The Brand Reading List

Reading is one of the most underrated tools in a brand builder’s kit. It sharpens your taste, expands your mental rolodex, and helps you learn from others — fast. This is my go-to library: curated and growing. Every book here has helped me build better brands, teams, or ideas.

👋 Hi, I'm Amanda. I'm a brand strategist and fractional CMO. I help founder-led businesses turn belief into brand—and brand into a strategic asset. I share weekly deep dives with actionable advice on brand building—plus interviews with the people in the trenches. I also work 1:1 with founders and teams. Book a chat here.

Who will love this

• People who want the meat, not the fluff

• Case study lovers and brand breakdown nerds

• Goodreads girlies (and spreadsheet trackers)

• Strategy-minded list-makers

• Anyone sick of business books that could’ve been a tweet

Today

G’day.

This week’s deep dive is on brand books.

Not brand book, brand books — rather, books about building brands. I have a core memory of getting scolded for sneaking Anne of Green Gables under my desk during 2nd grade (my bad Mrs. Lagerway), but as a strategist, being a voracious reader has expanded my mind and taught me a lot. Someone recently asked me asked for branding and marketing book recs, and it made me realize—pulling all my favorites into one spot could be useful for more than just one person.

These are the books I come back to when I need to explain why brand matters (again). The ones that made me underline entire paragraphs. The ones that were on the shelves in my family home growing up and are still as relevant as ever.

You’ll find a founder memoir about how hard running a startup actually is, this book that taught me to ‘speak’ design fluently, this no-fluff manual on positioning written by someone who's actually done it, this leadership book by a conductor and a therapist, this DTC cautionary tale dressed up in millennial pink, this football coach’s bible on standards and systems, this book that reminds you feedback isn’t scary if you give a damn, this business biography that reads like a true crime docuseries, this guide to managing people without killing the vibe, and this biography that’s really about the power of long-term thinking.

They’re all right here in a Notion page 👇

TLDR: I made this for the person I used to be—the one frantically googling “best branding books” and hoping something would click. Hope it helps you, too.

✌️ Amanda

Hot jobs 👀

The jobs that caught my eye this week ✨

• [In-house] Olipop is hiring a Director of Brand Marketing.

• [In-house] Hoka are hiring a Senior Director of Global Sports Marketing.

Brand news 🗞️

The work that caught my eye this week 🎨

• These billboards for Pampers are lovely.

• Oatly’s Global Chief Creative Officer John Schoolcraft just left the company—and dropped 12 lessons that go way beyond your average LinkedIn listicle.

• This Guinness ad by Uncommon made me cry in a coworking space.

• Justin Vernon (that’s Bon Iver) collaborated with 23 brands including Fishwife, AllPress, and Field Notes to release his new album, Fable.

• Brand agency Koto announced that they’ve taking investment from Westbridge Partners in order to protect a people-first mindset. ✨

Call me, beep me 📞

If you liked what you read, you can:

• 👋 subscribe (button below) or connecting with me on LinkedIn

• 👩‍💻 say hi or dropping a note in the comments!

• 🤝 send this to a friend