Author Guide · Business and Memoir
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In December 2010 Sheryl Sandberg, then chief operating officer of Facebook, gave a talk at TEDWomen called “Why we have too few women leaders”. Its advice, to sit at the table and not to leave before you leave, became Lean In (2013), written with Nell Scovell, which had sold 4.2 million copies five years after it came out. Two years after it appeared, her husband Dave Goldberg died suddenly on holiday in Mexico, and her next book, written with the psychologist Adam Grant, was about grief. Between the two she published an expanded edition of Lean In for students leaving university. This guide covers her three key books, in order, and where to begin.
By Lisanne Swart · 3 key books · 2013–2017 · Updated October 2026
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Quick answer
Sheryl Sandberg has written three books: Lean In (2013), on women, work and leadership; Lean In for Graduates (2014), an expanded edition for students; and Option B (2017), on grief and resilience, written with Adam Grant after the death of her husband. Start with Lean In; Option B stands on its own and also revisits what the first book left out.
Where to Start with Sheryl Sandberg
If you want her defining book
→ Lean In (2013) — the 2013 argument about women and leadership at work.
If you are about to start your first job
→ Lean In for Graduates (2014) — the same book with chapters on job hunting and salary negotiation.
If you are dealing with loss
→ Option B (2017) — written with Adam Grant after the sudden death of her husband.
3 Sheryl Sandberg Books, in Order
Lean In
Published by Knopf on 11 March 2013 and grown out of her 2010 TEDWomen talk, it argues that women hold themselves back as well as being held back, and sets out what they and their partners can do about it. Its eleven chapters include “Sit at the Table”, “It’s a Jungle Gym, Not a Ladder”, “Don’t Leave before You Leave” and “Make Your Partner a Real Partner”. It had sold 4.2 million copies five years after publication, and Sandberg founded the nonprofit LeanIn.Org the same year.
Lean In for Graduates
An expanded edition published on 8 April 2014, keeping the original text with updated statistics and adding a letter to graduates. Six new chapters by other writers cover finding a first job, negotiating a salary, young men and equality, and more, including contributions by Mellody Hobson and Rachel Simmons, followed by twelve short essays from readers.
Option B
Written with the Wharton psychologist Adam Grant and published by Knopf in April 2017, it starts from the death of her husband Dave Goldberg in May 2015: telling their two children, going back to work at Facebook, and what friends and colleagues did or failed to say. The title comes from a friend who told her, “Option A is not available.” It combines her account with research on resilience, and concedes that Lean In overlooked women who lack money or support at home. It went straight to number one on Amazon’s bestseller list.
In What Order to Read Sheryl Sandberg
The three books are not a series. Lean In for Graduates contains the whole of Lean In, so read one or the other, not both: the original if you are already working, the graduates’ edition if you are about to start.
Option B can be read without the others, but reading it after Lean In shows the shift between them: the first book is about ambition at work, the second about what happens when life at home falls apart, and it says plainly where the first one fell short for single parents.
A reading path
1. Lean In (2013)
2. Option B (2017)
3. Lean In for Graduates (2014), only if you are starting your career
The years · 1969–2024
Quick facts about Sheryl Sandberg
- Known for
- She is known for Lean In (2013), her argument that women should pursue leadership at work, and for her fourteen years as chief operating officer of Facebook.
- 1969
- Born in Washington, D.C.
- 2013
- Lean In
- 2024
- Leaves the Meta board; Screams Before Silence
- Born
- 28 August 1969, Washington, D.C.; grew up in North Miami Beach, Florida
- Education
- Harvard: AB in economics (1991), MBA (1995)
- Before Facebook
- World Bank, McKinsey, chief of staff at the US Treasury (1996–2001), Google (2001–2008)
- Facebook / Meta
- Chief operating officer 2008–2022; first woman on its board (2012–2024)
- Married
- Dave Goldberg (2004; he died in 2015); Tom Bernthal (2022)
- Founded
- LeanIn.Org (2013)
The red mark is 2013: Lean In, the book that grew out of her 2010 TEDWomen talk.
How Sheryl Sandberg Writes: Research, Then Her Own Life
Both main books follow the same pattern: a personal story first, then the studies. In Lean In she sets her own career next to research such as the experiment in which an identical résumé was judged differently depending on whether it carried a man’s or a woman’s name. Chapter titles are phrased as instructions: “Sit at the Table”, “Make Your Partner a Real Partner”.
She writes with co-authors. Nell Scovell, a television and magazine writer, worked on Lean In; Adam Grant, an organisational psychologist at Wharton, brought the research on resilience to Option B, including Martin Seligman’s idea, which she had also used in her 2016 Berkeley commencement speech, that recovery is slowed by three P’s: personalisation, pervasiveness and permanence.
Each book came with an organisation: LeanIn.Org, founded as a nonprofit in 2013, and the companion website OptionB.org in 2017. Option B is also where she answers her critics, saying the first book had not understood how hard work is for women who are on their own.
Watch
Sheryl Sandberg and Adam Grant in Conversation with Katie Couric
Katie Couric talks with Sheryl Sandberg and Adam Grant at the 92nd Street Y in New York on 23 April 2017 about their book Option B, resilience after setbacks and Sandberg’s experience after her husband’s sudden death. From the official 92nd Street Y, New York channel.
Frequently asked questions about Sheryl Sandberg’s books
How many books has Sheryl Sandberg written?
Three: Lean In (2013), written with Nell Scovell; Lean In for Graduates (2014), an expanded edition of the same book; and Option B (2017), written with Adam Grant.
What are Sheryl Sandberg’s books in order?
Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead (2013), Lean In for Graduates (2014) and Option B: Facing Adversity, Building Resilience, and Finding Joy (2017).
Where should I start with Sheryl Sandberg?
With Lean In (2013), the book that made her name as an author. If you are just leaving university, pick Lean In for Graduates instead, which contains the whole original text. If you come to her because of a loss, start with Option B.
What is Sheryl Sandberg’s most famous book?
Lean In (2013). It grew out of her 2010 TEDWomen talk “Why we have too few women leaders” and had sold 4.2 million copies five years after publication.
What is Option B about?
Grief and recovery. Sandberg’s husband Dave Goldberg, chief executive of SurveyMonkey, died suddenly on 1 May 2015 while they were on holiday in Mexico. With the psychologist Adam Grant she wrote about the first months afterwards, her children’s grief and going back to work, alongside research on how people build resilience.
What is the difference between Lean In and Lean In for Graduates?
Lean In for Graduates (2014) keeps the full text of Lean In with updated statistics and adds a letter to graduates, six chapters by other writers on topics such as finding a first job and negotiating a salary, and twelve essays from readers.
Why has Sheryl Sandberg been criticised?
For the book and for Facebook. Critics including bell hooks, Susan Faludi and Zoe Williams of The Guardian said Lean In put the burden on individual women and ignored class, race and structural barriers; in Option B (2017) Sandberg acknowledged it had overlooked women without resources. At Facebook she was criticised over its response to Russian election interference and the Cambridge Analytica scandal, and over the company’s hiring of the PR firm Definers in 2018. In January 2025 a Delaware judge sanctioned her for deleting emails from a personal account that were covered by a litigation hold in a shareholder lawsuit.
Is Sheryl Sandberg still at Facebook?
No. She stepped down as chief operating officer of Meta in 2022 after fourteen years and did not stand for re-election to the board in May 2024.
What has Sheryl Sandberg done since leaving Meta?
In April 2024 she fronted Screams Before Silence, a documentary directed by Anat Stalinsky about sexual violence during the Hamas attack on Israel of 7 October 2023, released on YouTube. She also runs a family foundation and, with her husband Tom Bernthal, the investment firm Sandberg Bernthal Venture Partners.
Who co-wrote Sheryl Sandberg’s books?
Lean In was written with Nell Scovell, a television and magazine writer. Option B was written with Adam Grant, an organisational psychologist at the Wharton School.
Footnotes
- Sheryl Sandberg — Wikipedia
- Lean In — Wikipedia
- Sheryl Sandberg — Britannica
- Sheryl Sandberg’s new book a tale of grief, resilience — Associated Press via Boston.com, 2017
- Sheryl Sandberg’s UC Berkeley commencement speech, transcript — Fortune, 2016
- Why we have too few women leaders — TED, 2010
Bibliography last verified 9 October 2026. Where sources give different first-publication years, this page uses the year in library catalogues or the publisher’s own record.
This list was not put together by a machine.
The notes are all mine,
and the books are all his.
Lisanne x
Written by Lisanne Swart, who has curated reading lists and author guides at lisanneswart.com since 2021.
See more on her personal bookshelf.
“Tragedy does not have to be personal, pervasive or permanent, but resilience can be.”
— Sheryl Sandberg and Adam Grant, Option B (2017)
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