It's What You Do Next: The Fall and Rise of Nashville's First Female Mayor

USA Today Bestseller

At some point, all of us will be at our worst, and while some of us will be remembered for it, none of us should be defined by it.

In 2015, after a historic run-off election, Megan Barry became the first female mayor of Nashville, Tennessee. Quickly becoming one of the most popular progressive politicians in the Bible Belt, Barry was a beloved leader with a sky-high approval rating and an unshakable hope for a new, forward-thinking, modern South. For her first few years in office, she was one of the most important voices at the table.

Until she became the most notorious.

Barry loved three things the most in the world—her son, Max, her husband, Bruce, and her job as the mayor of Nashville . . . until she lost two of them. Her monumental lapse in judgment led to a painful public reckoning and the fall of her rising political career. A battle with substance-use disorder robbed her of her only child. Grief, pride, shame, longing, and resentment nearly destroyed her marriage. Barry has to start again, the right way, with humility, hope, and a wicked sense of humor.

It’s What You Do Next is a deeply honest book about womanhood at home, in politics, and in the spaces between. It’s about moving forward after we’ve fallen short, finding the grace to love, and to love oneself again. It’s about the aching world of grief and the light beyond it.

Warm, funny, and uncompromisingly honest, Barry speaks to women as their close friend, not their fearless leader, her true self, not always her best self. She gives readers permission to come as they are and leave knowing that what matters most, is what happens next.