks about not leaning into the mainstream categories of what defines a woman's role, especially her role at work. She takes the personal perspective of not wanting to climb the ladder at work even though she could. Instead, places her focus is on her Immortality Project, which does revolve around her career. Pierce considers the corporate world's traditions as a means to busy ourselves and make life more meaningful. She defines her Project as her family and explains how her personal pursuit is parenting and seeking balance in her life.

The book relates a bit to the movie, "The Devil Wears Prada." It takes you on a journey of how Pierce sees the corporate world as a place where people often seek their validation and self-worth. She explains how it potentially robs people of their authenticity. In turn, she discusses how it's unnecessary to run the "rat race" to seek personal fulfillment in life.

I like how the introduction breaks down Pierce's point of view and how she will approach her perspectives. My favorite part is her explanation of the Immortality Project and its significance. Her interpretation helped me to understand her points better. The book appears to be a direct response to Sandberg's book, whereas Pierce feels left out and realizes other woman may feel the same way.

I believe this book would be great for book clubs. It supports in-depth discussions about where and how women are making progress in the workplace as well as their family life.

I enjoyed the narrator of this audiobook and found the vocal quality easy to listen to. The topic of this excerpt is one I’ve never read before so I am interested in seeing how it will be presented. The author is correct in very rarely is a career path that emphasizes what you enjoy promoted. More often than not the path most promoted is that toward leadership or getting off the career path all together. I would be interested in hearing how this author approaches the topic of women who have passions outside of work but still want to pursue success in some form in the work place.

"Leaning Out" by Monica E. Pierce is a new self-help book marketed towards women in the workplace. The author highlights the problematic approach of "Leaning In" coined by Sheryl Sandberg. Rather than favor this all in work approach, Pierce challenges readers to consider themselves and their families when choosing their "projects." With a consistent theme through out the book, readers will be encouraged to follow their own dreams... whether that be into an advanced position in the workplace or a family person or some other kind of destiny. The underlying message, "Follow your dreams."

This book fell flat for me, It is not often that I pick up something and immediately dislike it... but that was "Leaning Out" for me. At every turn of the page, I felt disconnected from the author and like as a reader.. I was being told something that wasn't true. The message of "mediocre is acceptable" is such a false hood. As the author mentioned, I agree with her book's editor... that should have been rephrased. I understand the meaning behind it... I believe that the author wanted to impress upon her audience that success in the workplace is not the end goal for everyone and that is perfectly fine. However, when she writes that mediocre is acceptable it conflicts with the intent of the passage. Readers should choose a project and strive to be successful in it, whatever that may be. However, it doesn't mean that people should settle on not doing their best at something and just coast through life. If someone wants to be a family person and place their emphasis and priority there, that's a wonderful thing but then they should work to improve that facet of their life and make it the best that it can be. Also, the book assumes that today's woman won't follow her passion. Rather it assumes in order to be a modern feminist woman, people will choose a certain predestined path. I don't necessarily think that is the case.

The audiobook format was well done. The narrator had a great tone, was easy to understand and was calming to listen to. The pacing was great and listening at the 1x speed felt perfectly fine. However, I just disliked the content of the book and didn't enjoy it for those reasons. I do feel like the author was well intentioned but I think this book misses the mark and wouldn't recommend it.

Leaning Out gives an interesting new perspective on women in the workplace. Leaning out is about doing what is best for you while ignoring what women and expected to do like climbing the corporate ladder. This book is encourages women to figure out what is most important for them (family, the job, etc.) and making sure your job and everything else in your life fits your priorities. Women are encouraged not to do what isn't important to them even if it’s what other people believe they should do.

Brittany Wilkerson did a great job narrating and was the perfect voice for this audiobook.

I recommend this book to all working women. Working women that want to prioritize family or women that value their job over everything else will find this an interesting perspective.

Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for this audiobook in exchange of an honest review.

Overall, a valuable book targeted toward women in the workforce who may wish to reevaluate their professional or personal priorities. The heart of this book is about determining your personal immortality/legacy project. This could mean the legacy you leave from raising your children or a fulfilling career or really whatever you choose. This book also can help alleviate guilt some may feel for not committing fully to a professional career. I am the target demographic for this book. I’m in my mid-thirties, educated, work in an office at a large company, and have two small children. However, I had some issues with the book. I found the tone very offputting at first, but am glad I stuck with it. Pierce repeatedly references Sheryl Sandberg and her ilk encouraging women to ‘lean in’ and interprets this as them demanding young professional women sacrifice their personal lives for the betterment of professional women everywhere. Pierce is coming from an incredibly privileged place, she has at least one graduate degree and has arguably been very successful in her career even if she hasn’t achieved VP or CEO status in a company. The kinds of opportunities that the author has had are not available to all women. Yes, she may not have faced obstacles to obtaining higher level jobs, but many women still do.

Still, this book is brief and smartly written and specifically questions the reader about what their true priorities are. People should craft their own careers and interests, but the onus should not always be on the employee when it comes to individually taking down corporate culture. The problem is not necessarily with employees that feel obligated to work long hours, foregoing social or family lives, but the employers who have made this the norm. I do agree that if more employees push back and set boundaries and take time off, work conditions will improve for all. Overall, Pierce makes some fantastic arguments about why it’s not best for everyone to “lean in” and that other areas of our lives may give us a lot more fulfilment if we do some soul searching.

Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for providing this audiobook ARC.

A pleasant book that touches on something so very important to us today. Those who want to work and go home and be with their family are not lacking ambition or full of laziness. Those who don’t want to climb the corporate ladder are not lacking confidence or living in fear. Some of us really just want to live a simple life and want to be home with what is important to us. This book touches upon what we’ve been taught as a society, that we should “dream big” and “lean in” and “give it our all” and if we don’t have or do all these things we aren’t successful. I hope this book makes people realize that our immortality projects do not have to be about making huge changes, or having a lot of followers, or being known as an expert in a field or any of all the myriad belief systems people and especially women are told these days. It teaches how to soul-search and gives tips on leaning out and only going after what is important, and not what others think should be important. Our accomplishments do not have to revolve around being married to a job or a dream. Thank you to the author for this so very true book, and I hope it helps those realize we can do simple things and make big changes just be being a good person and doing what is important to our lives and our families. Sometimes that might even include leaving the office after an eight-hour day and going to be home with your pets, and we should never feel guilty about priorities.

It pays to listen to alternative perspectives on how women at work navigate their careers.

Years ago, way back 2013, my wife read the book Lean In by Sheryl Sandberg. I fact I recommended that book to her to provide her some inspiration to aspire for higher corporate achievements. However, a year after reading that book I found her more stressed of what was happening at her workplace. I told her maybe Ms. Sandberg advice was not for everyone.

Now, listening to this book, I found indeed that not all women aspire to achieve external validation at work. Many of them wanted to have the right fit between work and personal life. Many of the ideas espoused by Monica (the author) provided resonated with my and wife’s ever evolving view of work.

This book provides inspiration for me to lean out. I found that the advice provided in this book not only applies to women but also to men. Men play an active role in helping women achieve personal happiness rooted from their deep values.

I also like that the author while supporting the idea of leaning out, does not entirely dismiss the idea of lean in for those women who really aspire to be powerful and be active change agents in the world. This is a lesson as well in diversity.

This is a great book.

This audiobook had me hooked from the very beginning. In the introduction, the authors briefly states her credentials which should basically make her an authority on professional success, but then poses a question - why is she not famous? Most of the authors of business and career self-help books are established public figures, which makes Monica E. Pierce an exception. From then on, the book unravels reasons why not only is she not famous, but also doesn't actually have it all and hasn't climbed the business ladder all the way to the top.

And this reason is... that being a CEO, or working oneself to death, is not necessarily a life everyone would like to live. Being a 'career woman' is not a one-size-fits-all model; in fact, spending less time with the family/children is the opposite of success to many of us. Therefore, in her book Monica helps us figures out what it is that we're actually chasing, and whether the career we're after is actually our goal, or rather a social expectation.

I found this book extremely thought provoking; being a young professional and a woman myself, I want to make sure that I get a head start on my career AS WELL AS a happy life outside of it.

But while I appreciated most of the content and the short length of this book, I wish Monica spent more time making sure that we don't totally ignore the benefits of a successful professional career to benefit our other definitions of success. In addition, I think this book missed an opportunity to explore/accredit the place of trans women in the society's image of a 'successful woman.'

*Thank you to the Publisher for a free copy of this audiobook in exchange for an honest review.