271 Best Books on Biography & Autobiography
The New New Thing
Michael Lewis
@timourxyz Very good reference - need to read this book again!
The Man from the Future
Ananyo Bhattacharya
A vibrant biography of the renowned scientist and the world he made.@Ananyo love your book
The Man from the Future
Ananyo Bhattacharya
A vibrant biography of the renowned scientist and the world he made.Strong recommendation for this book: THE MAN FROM THE FUTURE: The Visionary Life of John von Neumann By Ananyo Bhattacharya @Ananyo https://t.co/wUAAqVDt7L // Super interesting and fun read
Managing Expectations
Minnie Driver
A charming, poignant, and mesmerizing memoir in essays from beloved actor and natural-born storyteller Minnie Driver, chronicling the way life works out even when it doesn't. In this intimate, beautifully crafted collection, Driver writes with disarming charm and candor about her bohemian upbringing between England and Barbados; her post-university travails and triumphs--from being the only student in her acting school not taken on by an agent to being discovered at a rave in a muddy field in the English countryside; shooting to fame in one of the most influential films of the 1990s and being nominated for an Academy Award; and finding the true light of her life, her son. She chronicles her unconventional career path, including the time she gave up on acting to sell jeans in Uruguay, her journey as a single parent, and the heartbreaking loss of her mother. Like Lena Dunham in Not That Kind of Girl, Gabrielle Union in We're Going to Need More Wine and Patti Smith in Just Kids, Driver writes with razor-sharp humor and grace as she explores navigating the depths of failure, fighting for success, discovering the unmatched wonder and challenge of motherhood, and wading through immeasurable grief. Effortlessly charming, deeply funny, personal, and honest, Managing Expectations reminds us of the way life works out--even when it doesn't.Soul in the Game
Vitaliy Katsenelson
Soul in the Game is a book of inspiring stories and hard-won lessons on how to live a meaningful life, crafted by investor and writer Vitaliy Katsenelson. Drawing from the lives of classical composers, ancient Stoics, and contemporary thinkers, Katsenelson weaves together a tapestry of practical wisdom that has helped him overcome his greatest challenges: in work, family, identity, health--and in dealing with success, failure, and more. Part autobiography, part philosophy, part creativity manual, Soul in the Game is a unique and vulnerable exploration of what works, and what doesn't, in the attempt to shape a fulfilling and happy life.Really enjoyed @vitaliyk's new book. https://t.co/8BoBlVkVsJ
Into Thin Air
Jon Krakauer
The author describes his spring 1996 trek to Mt. Everest, a disastrous expedition that claimed the lives of eight climbers, and explains why he survived@dommydoteth Just so you're not disappointed: Kropp is a side story. But the book is amazing.
After Steve
Tripp Mickle
From The Wall Street Journal's Tripp Mickle, the story of Apple after the passing of Steve Jobs.Great book by @trippmickle, #Apple reporter at @nytimes A page-turner that would interest creatives, business managers & anyone who has an iPhone https://t.co/jKNr9Y8QS5
Freezing Order
Bill Browder
Following his explosive New York Times bestseller Red Notice, Bill Browder returns with another gripping thriller chronicling how he became Vladimir Putin’s number one enemy by exposing Putin’s campaign to steal and launder hundreds of billions of dollars and kill anyone who stands in his way. When Bill Browder’s young Russian lawyer, Sergei Magnitsky, was beaten to death in a Moscow jail, Browder made it his life’s mission to go after his killers and make sure they faced justice. The first step of that mission was to uncover who was behind the $230 million tax refund scheme that Magnitsky was killed over. As Browder and his team tracked the money as it flowed out of Russia through the Baltics and Cyprus and on to Western Europe and the Americas, they were shocked to discover that Vladimir Putin himself was a beneficiary of the crime. As law enforcement agencies began freezing the money, Putin retaliated. He and his cronies set up honey traps, hired process servers to chase Browder through cities, murdered more of his Russian allies, and enlisted some of the top lawyers and politicians in America to bring him down. Putin will stop at nothing to protect his money. As Freezing Order reveals, it was Browder’s campaign to expose Putin’s corruption that prompted Russia’s intervention in the 2016 US presidential election. At once a financial caper, an international adventure, and a passionate plea for justice, Freezing Order is a stirring morality tale about how one man can take on one of the most ruthless villains in the world—and win.Congrats, Bill! It’s an excellent and important book, especially now. For some reason our books have cold titles… https://t.co/xfquPWtFrT
The Bond King
Mary Childs
From the host of NPR’s Planet Money, the deeply-investigated story of how one visionary, ruthless investor changed American finance forever. Before Bill Gross was known among investors as the Bond King, he was a gambler. In 1966, a fresh college grad, he went to Vegas armed with his net worth ($200) and a knack for counting cards. $10,000 and countless casino bans later, he was hooked: so he enrolled in business school. The Bond King is the story of how that whiz kid made American finance his casino. Over the course of decades, Bill Gross turned the sleepy bond market into a destabilized game of high risk, high reward; founded Pimco, one of today’s most powerful, secretive, and cutthroat investment firms; helped to reshape our financial system in the aftermath of the Great Recession—to his own advantage; and gained legions of admirers, and enemies, along the way. Like every American antihero, his ambition would also be his undoing. To understand the winners and losers of today’s money game, journalist Mary Childs argues, is to understand the bond market—and to understand the bond market is to understand the Bond King.This was so good. Great job @mdc. https://t.co/bl0VNrcJUl
Print the Legend
Scott Eyman
Follows the legendary John Ford through a career that spanned more than five decades, drawing on dozens of personal interviews, material from Ford's estate, and film criticism.New pickup https://t.co/vJZ4Uhurio
Red Notice
Bill Browder
Expelled from Russia after exposing corruption in Russian companies, an investment broker describes how his attorney was detained, tortured and beaten to death for testifying against Russian law enforcement officers who stole millions in taxes paid to the government. Illustrations. Tour.last two books both page turners the immortalists: gorgeous family saga with searching questions about fate and prophecy red notice: true story about finance & holy shit russian corruption (yes reading by the pool was considerably more luxurious than on redeye in economy…) https://t.co/WSP5tIDGZz
What Just Happened
Charles Finch
"A writer and literary critic's diary of the year 2020, beginning with the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic and spanning the protests for racial justice and the chaos of the U.S. presidential election"--I've probably already told you to read this book, but just in case: Read this book. https://t.co/y8cj1PHVqj
The Art of Learning
Josh Waitzkin
An eight-time national chess champion and world champion martial artist shares the lessons he has learned from two very different competitive arenas, identifying key principles about learning and performance that readers can apply to their life goals. Reprint. 35,000 first printing.@pratyushbuddiga @Primer love this book!
The Ambuja Story
Narotam Sekhsaria
Before reading this book, I knew nothing about Indian cement industry. Very well written. Required reading for both investors and entrepreneurs. Both can learn a lot from this book. https://t.co/ZN7KAt2iI8
Letters to the Sons of Society
Shaka Senghor
The New York Times bestselling author of Writing My Wrongs invites men everywhere on a journey of honesty and healing through this book of moving letters to his sons--one whom he is raising and the other whose childhood took place during Senghor's nineteen-year incarceration. Shaka Senghor has lived the life of two fathers. With his first son, Jay, born shortly after Senghor was incarcerated for second-degree murder, he experienced the regret of his own mistakes and the disconnection caused by a society that sees Black lives as disposable. With his second, Sekou, born after Senghor's release, he has experienced healing, transformation, intimacy, and the possibilities of a world where men and boys can openly show one another affection, support, and love. In this collection of beautifully written letters to Jay and Sekou, Senghor traces his journey as a Black man in America and unpacks the toxic and misguided messages about masculinity, mental health, love, and success that boys learn from an early age. He issues a passionate call to all fathers and sons--fathers who don't know how to show their sons love, sons who are navigating a fatherless world, boys who have been forced to grow up before their time--to cultivate positive relationships with other men, seek healing, tend to mental health, grow from pain, and rewrite the story that has been told about them. Letters to the Sons of Society is a soulful examination of the bond between father and sons, and a touchstone for anyone seeking a kinder, more just world.My number one job is to be “dad” and to do that well. To love, provide, be present for, advocate for etc. that’s why my friend @ShakaSenghor new book is so important. It’s a conversation starter for men like me who are raising sons. Highly recommend https://t.co/B9CACBskz9
Jesse Livermore - Boy Plunger
Tom Rubython
This is one of the best books you can read about Jesse Livermore. Very interesting personality. A legend. https://t.co/j7il8jCRq3
Shoe Dog
Phil Knight
In this instant and tenacious New York Times bestseller, Nike founder and board chairman Phil Knight “offers a rare and revealing look at the notoriously media-shy man behind the swoosh” (Booklist, starred review), illuminating his company’s early days as an intrepid start-up and its evolution into one of the world’s most iconic, game-changing, and profitable brands. Bill Gates named Shoe Dog one of his five favorite books of 2016 and called it “an amazing tale, a refreshingly honest reminder of what the path to business success really looks like. It’s a messy, perilous, and chaotic journey, riddled with mistakes, endless struggles, and sacrifice. Phil Knight opens up in ways few CEOs are willing to do.” Fresh out of business school, Phil Knight borrowed fifty dollars from his father and launched a company with one simple mission: import high-quality, low-cost running shoes from Japan. Selling the shoes from the trunk of his car in 1963, Knight grossed eight thousand dollars that first year. Today, Nike’s annual sales top $30 billion. In this age of start-ups, Knight’s Nike is the gold standard, and its swoosh is one of the few icons instantly recognized in every corner of the world. But Knight, the man behind the swoosh, has always been a mystery. In Shoe Dog, he tells his story at last. At twenty-four, Knight decides that rather than work for a big corporation, he will create something all his own, new, dynamic, different. He details the many risks he encountered, the crushing setbacks, the ruthless competitors and hostile bankers—as well as his many thrilling triumphs. Above all, he recalls the relationships that formed the heart and soul of Nike, with his former track coach, the irascible and charismatic Bill Bowerman, and with his first employees, a ragtag group of misfits and savants who quickly became a band of swoosh-crazed brothers. Together, harnessing the electrifying power of a bold vision and a shared belief in the transformative power of sports, they created a brand—and a culture—that changed everything.@marketplunger1 Phil Knight https://t.co/DJ9Gh1iMQR
The Last Enforcer
Charles Oakley
A memoir from Charles Oakley—one of the toughest and most loyal players in NBA history—featuring unfiltered stories about the journey that basketball has taken him on and his relationships with Michael Jordan, LeBron James, Charles Barkley, Patrick Ewing, Phil Jackson, Pat Riley, James Dolan, Donald Trump, George Floyd, and so many others. If you ask a New York Knicks fan about Charles Oakley, you better prepare to hear the love and a favorite story or two. But his individual stats weren’t remarkable, and while he helped power the Knicks to ten consecutive playoffs, he never won a championship. So why does he hold such a special place in the minds, hearts, and memories of NBA players and fans? Because over the course of nineteen years in the league, Oakley was at the center of more unbelievable encounters than Forrest Gump, and nearly as many fights as Mike Tyson. He was the friend you wish you had, and the enemy you wish you’d never made. If any opposing player were crazy enough to start a fight with him, or God forbid one of his teammates, Oakley would end it. “I can’t remember every rebound I grabbed but I do have a story—the true story—of just about every punch and slap on my resume,” he says. In The Last Enforcer, Oakley shares one incredible story after the next—all in his signature, unfiltered style—about his life in the paint and beyond, fighting for rebounds and respect. You’ll look back on the era of the 1990s NBA, when tough guys with rugged attitudes, unflinching loyalty, and hard-nosed work ethics were just as important as three-point sharpshooters. You’ll feel like you were on the court, in the room, can’t believe what you just saw, and need to tell everyone you know about it.Hell of a way to start a book https://t.co/aKlJTTvNXV
Billy Wilder
Robert Horton
Always daring Hollywood censors' limits on content, Billy Wilder directed greats such as Marilyn Monroe, Jack Lemmon, Ginger Rogers, Marlene Dietrich, Kirk Douglas, Audrey Hepburn, and Gary Cooper. Billy Wilder: Interviews follows the filmmaking career of one of Hollywood's most honored and successful writer-directors and spans over fifty years. Wilder, born in 1906, fled from Nazi Germany and established himself in America. Starting with a celebrated 1944 Life magazine profile, the book traces his progress from his Oscar-winning heyday of the 1940s to the 1990s, in which he is still witty, caustic, and defiant. Often playful and sometimes outrageous, but just as often very serious, Wilder details his rise as a Berlin cub reporter to a fledgling screenwriter in Hollywood's "Golden Age." He tells the stories behind his brilliant direction of such classics as Double Indemnity (1944), The Lost Weekend (1945), Sunset Boulevard (1950), Stalag 17 (1953), Sabrina (1954), The Seven-Year Itch (1955), Some Like It Hot (1959), and The Apartment (1960), among others. A dazzling raconteur, Wilder gives the scoop on the royalty of cinema, from the maddening magic of Monroe to the uncanny empathy of frequent alter ego Lemmon. Though his natural tendency is to spin marvelous anecdotes on the subject of show business, Wilder also delivers penetrating and instructive observations on his craft. On screen, his special blend of cynicism and romanticism was always expressed in a style that avoided showiness. Billy Wilder: Interviews includes in-depth profiles, spirited Q&A's, and on-the-set glimpses of the director at work. Taken together, the interviews form an unofficial memoir of a sophisticated artist once described by a colleague as the most unusual and amusing man in Hollywood. Robert Horton is the film critic for The Herald in Everett, Washington. His work has been published in Film Comment, New York Newsday, American Film, and the Seattle Weekly.So excited to read this: https://t.co/K09S3rCbwJ
A Mind at Play
Jimmy Soni
Winner of the Neumann Prize for the History of Mathematics **Named a best book of the year by Bloomberg and Nature** **'Best of 2017' by The Morning Sun** "We owe Claude Shannon a lot, and Soni & Goodman’s book takes a big first step in paying that debt." —San Francisco Review of Books "Soni and Goodman are at their best when they invoke the wonder an idea can instill. They summon the right level of awe while stopping short of hyperbole." —Financial Times "Jimmy Soni and Rob Goodman make a convincing case for their subtitle while reminding us that Shannon never made this claim himself." —The Wall Street Journal "Soni and Goodman have done their research...A Mind at Play reveals the remarkable human behind some of the most important theoretical and practical contributions to the information age." —Nature "A Mind at Play shows us that you don't need to be a genius to learn from a genius. Claude Shannon's inventive, vibrant life demonstrates how vital the act of play can be to making the most of work." —Inc. “A charming account of one of the twentieth century’s most distinguished scientists…Readers will enjoy this portrait of a modern-day Da Vinci.” —Fortune In their second collaboration, biographers Jimmy Soni and Rob Goodman present the story of Claude Shannon—one of the foremost intellects of the twentieth century and the architect of the Information Age, whose insights stand behind every computer built, email sent, video streamed, and webpage loaded. Claude Shannon was a groundbreaking polymath, a brilliant tinkerer, and a digital pioneer. He constructed the first wearable computer, outfoxed Vegas casinos, and built juggling robots. He also wrote the seminal text of the digital revolution, which has been called “the Magna Carta of the Information Age.” In this elegantly written, exhaustively researched biography, Soni and Goodman reveal Claude Shannon’s full story for the first time. With unique access to Shannon’s family and friends, A Mind at Play brings this singular innovator and always playful genius to life.@paulh4224 https://t.co/SqtTdiVIcK
Will
Will Smith
The instant #1 New York Times bestseller! “It's the best memoir I've ever read.” —Oprah Winfrey “Will Smith isn't holding back in his bravely inspiring new memoir . . . An ultimately heartwarming read, Will provides a humane glimpse of the man behind the actor, producer and musician, as he bares all his insecurities and trauma.” —USA Today One of the most dynamic and globally recognized entertainment forces of our time opens up fully about his life, in a brave and inspiring book that traces his learning curve to a place where outer success, inner happiness, and human connection are aligned. Along the way, Will tells the story in full of one of the most amazing rides through the worlds of music and film that anyone has ever had. Will Smith’s transformation from a West Philadelphia kid to one of the biggest rap stars of his era, and then one of the biggest movie stars in Hollywood history, is an epic tale—but it’s only half the story. Will Smith thought, with good reason, that he had won at life: not only was his own success unparalleled, his whole family was at the pinnacle of the entertainment world. Only they didn't see it that way: they felt more like star performers in his circus, a seven-days-a-week job they hadn't signed up for. It turned out Will Smith's education wasn't nearly over. This memoir is the product of a profound journey of self-knowledge, a reckoning with all that your will can get you and all that it can leave behind. Written with the help of Mark Manson, author of the multi-million-copy bestseller The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck, Will is the story of how one person mastered his own emotions, written in a way that can help everyone else do the same. Few of us will know the pressure of performing on the world's biggest stages for the highest of stakes, but we can all understand that the fuel that works for one stage of our journey might have to be changed if we want to make it all the way home. The combination of genuine wisdom of universal value and a life story that is preposterously entertaining, even astonishing, puts Will the book, like its author, in a category by itself.@businessbarista @RealWillSmithFP Love the book and how the process was documented on YouTube too
Elon Musk
Ashlee Vance
In the spirit of Steve Jobs and Moneyball, Elon Musk is both an illuminating and authorized look at the extraordinary life of one of Silicon Valley’s most exciting, unpredictable, and ambitious entrepreneurs—a real-life Tony Stark—and a fascinating exploration of the renewal of American invention and its new “makers.” Elon Musk spotlights the technology and vision of Elon Musk, the renowned entrepreneur and innovator behind SpaceX, Tesla, and SolarCity, who sold one of his Internet companies, PayPal, for $1.5 billion. Ashlee Vance captures the full spectacle and arc of the genius’s life and work, from his tumultuous upbringing in South Africa and flight to the United States to his dramatic technical innovations and entrepreneurial pursuits. Vance uses Musk’s story to explore one of the pressing questions of our age: can the nation of inventors and creators who led the modern world for a century still compete in an age of fierce global competition? He argues that Musk—one of the most unusual and striking figures in American business history—is a contemporary, visionary amalgam of legendary inventors and industrialists including Thomas Edison, Henry Ford, Howard Hughes, and Steve Jobs. More than any other entrepreneur today, Musk has dedicated his energies and his own vast fortune to inventing a future that is as rich and far-reaching as the visionaries of the golden age of science-fiction fantasy. Thorough and insightful, Elon Musk brings to life a technology industry that is rapidly and dramatically changing by examining the life of one of its most powerful and influential titans.For more, I recommend the following sources: https://t.co/1ciSQp1EtP https://t.co/fDnEF70dbj https://t.co/p9WOKqJZJf
Shoe Dog
Phil Knight
In this candid and riveting memoir, for the first time ever, Nike founder and CEO Phil Knight shares the inside story of the company’s early days as an intrepid start-up and its evolution into one of the world’s most iconic, game-changing, and profitable brands. In 1962, fresh out of business school, Phil Knight borrowed $50 from his father and created a company with a simple mission: import high-quality, low-cost athletic shoes from Japan. Selling the shoes from the trunk of his lime green Plymouth Valiant, Knight grossed $8,000 his first year. Today, Nike’s annual sales top $30 billion. In an age of startups, Nike is the ne plus ultra of all startups, and the swoosh has become a revolutionary, globe-spanning icon, one of the most ubiquitous and recognizable symbols in the world today. But Knight, the man behind the swoosh, has always remained a mystery. Now, for the first time, in a memoir that is candid, humble, gutsy, and wry, he tells his story, beginning with his crossroads moment. At 24, after backpacking around the world, he decided to take the unconventional path, to start his own business—a business that would be dynamic, different. Knight details the many risks and daunting setbacks that stood between him and his dream—along with his early triumphs. Above all, he recalls the formative relationships with his first partners and employees, a ragtag group of misfits and seekers who became a tight-knit band of brothers. Together, harnessing the transcendent power of a shared mission, and a deep belief in the spirit of sport, they built a brand that changed everything.@caitie i liked sapiens and shoe dog (read them before i switched off most white male authored books) and i loved educated, was just eyeing end of everything at the bookstore, maybe i’ll go get it now :)
Entangled Life
Merlin Sheldrake
"Living at the border between life and non-life, fungi use diverse cocktails of potent enzymes and acids to disassemble some of the most stubborn substances on the planet, turning rock into soil and wood into compost, allowing plants to grow. Fungi not only help create soil, they send out networks of tubes that enmesh roots and link plants together in the "Wood Wide Web." Fungi also drive many long-standing human fascinations: from yeasts that cause bread to rise and orchestrate the fermentation of sugar into alcohol; to psychedelic fungi; to the mold that produces penicillin and revolutionized modern medicine. And we can partner with fungi to heal the damage we've done to the planet. Fungi are already being used to make sustainable building materials and wearable leather, but they can do so much more. Fungi can digest many stubborn and toxic pollutants from crude oil to human-made polyurethane plastics and the explosive TNT. They can grow food from renewable sources: edible mushrooms can be grown on anything from plant waste to cigarette butts. And some fungi's antiviral compounds might be able to ease the colony collapse of bees. Merlin Sheldrake's revelatory introduction to this world will show us how fungi, and our relationships with them, are more astonishing than we could have imagined. Bringing to light science's latest discoveries and ingeniously parsing the varieties and behaviors of the fungi themselves, he points us toward the fundamental questions about the nature of intelligence and identity this massively diverse, little understood kingdom provokes"--20/ Oh my, what I book! Introduced me to the fascinating and highly underappreciated world of fungi. (so much so that I decided to grow them on my own!) https://t.co/8f8JBVeTi9
Harry Hopkins
Christopher D. O'Sullivan
One of the most controversial figures of the New Deal Era, Harry Hopkins elicited few neutral responses from his contemporaries. Millions admired him and believed the New Deal agencies he headed had rescued them from despair, but many of President Roosevelt s enemies passionately hated him and derisively called him the world s greatest spender or FDR s left-wing Rasputin. Hopkins was a paradoxical man: a trained social worker who enjoyed the company of the swells, attending cocktail parties, and gambling at the track. Once the quintessential New Dealer, during World War II he single-mindedly devoted himself to aiding the allies, downplaying his previous commitment to social reform and rupturing his friendship with Eleanor Roosevelt, among others. He was sickly and underweight, yet a profane and blunt-spoken man, lacking in any outward affectations of charisma. Still, FDR curiously saw Hopkins, who moved into the White House on the very day that Germany invaded France in May 1940, as his most suitable successor, the New Deal s legatee, a possible Democratic nominee for president. Much of what FDR accomplished would never have been possible without Hopkins whom the press described as not only FDR s most trusted official, but also his most intimate personal friend. Analyzing Hopkins role in wartime diplomacy and his personal relationships with the twentieth-century s most indispensable leaders, historian Christopher O Sullivan offers enormous insight into the most controversial aspects of FDR s foreign policy, the New Deal Era, and the beginning of modern American history."High modernism is used almost entirely as a pejorative these days Has been very interesting to read the memoirs/notes of Jean Monnet and Harry Hopkins from pre/post WWII era as the most pro-high modernism writing I've read
Barry Sonnenfeld, Call Your Mother
Barry Sonnenfeld
Film and television director Barry Sonnenfeld's outrageous and hilarious memoir traces his idiosyncratic upbringing in New York City, his breaking into film as a cinematographer with the Coen brothers, and his unexpected career as the director behind such huge film franchises as The Addams Family and Men in Black, and beloved work like Get Shorty, Pushing Daises,and A Series of Unfortunate Events. Barry Sonnenfeld's philosophy is, "Regret the Past. Fear the Present. Dread the Future." Told in his unmistakable voice, Barry Sonnenfeld, Call Your Mother is a laugh-out-loud memoir about coming of age. Constantly threatened with suicide by his over-protective mother, disillusioned by the father he worshiped, and abused by a demonic relative, Sonnenfeld somehow went on to become one of Hollywood's most successful producers and directors. Written with poignant insight and real-life irony, the book follows Sonnenfeld from childhood as a French horn player through graduate film school at NYU, where he developed his talent for cinematography. His first job after graduating was shooting nine feature length pornos in nine days. From that humble entrée, he went on to form a friendship with the Coen Brothers, launching his career shooting their first three films. Though Sonnenfeld had no ambition to direct, Scott Rudin convinced him to be the director of The Addams Family. It was a successful career move. He went on to direct many more films and television shows. Will Smith once joked that he wanted to take Sonnenfeld to Philadelphia public schools and say, "If this guy could end up as a successful film director on big budget films, anyone can." This book is a fascinating and hilarious roadmap for anyone who thinks they can't succeed in life because of a rough beginning.Book 29 Lesson: Be what you want to be — don’t blame your parents or anyone else for the steps you won’t take. https://t.co/EuaQYCmt8P
Sophie Scholl and the White Rose
Annette Dumbach
The 75th Anniversary Edition In 1942, five young German students and one professor at the University of Munich crossed the threshold of toleration to enter the realms of resistance, danger and death. Protesting in the name of principles Hitler thought he had killed forever, Sophie Scholl and other members of the White Rose realized that the 'Germanization' Hitler sought to enforce was cruel and inhuman, and that they could not be content to remain silent in its midst. With detailed chronicles of Scholl's arrest andtrial before Hitler's Hanging Judge, Roland Freisler, as well as appendices containing all of the leaflets the White Rose wrote and circulated, this volume is an invaluable addition to World War II literature and a fascinating window into human resilience in the face of dictatorship.I gave my father this powerful little book two years before he passed away: https://t.co/3cX6mIm7tK
David Copperfield's History of Magic
David Copperfield
An illustrated, illuminating insight into the world of illusion from the world’s greatest and most successful magician, capturing its audacious and inventive practitioners, and showcasing the art form’s most famous artifacts housed at David Copperfield’s secret museum. In this personal journey through a unique and remarkable performing art, David Copperfield profiles twenty-eight of the world’s most groundbreaking magicians. From the 16th-century magistrate who wrote the first book on conjuring to the roaring twenties and the man who fooled Houdini, to the woman who levitated, vanished, and caught bullets in her teeth, David Copperfield’s History of Magic takes you on a wild journey through the remarkable feats of the greatest magicians in history. These magicians were all outsiders in their own way, many of them determined to use magic to escape the strictures of class and convention. But they all transformed popular culture, adapted to social change, discovered the inner workings of the human mind, embraced the latest technological and scientific discoveries, and took the art of magic to unprecedented heights. The incredible stories are complimented by over 100 never-before-seen photographs of artifacts from Copperfield’s exclusive Museum of Magic, including a 16th-century manual on sleight of hand, Houdini’s straightjackets, handcuffs, and water torture chamber, Dante’s famous sawing-in-half apparatus, Alexander’s high-tech turban that allowed him to read people’s minds, and even some coins that may have magically passed through the hands of Abraham Lincoln. By the end of the book, you’ll be sure to share Copperfield’s passion for the power of magic.Magical new book from friend David @D_Copperfield - lush and fascinating secrets, revealed. https://t.co/x7fOUaMMuM
Play Nice But Win
Michael Dell
From Michael Dell, renowned founder and chief executive of one of America's largest technology companies, the inside story of the battles that defined him as a leader In 1984, soon-to-be college dropout Michael Dell hid signs of his fledgling PC business in the bathroom of his University of Texas dorm room. Almost 30 years later, at the pinnacle of his success as founder and leader of Dell Technologies, he found himself embroiled in a battle for his company's survival. What he'd do next could ensure its legacy--or destroy it completely. Play Nice But Win is a riveting account of the three battles waged for Dell Technologies: one to launch it, one to keep it, and one to transform it. For the first time, Dell reveals the highs and lows of the company's evolution amidst a rapidly changing industry--and his own, as he matured into the CEO it needed. With humor and humility, he recalls the mentors who showed him how to turn his passion into a business; the competitors who became friends, foes, or both; and the sharks that circled, looking for weakness. What emerges is the long-term vision underpinning his success: that technology is ultimately about people and their potential. More than an honest portrait of a leader at a crossroads, Play Nice But Win is a survival story proving that while anyone with technological insight and entrepreneurial zeal might build something great--it takes a leader to build something that lasts.1/ @MichaelDell's new book is out "Play Nice But Win" which is a perfect title for one of the most successful, yet low-key and humble CEOs of any industry who is also the OG PC leader. *Everyone* in tech should read this book. Some of what I felt...https://t.co/iQBC9dNvem https://t.co/iY08OwxgE9
Forward
Andrew Yang
A lively and bold blueprint for moving beyond the "era of institutional failure by transforming our outmoded political and economic systems to be resilient to twenty-first-century problems, from the popular entrepreneur, bestselling author, and political truth-teller "A vitally important book."--Mark Cuban Despite being written off by the media, Andrew Yang's shoestring 2020 presidential campaign--powered by his proposal for a universal basic income of $1,000 a month for all Americans--jolted the political establishment, growing into a massive, diverse movement. Now, in Forward, Yang reveals that UBI and the threat of job automation are only the beginning, diagnosing how a series of cascading problems within our antiquated systems keeps us stuck in the past--imperiling our democracy at every level. With America's stagnant institutions failing to keep pace with technological change, we grow more polarized as tech platforms supplant our will while feasting on our data. Yang introduces us to the various "priests of the decline" of America, including politicians whose incentives have become divorced from the people they supposedly serve. The machinery of American democracy is failing, Yang argues, and we need bold new ideas to rewire it for twenty-first-century problems. Inspired by his experience running for office and as an entrepreneur, and by ideas drawn from leading thinkers, Yang offers a series of solutions, including data rights, ranked-choice voting, and fact-based governance empowered by modern technology, writing that "there is no cavalry"--it's up to us. This is a powerful and urgent warning that we must step back from the brink and plot a new way forward for our democracy.Book party for @AndrewYang last night. Yang is the most original thinker in the political scene. https://t.co/fH7cBDYnOp
Forward
Andrew Yang
A lively and bold blueprint for moving beyond the "era of institutional failure by transforming our outmoded political and economic systems to be resilient to twenty-first-century problems, from the popular entrepreneur, bestselling author, and political truth-teller "A vitally important book."--Mark Cuban Despite being written off by the media, Andrew Yang's shoestring 2020 presidential campaign--powered by his proposal for a universal basic income of $1,000 a month for all Americans--jolted the political establishment, growing into a massive, diverse movement. Now, in Forward, Yang reveals that UBI and the threat of job automation are only the beginning, diagnosing how a series of cascading problems within our antiquated systems keeps us stuck in the past--imperiling our democracy at every level. With America's stagnant institutions failing to keep pace with technological change, we grow more polarized as tech platforms supplant our will while feasting on our data. Yang introduces us to the various "priests of the decline" of America, including politicians whose incentives have become divorced from the people they supposedly serve. The machinery of American democracy is failing, Yang argues, and we need bold new ideas to rewire it for twenty-first-century problems. Inspired by his experience running for office and as an entrepreneur, and by ideas drawn from leading thinkers, Yang offers a series of solutions, including data rights, ranked-choice voting, and fact-based governance empowered by modern technology, writing that "there is no cavalry"--it's up to us. This is a powerful and urgent warning that we must step back from the brink and plot a new way forward for our democracy.I received an advance copy of @AndrewYang's new book, FORWARD. It's a great read with an honest, inside perspective on what it's like to run for president, as well as some important ideas on our future political trajectory. https://t.co/UeoGbC2V7n
Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World
Jack Weatherford
A re-evaluation of Genghis Khan's rise to power examines the reforms the conqueror instituted throughout his empire and his uniting of East and West, which set the foundation for the nation-states and economic systems of the modern era.@AlexanderELundy Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World, The Ocean of Churn and Africa by John Reader are examples of books I've loved.
Play Nice But Win
Michael Dell
From Michael Dell, renowned founder and chief executive of one of America's largest technology companies, the inside story of the battles that defined him as a leader In 1984, soon-to-be college dropout Michael Dell hid signs of his fledgling PC business in the bathroom of his University of Texas dorm room. Almost 30 years later, at the pinnacle of his success as founder and leader of Dell Technologies, he found himself embroiled in a battle for his company's survival. What he'd do next could ensure its legacy--or destroy it completely. Play Nice But Win is a riveting account of the three battles waged for Dell Technologies: one to launch it, one to keep it, and one to transform it. For the first time, Dell reveals the highs and lows of the company's evolution amidst a rapidly changing industry--and his own, as he matured into the CEO it needed. With humor and humility, he recalls the mentors who showed him how to turn his passion into a business; the competitors who became friends, foes, or both; and the sharks that circled, looking for weakness. What emerges is the long-term vision underpinning his success: that technology is ultimately about people and their potential. More than an honest portrait of a leader at a crossroads, Play Nice But Win is a survival story proving that while anyone with technological insight and entrepreneurial zeal might build something great--it takes a leader to build something that lasts.@MichaelDell @WalterIsaacson @RayDalio @ericschmidt @IndraNooyi @richardbranson @HowardSchultz @Benioff @sherylsandberg @McConaughey @Gladwell @AdamMGrant @pmarca @BillGates Congratulations on today’s book launch. Play Nice But Win is a great read for entrepreneurs, leaders, and dreamers.
A Mind at Play
Jimmy Soni
Winner of the Neumann Prize for the History of Mathematics **Named a best book of the year by Bloomberg and Nature** **'Best of 2017' by The Morning Sun** "We owe Claude Shannon a lot, and Soni & Goodman’s book takes a big first step in paying that debt." —San Francisco Review of Books "Soni and Goodman are at their best when they invoke the wonder an idea can instill. They summon the right level of awe while stopping short of hyperbole." —Financial Times "Jimmy Soni and Rob Goodman make a convincing case for their subtitle while reminding us that Shannon never made this claim himself." —The Wall Street Journal "Soni and Goodman have done their research...A Mind at Play reveals the remarkable human behind some of the most important theoretical and practical contributions to the information age." —Nature "A Mind at Play shows us that you don't need to be a genius to learn from a genius. Claude Shannon's inventive, vibrant life demonstrates how vital the act of play can be to making the most of work." —Inc. “A charming account of one of the twentieth century’s most distinguished scientists…Readers will enjoy this portrait of a modern-day Da Vinci.” —Fortune In their second collaboration, biographers Jimmy Soni and Rob Goodman present the story of Claude Shannon—one of the foremost intellects of the twentieth century and the architect of the Information Age, whose insights stand behind every computer built, email sent, video streamed, and webpage loaded. Claude Shannon was a groundbreaking polymath, a brilliant tinkerer, and a digital pioneer. He constructed the first wearable computer, outfoxed Vegas casinos, and built juggling robots. He also wrote the seminal text of the digital revolution, which has been called “the Magna Carta of the Information Age.” In this elegantly written, exhaustively researched biography, Soni and Goodman reveal Claude Shannon’s full story for the first time. With unique access to Shannon’s family and friends, A Mind at Play brings this singular innovator and always playful genius to life.@nachkari 1. Soul of a New Machine 2. Where Wizards Stay Up Late 3. A Mind at Play 4. Books by Walter Isaacson like The Innovators, Jobs, DaVinci, Einstein and Franklin 5. Wright Brothers (McCullough) 6. Fire in the Valley 7. Intel Trinity 8. Edison https://t.co/D4jYgxsyef
The Innovators
Walter Isaacson
"Following his blockbuster biography of Steve Jobs, The Innovators is Walter Isaacson's revealing story of the people who created the computer and the Internet. It is destined to be the standard history of the digital revolution and an indispensable guide to how innovation really happens. What were the talents that allowed certain inventors and entrepreneurs to turn their visionary ideas into disruptive realities? What led to their creative leaps? Why did some succeed and others fail? In his masterly saga, Isaacson begins with Ada Lovelace, Lord Byron's daughter, who pioneered computer programming in the 1840s. He explores the fascinating personalities that cr eated our current digital revolution, such as Vannevar Bush, Alan Turing, John von Neumann, J.C.R. Licklider, Doug Engelbart, Robert Noyce, Bill Gates, Steve Wozniak, Steve Jobs, Tim Berners-Lee, and Larry Page. This is the story of how their minds worked and what made them so inventive. It's also a narrative of how their ability to collaborate and master the art of teamwork made them even more creative. For an era that seeks to foster innovation, creativity, and teamwork, The Innovators shows how they happen"--@nachkari 1. Soul of a New Machine 2. Where Wizards Stay Up Late 3. A Mind at Play 4. Books by Walter Isaacson like The Innovators, Jobs, DaVinci, Einstein and Franklin 5. Wright Brothers (McCullough) 6. Fire in the Valley 7. Intel Trinity 8. Edison https://t.co/D4jYgxsyef
Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World
Jack Weatherford
A re-evaluation of Genghis Khan's rise to power examines the reforms the conqueror instituted throughout his empire and his uniting of East and West, which set the foundation for the nation-states and economic systems of the modern era.@MrScottMeyer @Austen Agreed! I loved it. Read it while I was in China which gave extra meaning to the book
Unbound
Tarana Burke
"Searing. Powerful. Needed." —Oprah “Sometimes a single story can change the world. Unbound is one of those stories. Tarana’s words are a testimony to liberation and love.” —Brené Brown From the founder and activist behind one of the largest movements of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, the "me too" movement, Tarana Burke debuts a powerful memoir about her own journey to saying those two simple yet infinitely powerful words—me too—and how she brought empathy back to an entire generation in one of the largest cultural events in American history. Tarana didn’t always have the courage to say "me too." As a child, she reeled from her sexual assault, believing she was responsible. Unable to confess what she thought of as her own sins for fear of shattering her family, her soul split in two. One side was the bright, intellectually curious third generation Bronxite steeped in Black literature and power, and the other was the bad, shame ridden girl who thought of herself as a vile rule breaker, not of a victim. She tucked one away, hidden behind a wall of pain and anger, which seemed to work...until it didn’t. Tarana fought to reunite her fractured soul, through organizing, pursuing justice, and finding community. In her debut memoir she shares her extensive work supporting and empowering Black and brown girls, and the devastating realization that to truly help these girls she needed to help that scared, ashamed child still in her soul. She needed to stop running and confront what had happened to her, for Heaven and Diamond and the countless other young Black women for whom she cared. They gave her the courage to embrace her power. A power which in turn she shared with the entire world. Through these young Black and brown women, Tarana found that we can only offer empathy to others if we first offer it to ourselves. Unbound is the story of an inimitable woman’s inner strength and perseverance, all in pursuit of bringing healing to her community and the world around her, but it is also a story of possibility, of empathy, of power, and of the leader we all have inside ourselves. In sharing her path toward healing and saying "me too," Tarana reaches out a hand to help us all on our own journeys.I’m so proud to publish @TaranaBurke's searing new memoir #Unbound under my book imprint #AnOprahBook. I had multiple aha moments reading it. The #MeToo founder opens up about sexual abuse, shame, and finding the capacity to love—and to lead. https://t.co/7OoxXGn7aN
Shoe Dog
Phil Knight
In this instant and tenacious New York Times bestseller, Nike founder and board chairman Phil Knight “offers a rare and revealing look at the notoriously media-shy man behind the swoosh” (Booklist, starred review), illuminating his company’s early days as an intrepid start-up and its evolution into one of the world’s most iconic, game-changing, and profitable brands. Bill Gates named Shoe Dog one of his five favorite books of 2016 and called it “an amazing tale, a refreshingly honest reminder of what the path to business success really looks like. It’s a messy, perilous, and chaotic journey, riddled with mistakes, endless struggles, and sacrifice. Phil Knight opens up in ways few CEOs are willing to do.” Fresh out of business school, Phil Knight borrowed fifty dollars from his father and launched a company with one simple mission: import high-quality, low-cost running shoes from Japan. Selling the shoes from the trunk of his car in 1963, Knight grossed eight thousand dollars that first year. Today, Nike’s annual sales top $30 billion. In this age of start-ups, Knight’s Nike is the gold standard, and its swoosh is one of the few icons instantly recognized in every corner of the world. But Knight, the man behind the swoosh, has always been a mystery. In Shoe Dog, he tells his story at last. At twenty-four, Knight decides that rather than work for a big corporation, he will create something all his own, new, dynamic, different. He details the many risks he encountered, the crushing setbacks, the ruthless competitors and hostile bankers—as well as his many thrilling triumphs. Above all, he recalls the relationships that formed the heart and soul of Nike, with his former track coach, the irascible and charismatic Bill Bowerman, and with his first employees, a ragtag group of misfits and savants who quickly became a band of swoosh-crazed brothers. Together, harnessing the electrifying power of a bold vision and a shared belief in the transformative power of sports, they created a brand—and a culture—that changed everything.New post sharing some of my favorite books in the "business narrative" category -- business stories that read like fiction! - Shoe Dog - Made in America - Fish that Ate the Whale - Red Notice - Without Their Permission https://t.co/3m7pV9yYga
Authentic
Paul Van Doren
In the tradition of bestsellers such as Shoedog, Authentic is a surprisingly candid, compelling memoir by a high school dropout who went on to establish one of the world's most iconic brands. Paul Van Doren is the founder of Vans--the shoe company beloved by skateboarders, creatives and fans everywhere for its laid-back, colorful SoCal vibe, and famous for its people-oriented company culture. How did Van Doren, who started as a 16-year-old "service boy" at a local rubber factory, establish a family shoe business that evolved into a globally recognized brand with annual revenue of more than four billion dollars? A blue-collar kid with no higher education and zero retail experience, Van Doren leveraged a knack for numbers, a genius for efficiency, and the know-how to make a great canvas tennis shoe into an all-American success story. In 1966, when the first House of Vans store opened, there were no stand-alone retail stores just for sneakers. Paul's bold experiments in product design, distribution, and marketing (Why not sell custom shoes? Single shoes?), aided by legions of fans--skateboarders, surfers, even Sean Penn wearing Vans' famous checkerboard slip on shoe in the film Fast Times at Ridgemont High--made Vans a household name. But there was also back-breaking work, a shocking bankruptcy, family turmoil and a profound shift in how customers think about athletic shoes. Authentic details Van Doren's personal life, but also hard-won business lessons learned over six turbulent decades in the shoe trade: the importance of deep-rooted values, of improvisation, of vision (and revision), and above all, of valuing people over profits. Refreshingly forthright and totally entertaining, Authentic is a business memoir by an American original.Man's Search for Meaning
Viktor Emil Frankl
Viennese psychiatrist tells his grim experiences in a German concentration camp which led him to logotherapy, an existential method of psychiatry.@MorningBrew Complexity: The Emerging Science at the Edge of Order and Chaos, M. Mitchell Waldrop Also: Models of My Life, Herbert Simon Man's Search for Meaning, Viktor E. Frankl Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman! Richard Feynman Influence, Robert Cialdini
A Mind at Play
Jimmy Soni
Winner of the Neumann Prize for the History of Mathematics **Named a best book of the year by Bloomberg and Nature** **'Best of 2017' by The Morning Sun** "We owe Claude Shannon a lot, and Soni & Goodman’s book takes a big first step in paying that debt." —San Francisco Review of Books "Soni and Goodman are at their best when they invoke the wonder an idea can instill. They summon the right level of awe while stopping short of hyperbole." —Financial Times "Jimmy Soni and Rob Goodman make a convincing case for their subtitle while reminding us that Shannon never made this claim himself." —The Wall Street Journal "Soni and Goodman have done their research...A Mind at Play reveals the remarkable human behind some of the most important theoretical and practical contributions to the information age." —Nature "A Mind at Play shows us that you don't need to be a genius to learn from a genius. Claude Shannon's inventive, vibrant life demonstrates how vital the act of play can be to making the most of work." —Inc. “A charming account of one of the twentieth century’s most distinguished scientists…Readers will enjoy this portrait of a modern-day Da Vinci.” —Fortune In their second collaboration, biographers Jimmy Soni and Rob Goodman present the story of Claude Shannon—one of the foremost intellects of the twentieth century and the architect of the Information Age, whose insights stand behind every computer built, email sent, video streamed, and webpage loaded. Claude Shannon was a groundbreaking polymath, a brilliant tinkerer, and a digital pioneer. He constructed the first wearable computer, outfoxed Vegas casinos, and built juggling robots. He also wrote the seminal text of the digital revolution, which has been called “the Magna Carta of the Information Age.” In this elegantly written, exhaustively researched biography, Soni and Goodman reveal Claude Shannon’s full story for the first time. With unique access to Shannon’s family and friends, A Mind at Play brings this singular innovator and always playful genius to life.@DrJackKruse Thanks for sharing your comment. I'm not sure if you're a Shannon fan, but I read a really good book called, A Mind At Plan. The author, @jimmyasoni, did a great job with it.
Edward Hopper
Gail Levin
@nathanacurtis Our Hopper book https://t.co/LaANUClWel
Memories of Muhammad
Omid Safi
Who was Muhammad? What do we know historically, and does that differ from how he is seen by his followers and venerated today? Memories of Muhammad presents Muhammad as a lens through which to view both the genesis of Islamic religion and the grand sweep of Islamic history—right up to the hot button issues of the day, such as the spread of Islam, holy wars, the status of women, the significance of Jerusalem, and current tensions with Jews, Hindus and Christians. It also provides a rare glimpse into how Muslims spiritually connect to God through their Prophet, in the mosque, in the home, and even in cyberspace. This definitive biography of the founder of Islam by a leading Muslim-American scholar, Omid Safi, will reveal invaluable new insights, finally providing a fully three-dimensional portrait of Muhammad and the one billion people who follow him today.Reborn in the USA
Roger Bennett
One-half of the celebrated Men in Blazers duo, longtime culture and soccer commentator Roger Bennett traces the origins of his love affair with America, and how he went from a depraved, pimply faced Jewish boy in 1980's Liverpool to become the quintessential Englishman in New York. A memoir for fans of Jon Ronson and Chuck Klosterman, but with Roger Bennett's signature pop culture flair and humor. One of the earliest beliefs that I still cling onto in life, is that I was born a American trapped in an Englishman's body. That is the kind of story you manufacture about yourself when you grow up in a place like Liverpool in the 1980's. Reborn in the USA is Roger Bennett's homage to an adolescence as a triple outsider (Jewish in largely Catholic Liverpool, middle class in an overwhelmingly working-class community, and obsessed with American culture while his peers tended towards more deviant, borderline hooligan, behavior.) Throw in the fact that his father was a judge who campaigned on behalf of Margaret Thatcher in a town who thought of her as Medusa--the perfect recipe for ostracism. Bennett was happiest when playing chess with his grandfather, watching The Love Boat and Miami Vice, reading his hoarded copies of Rolling Stone, and blasting John Mellencamp's Scarecrow, Public Enemy's Yo! Bum Rush the Show, or Tracy Chapman's debut Fast Car. An American stuck in his native England. Bennett gives voice to every teenager who longs to leave their hometown behind, who pines for a different life, and who will do just about anything to escape what makes their formative years awful. In this funny and moving book, he beautifully captures the universality of growing pains, growing up, and growing out of where you come from. And when given the chance to taste the sweet fruit of his dream and travel to the USofA, Bennett expresses the reckless abandon that prevails when youth experiences freedom (and The Beastie Boys) for the first time. Rich with late '80s and '90s pop culture references from both sides of the pond--and with Roger's over-the-top sense of humor--Reborn in the USA is both a truly unique coming-of-age story in the vein of Jon Ronson and Chuck Klosterman and the love letter to America that this country needs right now.New book pickup! cc @rogbennett (@ Rough Draft Bar & Books in Kingston, NY) https://t.co/vjeEd3Ni9L https://t.co/OtJFl6cWM3
Shoe Dog
Phil Knight
In this instant and tenacious New York Times bestseller, Nike founder and board chairman Phil Knight “offers a rare and revealing look at the notoriously media-shy man behind the swoosh” (Booklist, starred review), illuminating his company’s early days as an intrepid start-up and its evolution into one of the world’s most iconic, game-changing, and profitable brands. Bill Gates named Shoe Dog one of his five favorite books of 2016 and called it “an amazing tale, a refreshingly honest reminder of what the path to business success really looks like. It’s a messy, perilous, and chaotic journey, riddled with mistakes, endless struggles, and sacrifice. Phil Knight opens up in ways few CEOs are willing to do.” Fresh out of business school, Phil Knight borrowed fifty dollars from his father and launched a company with one simple mission: import high-quality, low-cost running shoes from Japan. Selling the shoes from the trunk of his car in 1963, Knight grossed eight thousand dollars that first year. Today, Nike’s annual sales top $30 billion. In this age of start-ups, Knight’s Nike is the gold standard, and its swoosh is one of the few icons instantly recognized in every corner of the world. But Knight, the man behind the swoosh, has always been a mystery. In Shoe Dog, he tells his story at last. At twenty-four, Knight decides that rather than work for a big corporation, he will create something all his own, new, dynamic, different. He details the many risks he encountered, the crushing setbacks, the ruthless competitors and hostile bankers—as well as his many thrilling triumphs. Above all, he recalls the relationships that formed the heart and soul of Nike, with his former track coach, the irascible and charismatic Bill Bowerman, and with his first employees, a ragtag group of misfits and savants who quickly became a band of swoosh-crazed brothers. Together, harnessing the electrifying power of a bold vision and a shared belief in the transformative power of sports, they created a brand—and a culture—that changed everything.Into the Magic Shop
James R. Doty MD
The author relates how a chance encounter in a magic shop with a woman who taught him exercises to ease his sufferings and manifest his greatest desires gave him a glimpse of the relationship between the brain and the heart, and drove him to explore the neuroscience of compassion and altruism.One of the rare books which connect to your heart. Strongly recommend reading. https://t.co/1tSR4ZygNr
Our Man
George Packer
@stephenwertheim That book is incredible!
A Difficult Death
Morten Høi Jensen
While largely unknown today, Danish writer Jens Peter Jacobsen was the leading prose writer in Scandinavia in the late nineteenth century. Despite his untimely death from tuberculosis at the age of thirty-eight, Jacobsen became a cult figure to an entire generation and continues to occupy an important place in Scandinavian cultural history. In this book, Morten Høi Jensen gives a moving account of Jacobsen's life, work, and death.--Adapted from book jacket.Finished @MortenHoiJensen’s book yesterday and now I’m mad at myself I didn’t read it earlier 😌 If interested in how Darwin impacted Western literature, that glorious age when science + poetry were friends — but also the tragedy of secularism and how art grew up to balance it, https://t.co/T7P4FEfq9l
Letters to the Sons of Society
Shaka Senghor
The New York Times bestselling author of Writing My Wrongs invites men everywhere on a journey of honesty and healing through this book of moving letters to his sons--one whom he is raising and the other whose childhood took place during Senghor's nineteen-year incarceration. Shaka Senghor has lived the life of two fathers. With his first son, Jay, born shortly after Senghor was incarcerated for second-degree murder, he experienced the regret of his own mistakes and the disconnection caused by a society that sees Black lives as disposable. With his second, Sekou, born after Senghor's release, he has experienced healing, transformation, intimacy, and the possibilities of a world where men and boys can openly show one another affection, support, and love. In this collection of beautifully written letters to Jay and Sekou, Senghor traces his journey as a Black man in America and unpacks the toxic and misguided messages about masculinity, mental health, love, and success that boys learn from an early age. He issues a passionate call to all fathers and sons--fathers who don't know how to show their sons love, sons who are navigating a fatherless world, boys who have been forced to grow up before their time--to cultivate positive relationships with other men, seek healing, tend to mental health, grow from pain, and rewrite the story that has been told about them. Letters to the Sons of Society is a soulful examination of the bond between father and sons, and a touchstone for anyone seeking a kinder, more just world.A perfect gift for your dad on Father’s Day - my guy @ShakaSenghor new book https://t.co/ery2wbZLCj
My Life in the Ring and Out
Jack Johnson
The first African American to win the world heavyweight championship, Johnson recounts without bitterness the prejudice that dogged his public and private lives and his international adventures as a bon vivant.2/2 Also mentioned:Agatha Christie, Sweet Sorrow by @DavidNWriter The Virago Book of Love Poetry by Wendy Mulford My Life in the Ring & Out by Jack Johnson thank you @reginalddhunter @sophiewillan @ranvir01 & @MickyF_Official for being such fantastic guests📚All eps on @iplayer
Freedom
Sebastian Junger
"A profound rumination on the concept of freedom from the New York Times bestselling author of Tribe"--Loved this new book by @sebastianjunger. It's insightful but short, to the point, and anyone can read it in a day. More books should copy this format. https://t.co/ejyb0Nusv7
Books on tonight’s Between The Covers : Waterland by Graham Swift, Home Body by @rupikaur_ How To Be A Medieval Woman by Margery Kempe A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara & OUR PICKS: Hamnet by Maggie O’Farrell & The Last House on Needless Street by @Catrionaward #BetweenTheCovers https://t.co/RHQHoGzDPv
Somebody's Daughter
Ashley C. Ford
“Sure to be one of the best memoirs of 2021.” —Kirkus Reviews, starred review “So clear, sharp, and smooth that the reader sees, in vivid focus, Ford’s complicated childhood, brilliant mind, and golden heart. Ford is a writer for the ages, and Somebody’s Daughter will be a book of the year.” —Glennon Doyle, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Untamed “Ford’s wrenchingly brilliant memoir is truly a classic in the making. The writing is so richly observed and so suffused with love and yearning that I kept forgetting to breathe while reading it.” —John Green, #1 New York Times bestselling author One of the most prominent voices of her generation debuts with an extraordinarily powerful memoir: the story of a childhood defined by the looming absence of her incarcerated father. Through poverty, adolescence, and a fraught relationship with her mother, Ashley Ford wishes she could turn to her father for hope and encouragement. There are just a few problems: he’s in prison, and she doesn’t know what he did to end up there. She doesn’t know how to deal with the incessant worries that keep her up at night, or how to handle the changes in her body that draw unwanted attention from men. In her search for unconditional love, Ashley begins dating a boy her mother hates. When the relationship turns sour, he assaults her. Still reeling from the rape, which she keeps secret from her family, Ashley desperately searches for meaning in the chaos. Then, her grandmother reveals the truth about her father’s incarceration . . . and Ashley’s entire world is turned upside down. Somebody’s Daughter steps into the world of growing up a poor, Black girl in Indiana with a family fragmented by incarceration, exploring how isolating and complex such a childhood can be. As Ashley battles her body and her environment, she embarks on a powerful journey to find the threads between who she is and what she was born into, and the complicated familial love that often binds them.I saw so much of my own story in this beautifully written book by Ashley, who—like me—also had to overcome a challenging childhood growing up as a poor, Black girl. Her remarkable memoir about finding love, finding freedom, and finding herself will move you.
Tiger Woods
Jeff Benedict
Soon to be an HBO documentary from Academy Award–winning producer Alex Gibney The #1 New York Times bestseller based on years of reporting and interviews with more than 250 people from every corner of Tiger Woods’s life—this “comprehensive, propulsive…and unsparing” (The New Yorker) biography is “an ambitious 360-degree portrait of golf’s most scrutinized figure…brimming with revealing details” (Golf Digest). In 2009, Tiger Woods was the most famous athlete on the planet, a transcendent star of almost unfathomable fame and fortune living what appeared to be the perfect life. But it turned out he had been living a double life for years—one that exploded in the aftermath of a Thanksgiving night crash that exposed his serial infidelity and sent his personal and professional lives over a cliff. In this “searing biography of golf’s most blazing talent” (GOLF magazine), Jeff Benedict and Armen Keteyian dig deep behind the headlines to produce a richly reported answer to the question that has mystified millions of sports fans for nearly a decade: who is Tiger Woods, really? Drawing on more than four hundred interviews with people from every corner of Woods’s life—many of whom have never spoken about him on the record before—Benedict and Keteyian construct a captivating psychological profile of a mixed race child programmed by an attention-grabbing father and the original Tiger Mom to be the “chosen one,” to change not just the game of golf, but the world as well. But at what cost? Benedict and Keteyian provide the starling answers in this definitive biography that is destined to linger in the minds of readers for years to come. “Irresistible…Immensely readable…Benedict and Keteyian bring us along for the ride in a whirlwind of a biography that reads honest and true” (The Wall Street Journal). Ultimately, Tiger Woods is “a big American story…exhilarating, depressing, tawdry, and moving in almost equal measure” (The New York Times).Here are some more recent-ish reads that I liked or found valuable off the top of my head: - Creative Quest- Empires of Light - Think Again - Tiger Woods - Boom Town - Liftoff - A Promised Land - No Filter - Becoming - That Will Never Work - The Ride of a Lifetime
Becoming
Michelle Obama
Now in paperback--the intimate, powerful, and inspiring memoir by the former First Lady of the United States, featuring a new introduction by Michelle Obama, a letter from the author to her younger self, and a book club guide with 20 discussion questions and a 5-question Q&A nbsp; #1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * WATCH THE EMMY-NOMINATED NETFLIX ORIGINAL DOCUMENTARY * OPRAH'S BOOK CLUB PICK * NAACP IMAGE AWARD WINNER * ONE OF ESSENCE'S 50 MOST IMPACTFUL BLACK BOOKS OF THE PAST 50 YEARS In a life filled with meaning and accomplishment, Michelle Obama has emerged as one of the most iconic and compelling women of our era. As First Lady of the United States of America--the first African American to serve in that role--she helped create the most welcoming and inclusive White House in history, while also establishing herself as a powerful advocate for women and girls in the U.S. and around the world, dramatically changing the ways that families pursue healthier and more active lives, and standing with her husband as he led America through some of its most harrowing moments. Along the way, she showed us a few dance moves, crushed Carpool Karaoke, and raised two down-to-earth daughters under an unforgiving media glare. In her memoir, a work of deep reflection and mesmerizing storytelling, Michelle Obama invites readers into her world, chronicling the experiences that have shaped her--from her childhood on the South Side of Chicago to her years as an executive balancing the demands of motherhood and work, to her time spent at the world's most famous address. With unerring honesty and lively wit, she describes her triumphs and her disappointments, both public and private, telling her full story as she has lived it--in her own words and on her own terms. Warm, wise, and revelatory, Becoming is the deeply personal reckoning of a woman of soul and substance who has steadily defied expectations--and whose story inspires us to do the same.Here are some more recent-ish reads that I liked or found valuable off the top of my head: - Creative Quest- Empires of Light - Think Again - Tiger Woods - Boom Town - Liftoff - A Promised Land - No Filter - Becoming - That Will Never Work - The Ride of a Lifetime
The Magic Years
Jonathan Taplin
"This memoir traces Taplin's life and its intersection with several significant cultural moments, from his early days tour managing The Band, through his producing Mean Streets and several other films, all the way up to his present-day work advocating for a healthier cultural and digital commons"--Great book — it’s rare that someone can tell a first-person account of the earliest Dylan concerts, the civil rights movement, JFK’s assassination, MLK’s rallies, the Beatles’ first arrival in America Jonathan is also the author of "Move Fast & Break Things" about #Facebook https://t.co/Na7U0gkpuh
Our Man
George Packer
Haven’t enjoyed a book like I’m enjoying “Our Man” in a long long while.
Sam Walton
Sam Walton
In an account of his rise to the top of the American retail business, the reminiscences of the billionaire retailer are combined with interviews with Walton's family and friends@DennisHong17 Made in America by Sam Walton remains one of my favorite books (business or otherwise) of all time.
The Price of Peace
Zachary D. Carter
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER - An "outstanding new intellectual biography of John Maynard Keynes [that moves] swiftly along currents of lucidity and wit" (The New York Times), illuminating the world of the influential economist and his transformative ideas "A timely, lucid and compelling portrait of a man whose enduring relevance is always heightened when crisis strikes."--The Wall Street Journal FINALIST FOR THE NATIONAL BOOK CRITICS CIRCLE AWARD FOR BIOGRAPHY - NAMED ONE OF THE TEN BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY PUBLISHERS WEEKLY AND ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY Jennifer Szalai, The New York Times - The Economist - Bloomberg - Mother Jones At the dawn of World War I, a young academic named John Maynard Keynes hastily folded his long legs into the sidecar of his brother-in-law's motorcycle for an odd, frantic journey that would change the course of history. Swept away from his placid home at Cambridge University by the currents of the conflict, Keynes found himself thrust into the halls of European treasuries to arrange emergency loans and packed off to America to negotiate the terms of economic combat. The terror and anxiety unleashed by the war would transform him from a comfortable obscurity into the most influential and controversial intellectual of his day--a man whose ideas still retain the power to shock in our own time. Keynes was not only an economist but the preeminent anti-authoritarian thinker of the twentieth century, one who devoted his life to the belief that art and ideas could conquer war and deprivation. As a moral philosopher, political theorist, and statesman, Keynes led an extraordinary life that took him from intimate turn-of-the-century parties in London's riotous Bloomsbury art scene to the fevered negotiations in Paris that shaped the Treaty of Versailles, from stock market crashes on two continents to diplomatic breakthroughs in the mountains of New Hampshire to wartime ballet openings at London's extravagant Covent Garden. Along the way, Keynes reinvented Enlightenment liberalism to meet the harrowing crises of the twentieth century. In the United States, his ideas became the foundation of a burgeoning economics profession, but they also became a flash point in the broader political struggle of the Cold War, as Keynesian acolytes faced off against conservatives in an intellectual battle for the future of the country--and the world. Though many Keynesian ideas survived the struggle, much of the project to which he devoted his life was lost. In this riveting biography, veteran journalist Zachary D. Carter unearths the lost legacy of one of history's most fascinating minds. The Price of Peace revives a forgotten set of ideas about democracy, money, and the good life with transformative implications for today's debates over inequality and the power politics that shape the global order.@zachdcarter Well deserved. Best book I read last year. Congratulations.
Wooden
John Wooden
NATIONAL BESTSELLER "I am just a common man who is true to his beliefs."--John Wooden Evoking days gone by when coaches were respected as much for their off-court performances as for their success on the court, Wooden presents the timeless wisdom of legendary basketball coach John Wooden. In honest and telling passages about virtually every aspect of life, Coach shares his personal philosophy on family, achievement, success, and excellence. Raised on a small farm in south-central Indiana, he offers lessons and wisdom learned throughout his career at UCLA, and life as a dedicated husband, father, and teacher. These lessons, along with personal letters from Bill Walton, Denny Crum, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, and Bob Costas, among others, have made Wooden: A Lifetime of Observations and Reflections on and off the Court an inspirational classic.Daily Book Recommendation Title Wooden: A Lifetime of Observations and Reflections On and Off the Court Topic Coaching A must-read for every coach! Packed with timeless wisdom and practical knowledge any coach can use to improve their craft. Link https://t.co/Bf3MxYDNOy
Sub 4
Chris Lear
For more than three decades, not one American schoolboy had run a sub-4:00 mile. Then, in January 2001, Alan Webb clocked a 3:59.86 mile, the fastest indoor U.S. high school mile ever. Just a few months later, the young track star achieved legendary status: he ran a 3:53.46 mile-a full 2 seconds faster than former record holder Jim Ryun. Everywhere Webb was hailed as "America's Next Great Miler." In Sub 4:00, noted track writer Chris Lear follows Webb to college at the University of Michigan. As we witness Webb's freshman track season-watching him struggle with injuries, interpersonal conflicts, the politics of the collegiate track world, and his own aspirations to become the best miler ever-we get an unprecedented behind-the-scenes view of the life of one of the nation's most promising track athletes with a new chapter describing the latest developments in Webb's fascinating career.Daily Book Recommendation Title Sub 4:00: Alan Webb & the Quest for the Fastest Mile Topic Running History Written Alan's freshman year at Michigan, this book is a great reminder that progress does not take a linear path. Insightful and fun read! Link https://t.co/muNyd5IS5Y
Pimp
Iceberg Slim
“[In Pimp], Iceberg Slim breaks down some of the coldest, capitalist concepts I’ve ever heard in my life.” —Dave Chappelle, from his Netflix special The Bird Revelation An immersive experience unlike anything before it, Pimp is the classic hustler’s tale that never seems to go out of style. Iceberg Slim’s autobiographical novel sent shockwaves throughout the literary world when it published in 1969. Groundbreaking for its authentic and oft-brutal account of the sex trade, the book offers readers an unforgettable look at the mores of Chicago’s street life during the 1940s, 50s, and 60s. In the preface, Slim says it best, “In this book, I will take you, the reader, with me into the secret inner world of the pimp.” With millions of copies sold, Pimp has become vital reading across generations of writers, entertainers and filmmakers alike, making it a timeless piece of American literature.Every man should read Iceberg Slim’s ‘Pimp’ as a primer on ‘street psychology,’ to understand how unresolved trauma leads to maladaptive chips on shoulders, but also how to positively shape your own mindset and influence others. As useful as the books I read at Harvard. https://t.co/3eyw2Yx2pB
Kings of the Road
Cameron Stracher
Chronicles the golden age of running in the 1970s by looking at the lives, careers, and achievements of three famous runners who inspired sedentary Americans to start moving.Daily Book Recommendation Title: Kings of the Road Topic: Running History A fun read on the running's golden age (1972 - 1981) and how Shorter, Rodgers and Salazar captured the imagination of the American public and sparked the running boom. Link: https://t.co/I9PVAcwlTA
Blow Your House Down
Gina Frangello
"Gina Frangello is a long-married fortysomething devoted mom when her life is turned upside down by the sudden death of her closest friend. Worn down from years of caregiving both her elderly parents and three kids, Gina starts to interrogate her own mortality and what she once longed for as a younger woman: a kind of sexual, romantic and artistic intensity radically at odds with her comfortable but emotionally stagnant marriage. Falling into a passionate affair with a writer/musician, Gina begins living a shocking double life while continuing to outwardly project the image of having a "perfect family." As her parallel worlds begin to dangerously intersect, she makes the risky choice to leave her marriage and security in order to take a chance at finally becoming fully herself, midlife. However, when only months into her separation, Gina is diagnosed with breast cancer, her father dies, her divorce grows increasingly contentious and menacing, and her lover falls into a deep clinical depression, an inevitable breaking point approaches, revealing the irrevocable stakes of giving up everything for love, as well as what it means to be a woman in the contemporary American landscape. Examining pivotal moments in a complex family system about to implode, Blow Your House Down is about what happens when a woman who has been very good at playing all the roles society expects of her suddenly refuses to continue being the person her family and friends think they know. In a note from the author to her writing group, she wrote: "If we are all supposed to write the book we most need to read, then this is the book I wish I had had in front of me during the years my marriage was falling apart, the years I gave everything in me to my ailing parents and young children and angry husband until there seemed nothing left, the years I began a wildly selfish and euphoric affair that seemed to save me, the years I decided to leave my marriage but leaving ended up looking nothing like escape and instead like the end of the world, and the years that I was sick and in pain and having body parts removed at the speed of light and not knowing whether illness would destroy any new beginning I had fought so hard to find. This is the book I was so hungrily looking for, with all its brutality and grief and guilt and desire but didn't find. I hold in my head a woman who needs this book to save her own life.""--This book asks its deepest questions through its mess and its contradictions, rather than through Carrie-Bradshaw-like platitudes; I'm so grateful for that, and for this writer.
From Last to First
Charlie Spedding
Charlie Spedding describes himself as ‘not particularly talented' â?? at least, compared to the group of people he had chosen to find himself among. These were the athletes in the Olympic marathon. So how did he end up with a bronze medal? How did he win the London Marathon? And why does he still hold the English record for the distance? In this remarkable autobiography he explains how â?? how someone who was almost bottom of the class when he first went to school, and even worse at sport, eventually turned himself into a genuinely world-class athlete, competing in top marathons all over the world, and genuinely going from last to first. As well as the enthralling life story of one of our finest distance runners, this book is a wonderfully clear and inspiring piece of life coaching for anyone who wants to make the most of their talents. But more than this, as Spedding says at the start, ‘I believe that on occasions you can create the circumstances in which you can perform at a higher level than your talent says you can'. Spedding's own story, and his chronicle of the big races he excelled in, proves it's true. â?¿â?¿For anyone aspiring to run a marathon, or indeed anyone who wants to set themselves a goal they think beyond their reach â?? and achieve it â?? this is an essential book.Daily Book Recommendation Title: From Last to First Topic: Running Inspiration Memoir of the 1988 Olympic Marathon Bronze medalist. The chapter, "Beer Drinkers Guide to Sports Psychology" is fantastic and alone worth the price of the book! Link: https://t.co/G0NezrzioF
From Third World to First
Lee Kuan Yew
Few gave tiny Singapore much chance of survival when it was granted independence in 1965. How is it, then, that today the former British colonial trading post is a thriving Asian metropolis with not only the world's number one airline, best airport, and busiest port of trade, but also the world's fourth–highest per capita real income? The story of that transformation is told here by Singapore's charismatic, controversial founding father, Lee Kuan Yew. Rising from a legacy of divisive colonialism, the devastation of the Second World War, and general poverty and disorder following the withdrawal of foreign forces, Singapore now is hailed as a city of the future. This miraculous history is dramatically recounted by the man who not only lived through it all but who fearlessly forged ahead and brought about most of these changes. Delving deep into his own meticulous notes, as well as previously unpublished government papers and official records, Lee details the extraordinary efforts it took for an island city–state in Southeast Asia to survive at that time. Lee explains how he and his cabinet colleagues finished off the communist threat to the fledgling state's security and began the arduous process of nation building: forging basic infrastructural roads through a land that still consisted primarily of swamps, creating an army from a hitherto racially and ideologically divided population, stamping out the last vestiges of colonial–era corruption, providing mass public housing, and establishing a national airline and airport. In this illuminating account, Lee writes frankly about his trenchant approach to political opponents and his often unorthodox views on human rights, democracy, and inherited intelligence, aiming always "to be correct, not politically correct." Nothing in Singapore escaped his watchful eye: whether choosing shrubs for the greening of the country, restoring the romance of the historic Raffles Hotel, or openly, unabashedly persuading young men to marry women as well educated as themselves. Today's safe, tidy Singapore bears Lee's unmistakable stamp, for which he is unapologetic: "If this is a nanny state, I am proud to have fostered one." Though Lee's domestic canvas in Singapore was small, his vigor and talent assured him a larger place in world affairs. With inimitable style, he brings history to life with cogent analyses of some of the greatest strategic issues of recent times and reveals how, over the years, he navigated the shifting tides of relations among America, China, and Taiwan, acting as confidant, sounding board, and messenger for them. He also includes candid, sometimes acerbic pen portraits of his political peers, including the indomitable Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan, the poetry–spouting Jiang Zemin, and ideologues George Bush and Deng Xiaoping. Lee also lifts the veil on his family life and writes tenderly of his wife and stalwart partner, Kwa Geok Choo, and of their pride in their three children –– particularly the eldest son, Hsien Loong, who is now Singapore's deputy prime minister. For more than three decades, Lee Kuan Yew has been praised and vilified in equal measure, and he has established himself as a force impossible to ignore in Asian and international politics. From Third World to First offers readers a compelling glimpse into this visionary's heart, soul, and mind.@samhinkie @bgurley Also would recommend the lee kuan yew autobiography after the caro books
Shoe Dog
Phil Knight
In this instant and tenacious New York Times bestseller, Nike founder and board chairman Phil Knight “offers a rare and revealing look at the notoriously media-shy man behind the swoosh” (Booklist, starred review), illuminating his company’s early days as an intrepid start-up and its evolution into one of the world’s most iconic, game-changing, and profitable brands. Bill Gates named Shoe Dog one of his five favorite books of 2016 and called it “an amazing tale, a refreshingly honest reminder of what the path to business success really looks like. It’s a messy, perilous, and chaotic journey, riddled with mistakes, endless struggles, and sacrifice. Phil Knight opens up in ways few CEOs are willing to do.” Fresh out of business school, Phil Knight borrowed fifty dollars from his father and launched a company with one simple mission: import high-quality, low-cost running shoes from Japan. Selling the shoes from the trunk of his car in 1963, Knight grossed eight thousand dollars that first year. Today, Nike’s annual sales top $30 billion. In this age of start-ups, Knight’s Nike is the gold standard, and its swoosh is one of the few icons instantly recognized in every corner of the world. But Knight, the man behind the swoosh, has always been a mystery. In Shoe Dog, he tells his story at last. At twenty-four, Knight decides that rather than work for a big corporation, he will create something all his own, new, dynamic, different. He details the many risks he encountered, the crushing setbacks, the ruthless competitors and hostile bankers—as well as his many thrilling triumphs. Above all, he recalls the relationships that formed the heart and soul of Nike, with his former track coach, the irascible and charismatic Bill Bowerman, and with his first employees, a ragtag group of misfits and savants who quickly became a band of swoosh-crazed brothers. Together, harnessing the electrifying power of a bold vision and a shared belief in the transformative power of sports, they created a brand—and a culture—that changed everything.@hnshah Shoe Dog https://t.co/ZqW0viutZd
Know My Name
Chanel Miller
queuing @suleikajaouad’s memoir up in books to read (ps chanel miller wrote the review!! her book know my name is one of the best books i’ve read in years) https://t.co/gQRnkVk2Rr
What I Talk About When I Talk About Running
Haruki Murakami
In a best-selling memoir, the award-winning Japanese writer recalls his preparation for the 2005 New York City marathon, interweaving his reflections on the meaning of running in his life, his thoughts on the writing process and career, and his greatest triumphs and disappointments. Reprint.What a beautifully written #book. This book is more about growing old than running. Also, my first memoir in a long while. What other such books will you recommend? https://t.co/7GmXorzBvN
My Family and Other Animals
Gerald Durrell
A memoir of an English boy growing up on the Greek island of Corfu recounts the author's humorous adventures as he collects all kinds of animals and insects and brings them back to the house, much to his family's dismay.@TathagataChatt2 @Alfred_Prufrock Very very readable and fun. They, along with My Family & Other Animals were my comfort books
Notes on a Silencing
Lacy Crawford
A riveting, lucid memoir of a young woman's struggle to regain her sense of self after trauma, and the efforts by a powerful New England boarding school to silence her--at any cost When the elite St. Paul's School recently came under state investigation after extensive reports of sexual abuse on campus, Lacy Crawford thought she'd put behind her the assault she'd suffered at St. Paul's decades before, when she was fifteen. Still, when detectives asked for victims to come forward, she sent a note. Her criminal case file reopened, she saw for the first time evidence that corroborated her memories. Here were depictions of the naïve, hard-working girl she'd been, a chorister and debater, the daughter of a priest; of the two senior athletes who assaulted her and were allowed to graduate with awards; and of the faculty, doctors, and priests who had known about Crawford's assault and gone to great lengths to bury it. Now a wife, mother, and writer living on the other side of the country, Crawford learned that police had uncovered astonishing proof of an institutional silencing years before, and that unnamed powers were still trying to block her case. The slander, innuendo, and lack of adult concern that Crawford had experienced as a student hadn't been imagined as the effects of trauma, after all: these were the actions of a school that prized its reputation above anything, even a child. This revelation launched Crawford on an extraordinary inquiry into the ways gender, privilege, and power shaped her experience as a girl at the gates of America's elite. Her investigation looks beyond the sprawling playing fields and soaring chapel towers of crucibles of power like St. Paul's, whose reckoning is still to come. And it runs deep into the channels of shame and guilt, witness and silencing, that dictate who can speak and who is heard in American society. An insightful, mature, beautifully written memoir, Notes on a Silencing is an arresting coming-of-age story that wrestles with an essential question for our time: what telling of a survivor's story will finally force a remedy?This is one of my more fervent book recommendations. I picked up @lacy_crawford’s memoir for the subject (assault survival at boarding school, systemic silencing) not anticipating that a) it’s written like a most compelling novel and b) she grew up about five minutes from me. 1/ https://t.co/vEOMGnGvlU
Mike Nichols
Mark Harris
"A magnificent biography of one of the most protean creative forces in American entertainment history, a life of dazzling highs and vertiginous plunges--some of the worst largely unknown until now--by the acclaimed author of Pictures at a Revolution and Five Came Back. Mike Nichols burst onto the scene as a wunderkind without parallel: while still in his 20's, he was half of a lucrative hit improv duo with Elaine May that was the talk of the country. Next he directed four hit Broadway plays, picking up the Best Director Tony for three of them, and by his mid-30's the first two films he directed, Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf and The Graduate, were the highest-grossing movies of 1966 and 1967 respectively, and The Graduate had won him an Oscar for Best Director. Well before his 40th birthday, Nichols lived in a sprawling penthouse on Central Park West, drove a Rolls Royce, collected Arabian horses, and counted the likes of Jacqueline Kennedy, Stephen Sondheim, Richard Avedon and the Aga Khan as good friends. Where he had arrived is even more astonishing given where he began: born Igor Peschkowsky to a Jewish couple in Berlin in 1931, he and his younger brother were sent alone to America on a ship in 1939. Their father, who had gone ahead to find work, was waiting for them; their mother would follow, in the nick of time. His name changed by his father to "Michael Nichols," the young boy caught very few breaks: his parents were now destitute, and his father died when Mike was just 11, leaving his mentally unstable mother alone and overwhelmed. Perhaps most cruelly, Nichols was completely bald: as a small child an allergic reaction to an immunization shot had caused total and permanent hair loss. His parents claimed they could not afford to buy him even a cheap wig until he was almost in high school. Mark Harris gives an intimate and even-handed accounting of success and failure alike; the portrait is not always flattering, but its ultimate impact is to present the full story of one of the most richly interesting, complicated, and consequential figures the worlds of theater and motion pictures have ever seen. It is a triumph of the biographer's art"--I tried to read this as slowly as possible because I didn’t want to get to the end, and when I finally reached the epilogue tonight I cried like a baby. Beautiful book about a beautiful person. https://t.co/bV0D7SmtJK
Entangled Life
Merlin Sheldrake
"Living at the border between life and non-life, fungi use diverse cocktails of potent enzymes and acids to disassemble some of the most stubborn substances on the planet, turning rock into soil and wood into compost, allowing plants to grow. Fungi not only help create soil, they send out networks of tubes that enmesh roots and link plants together in the "Wood Wide Web." Fungi also drive many long-standing human fascinations: from yeasts that cause bread to rise and orchestrate the fermentation of sugar into alcohol; to psychedelic fungi; to the mold that produces penicillin and revolutionized modern medicine. And we can partner with fungi to heal the damage we've done to the planet. Fungi are already being used to make sustainable building materials and wearable leather, but they can do so much more. Fungi can digest many stubborn and toxic pollutants from crude oil to human-made polyurethane plastics and the explosive TNT. They can grow food from renewable sources: edible mushrooms can be grown on anything from plant waste to cigarette butts. And some fungi's antiviral compounds might be able to ease the colony collapse of bees. Merlin Sheldrake's revelatory introduction to this world will show us how fungi, and our relationships with them, are more astonishing than we could have imagined. Bringing to light science's latest discoveries and ingeniously parsing the varieties and behaviors of the fungi themselves, he points us toward the fundamental questions about the nature of intelligence and identity this massively diverse, little understood kingdom provokes"--@DrSynbio @futureprocess @MerlinSheldrake I know! Been thinking a lot about ecological economics (currency of energy and materials cycle among producers and consumers) since I picked up Merlin’s book https://t.co/Li2fnXodCw
Just as I Am
Cicely Tyson
At last, the Academy, Tony, and three-time Emmy Award-winning actor and trailblazer, Cicely Tyson, tells her stunning story, looking back at her six-decade career and life.It’s now available wherever you buy or download your books: https://t.co/DxQYNOKRGC
Man's Search for Meaning
Viktor Emil Frankl
Viennese psychiatrist tells his grim experiences in a German concentration camp which led him to logotherapy, an existential method of psychiatry.Today is an excellent day to read or reread Man's Search for Meaning, which is one of the greatest books ever written. I can't begin to tell you how much this book means to me and how much it changed my life and gave me courage when I needed it most. https://t.co/D6m5ynIbpK
The Art of Learning
Josh Waitzkin
An eight-time national chess champion and world champion martial artist shares the lessons he has learned from two very different competitive arenas, identifying key principles about learning and performance that readers can apply to their life goals. Reprint. 35,000 first printing.5/This is a book recommendation but I wish there was a podcast on this topic https://t.co/2rk09FeNhS
The River of Doubt
Candice Millard
At once an incredible adventure narrative and a penetrating biographical portrait, The River of Doubt is the true story of Theodore Roosevelt’s harrowing exploration of one of the most dangerous rivers on earth. The River of Doubt—it is a black, uncharted tributary of the Amazon that snakes through one of the most treacherous jungles in the world. Indians armed with poison-tipped arrows haunt its shadows; piranhas glide through its waters; boulder-strewn rapids turn the river into a roiling cauldron. After his humiliating election defeat in 1912, Roosevelt set his sights on the most punishing physical challenge he could find, the first descent of an unmapped, rapids-choked tributary of the Amazon. Together with his son Kermit and Brazil’s most famous explorer, Cândido Mariano da Silva Rondon, Roosevelt accomplished a feat so great that many at the time refused to believe it. In the process, he changed the map of the western hemisphere forever. Along the way, Roosevelt and his men faced an unbelievable series of hardships, losing their canoes and supplies to punishing whitewater rapids, and enduring starvation, Indian attack, disease, drowning, and a murder within their own ranks. Three men died, and Roosevelt was brought to the brink of suicide. The River of Doubt brings alive these extraordinary events in a powerful nonfiction narrative thriller that happens to feature one of the most famous Americans who ever lived. From the soaring beauty of the Amazon rain forest to the darkest night of Theodore Roosevelt’s life, here is Candice Millard’s dazzling debut.@KFroind River of Doubt was an awesome book about his adventures.
Faraday, Maxwell, and the Electromagnetic Field
Nancy Forbes
Describes how Faraday and Maxwell discovered the electromagnetic field and devised a radical new theory which overturned the strictly mechanical view of the world that had prevailed since Newton's time.Enjoyed this book. A few things that stood out: - Faraday's lack of a strong math foundation - how non-consensus his ideas were despite all the experimental evidence - both Faraday and Maxwell's focus on proving everything experimentally for themselves https://t.co/asCdJnceVi
Shoe Dog
Phil Knight
In this instant and tenacious New York Times bestseller, Nike founder and board chairman Phil Knight “offers a rare and revealing look at the notoriously media-shy man behind the swoosh” (Booklist, starred review), illuminating his company’s early days as an intrepid start-up and its evolution into one of the world’s most iconic, game-changing, and profitable brands. Bill Gates named Shoe Dog one of his five favorite books of 2016 and called it “an amazing tale, a refreshingly honest reminder of what the path to business success really looks like. It’s a messy, perilous, and chaotic journey, riddled with mistakes, endless struggles, and sacrifice. Phil Knight opens up in ways few CEOs are willing to do.” Fresh out of business school, Phil Knight borrowed fifty dollars from his father and launched a company with one simple mission: import high-quality, low-cost running shoes from Japan. Selling the shoes from the trunk of his car in 1963, Knight grossed eight thousand dollars that first year. Today, Nike’s annual sales top $30 billion. In this age of start-ups, Knight’s Nike is the gold standard, and its swoosh is one of the few icons instantly recognized in every corner of the world. But Knight, the man behind the swoosh, has always been a mystery. In Shoe Dog, he tells his story at last. At twenty-four, Knight decides that rather than work for a big corporation, he will create something all his own, new, dynamic, different. He details the many risks he encountered, the crushing setbacks, the ruthless competitors and hostile bankers—as well as his many thrilling triumphs. Above all, he recalls the relationships that formed the heart and soul of Nike, with his former track coach, the irascible and charismatic Bill Bowerman, and with his first employees, a ragtag group of misfits and savants who quickly became a band of swoosh-crazed brothers. Together, harnessing the electrifying power of a bold vision and a shared belief in the transformative power of sports, they created a brand—and a culture—that changed everything.@TSOH_Investing Shoe Dog is a book about important parts of running a real business. It's not an investing or finance book. Phil Knight worked with a ghost writer who told a story. Shoe Dog reminds me of this book about Les Schwab, which Buffett and Munger both recommend:https://t.co/aiay1TLgfS
Crashing Through
Robert Kurson
Blinded at age three, Mike May overcame his disability to become a competitive downhill skiier and a member of the CIA, and in 1999 undertook an experimental surgery in an attempt to restore his sight.A few underrated books: 1. Where The Money Was: Memoirs of a Bank Robber (Willie Sutton) https://t.co/G8u0Usobut 2. Crashing Through: The Story of the Man Who Dared to See https://t.co/lm10CNaWiT 3. One Summer: America in 1927 https://t.co/AX2hx2hU04
Uncanny Valley
Anna Wiener
The prescient, page-turning account of a journey in Silicon Valley: a defining memoir of our digital age In her mid-twenties, at the height of tech industry idealism, Anna Wiener—stuck, broke, and looking for meaning in her work, like any good millennial—left a job in book publishing for the promise of the new digital economy. She moved from New York to San Francisco, where she landed at a big-data startup in the heart of the Silicon Valley bubble: a world of surreal extravagance, dubious success, and fresh-faced entrepreneurs hell-bent on domination, glory, and, of course, progress. Anna arrived during a massive cultural shift, as the tech industry rapidly transformed into a locus of wealth and power rivaling Wall Street. But amid the company ski vacations and in-office speakeasies, boyish camaraderie and ride-or-die corporate fealty, a new Silicon Valley began to emerge: one in far over its head, one that enriched itself at the expense of the idyllic future it claimed to be building. Part coming-of-age-story, part portrait of an already bygone era, Anna Wiener’s memoir, Uncanny Valley, is a rare first-person glimpse into high-flying, reckless startup culture at a time of unchecked ambition, unregulated surveillance, wild fortune, and accelerating political power. With wit, candor, and heart, Anna deftly charts the tech industry’s shift from self-appointed world savior to democracy-endangering liability, alongside a personal narrative of aspiration, ambivalence, and disillusionment.Congratulations to @annawiener for ending up on the @nytimes 100 notable books list this year. I hope more people in industry read this exquisitely written memoir of a very recent, and yet distant, time period in tech industry history: https://t.co/0CFLGLqwcr
Elon Musk
Ashlee Vance
In the spirit of Steve Jobs and Moneyball, Elon Musk is both an illuminating and authorized look at the extraordinary life of one of Silicon Valley’s most exciting, unpredictable, and ambitious entrepreneurs—a real-life Tony Stark—and a fascinating exploration of the renewal of American invention and its new “makers.” Elon Musk spotlights the technology and vision of Elon Musk, the renowned entrepreneur and innovator behind SpaceX, Tesla, and SolarCity, who sold one of his Internet companies, PayPal, for $1.5 billion. Ashlee Vance captures the full spectacle and arc of the genius’s life and work, from his tumultuous upbringing in South Africa and flight to the United States to his dramatic technical innovations and entrepreneurial pursuits. Vance uses Musk’s story to explore one of the pressing questions of our age: can the nation of inventors and creators who led the modern world for a century still compete in an age of fierce global competition? He argues that Musk—one of the most unusual and striking figures in American business history—is a contemporary, visionary amalgam of legendary inventors and industrialists including Thomas Edison, Henry Ford, Howard Hughes, and Steve Jobs. More than any other entrepreneur today, Musk has dedicated his energies and his own vast fortune to inventing a future that is as rich and far-reaching as the visionaries of the golden age of science-fiction fantasy. Thorough and insightful, Elon Musk brings to life a technology industry that is rapidly and dramatically changing by examining the life of one of its most powerful and influential titans.15/ If you're interested in learning more on the amazing story of @SpaceX and how @ElonMusk has implemented first principles thinking into almost everything he does, check out the fantastic book by @valleyhack. https://t.co/EBdCxj34sa
My Family and Other Animals
Gerald Durrell
A memoir of an English boy growing up on the Greek island of Corfu recounts the author's humorous adventures as he collects all kinds of animals and insects and brings them back to the house, much to his family's dismay.@dwlz https://t.co/Wmt9df3RAJ
Borges
Jorge Luis Borges
The non-fiction work of the great Latin American poet and writer is collected here with essays, reviews, lectures, and political commentary on everything from Ellery Queen to the Kabbalah. Reprint.@sbisson @tadethompson @Hugo_Book_Club So many. These among them. https://t.co/YvpdmhPnWe
Shoe Dog
Phil Knight
In this instant and tenacious New York Times bestseller, Nike founder and board chairman Phil Knight “offers a rare and revealing look at the notoriously media-shy man behind the swoosh” (Booklist, starred review), illuminating his company’s early days as an intrepid start-up and its evolution into one of the world’s most iconic, game-changing, and profitable brands. Bill Gates named Shoe Dog one of his five favorite books of 2016 and called it “an amazing tale, a refreshingly honest reminder of what the path to business success really looks like. It’s a messy, perilous, and chaotic journey, riddled with mistakes, endless struggles, and sacrifice. Phil Knight opens up in ways few CEOs are willing to do.” Fresh out of business school, Phil Knight borrowed fifty dollars from his father and launched a company with one simple mission: import high-quality, low-cost running shoes from Japan. Selling the shoes from the trunk of his car in 1963, Knight grossed eight thousand dollars that first year. Today, Nike’s annual sales top $30 billion. In this age of start-ups, Knight’s Nike is the gold standard, and its swoosh is one of the few icons instantly recognized in every corner of the world. But Knight, the man behind the swoosh, has always been a mystery. In Shoe Dog, he tells his story at last. At twenty-four, Knight decides that rather than work for a big corporation, he will create something all his own, new, dynamic, different. He details the many risks he encountered, the crushing setbacks, the ruthless competitors and hostile bankers—as well as his many thrilling triumphs. Above all, he recalls the relationships that formed the heart and soul of Nike, with his former track coach, the irascible and charismatic Bill Bowerman, and with his first employees, a ragtag group of misfits and savants who quickly became a band of swoosh-crazed brothers. Together, harnessing the electrifying power of a bold vision and a shared belief in the transformative power of sports, they created a brand—and a culture—that changed everything.@TSOH_Investing Shoe Dog is a great business book and a fun story. The ghost writer was JR Moehringer, an American novelist and journalist. In 2000 he won the Pulitzer Prize for newspaper feature writing. https://t.co/kKC0s2sr2E
Billion Dollar Loser
Reeves Wiedeman
This inside story of the rise and fall of WeWork reveals how the excesses of its founder shaped a corporate culture unlike any other. Christened a potential savior of Silicon Valley's startup culture, Adam Neumann was set to take WeWork, his office share company disrupting the commercial real estate market, public, cash out on the company's 47 billion dollar valuation, and break the string of major startups unable to deliver to shareholders. But as employees knew, and investors soon found out, WeWork's capital was built on promises that the company was more than a real estate purveyor, that in fact it was a transformational technology company. Veteran journalist Reeves Weideman dives deep into WeWork and it CEO's astronomical rise, from the marijuana and tequila-filled board rooms to cult-like company summer camps and consciousness-raising with Anthony Kiedis. Billion Dollar Loser is a character-driven business narrative that captures, through the fascinating psyche of a billionaire founder and his wife and co-founder, the slippery state of global capitalism.In between volunteer shifts and bugging your friends to vote (or to keep you occupied from 1-3am when sleep is out of the question), I have some book recommendations! https://t.co/NloM0UWcUX
From Last to First
Charlie Spedding
Charlie Spedding describes himself as ‘not particularly talented' â?? at least, compared to the group of people he had chosen to find himself among. These were the athletes in the Olympic marathon. So how did he end up with a bronze medal? How did he win the London Marathon? And why does he still hold the English record for the distance? In this remarkable autobiography he explains how â?? how someone who was almost bottom of the class when he first went to school, and even worse at sport, eventually turned himself into a genuinely world-class athlete, competing in top marathons all over the world, and genuinely going from last to first. As well as the enthralling life story of one of our finest distance runners, this book is a wonderfully clear and inspiring piece of life coaching for anyone who wants to make the most of their talents. But more than this, as Spedding says at the start, ‘I believe that on occasions you can create the circumstances in which you can perform at a higher level than your talent says you can'. Spedding's own story, and his chronicle of the big races he excelled in, proves it's true. â?¿â?¿For anyone aspiring to run a marathon, or indeed anyone who wants to set themselves a goal they think beyond their reach â?? and achieve it â?? this is an essential book.Book of the Day: From Last to First https://t.co/Ljsndzv8so
The Match King
Frank Partnoy
At the height of the roaring '20s, Swedish émigré Ivar Kreuger made a fortune raising money in America and loaning it to Europe in exchange for matchstick monopolies. His enterprise was a rare success story throughout the Great Depression. Yet after his suicide in 1932, it became clear that Kreuger was not all he seemed: evidence surfaced of fudged accounting figures, off-balance-sheet accounting, even forgery. He created a raft of innovative financial products— many of them precursors to instruments wreaking havoc in today's markets. In this gripping financial biography, Frank Partnoy recasts the life story of a remarkable yet forgotten genius in ways that force us to re-think our ideas about the wisdom of crowds, the invisible hand, and the free and unfettered market.15/ Ivar Kreuger was, in a sense, the tragic hero of his own story. Ambitious, innovative, and fearless to a fault, but also prone to overreach and poor judgement. @FrankPartnoy covered this story well in his fantastic book, The Match King. https://t.co/U4wZOnTvmy
Stanley Kubrick
David Mikics
Stanley Kubrick revolutionized Hollywood with movies like Dr. Strangelove, 2001: A Space Odyssey, and A Clockwork Orange, and electrified audiences with The Shining and Full Metal Jacket. David Mikics takes readers on a deep dive into Kubrick's life and work, illustrating his intense commitment to each of his films. Kubrick grew up in the Bronx, a doctor's son. From a young age he was consumed by photography, chess, and, above all else, movies. He was a self-taught filmmaker and self-proclaimed outsider, and his films exist in a unique world of their own outside the Hollywood mainstream. Kubrick's Jewishness played a crucial role in his idea of himself as outsider. Obsessed with rebellion against authority, war, and male violence, Kubrick was himself a calm, coolly masterful creator and a talkative, ever-curious polymath immersed in friends and family. Drawing on interviews and new archival material, Mikics for the first time explores the personal side of Kubrick's films.Book 33 Lesson: You can’t know in advance what pleasant surprises might come from the next iteration. Do it again. https://t.co/Em8aCVH2Xx
Building a Champion
Bill Walsh
The celebrated coach shares his philosophy of football, profiles players he has coached, recounts key moments in his careerBook of the Day: Building a Champion https://t.co/Iy9zNIDDDa
The Undocumented Americans
Karla Cornejo Villavicencio
A BARACK OBAMA FAVOURITE BOOK OF 2020 A New York Times best book of 2020 One of the first undocumented immigrants to graduate from Harvard reveals the hidden lives of her fellow undocumented Americans. Right after the election of 2016, Karla Cornejo Villavicencio realized the story she'd tried to steer clear of was the only one she wanted to tell. So she wrote her immigration lawyer's phone number on her hand and embarked on a trip across the country to tell the stories of her fellow undocumented immigrants - and to find the hidden key to her own. In her incandescent, relentlessly probing voice, Karla Cornejo Villavicencio combines sensitive reporting and powerful personal narratives to bring to light remarkable stories of resilience, madness, and death. She finds the singular, effervescent characters across the nation often reduced in the media to political pawns or nameless laborers. The stories she tells are not deferential or naively inspirational but show the love, magic, heartbreak, insanity, and vulgarity that infuse the day-to-day lives of her subjects. And through it all we see the author grappling with the biggest questions of love, duty, family, and survival. Shortlisted for a National Book Award, a National Book Critics' Circle Award and an L.A. Times Book PrizeIf you need reading recs for the long weekend, a few suggestions for books about America. https://t.co/KfC0zZTyuk https://t.co/GcM5BNcmI0
Man's Search for Meaning
Viktor Emil Frankl
Viennese psychiatrist tells his grim experiences in a German concentration camp which led him to logotherapy, an existential method of psychiatry.@Aakriti1 It is one of the most inspiring books ever
The Innovators
Walter Isaacson
"Following his blockbuster biography of Steve Jobs, The Innovators is Walter Isaacson's revealing story of the people who created the computer and the Internet. It is destined to be the standard history of the digital revolution and an indispensable guide to how innovation really happens. What were the talents that allowed certain inventors and entrepreneurs to turn their visionary ideas into disruptive realities? What led to their creative leaps? Why did some succeed and others fail? In his masterly saga, Isaacson begins with Ada Lovelace, Lord Byron's daughter, who pioneered computer programming in the 1840s. He explores the fascinating personalities that cr eated our current digital revolution, such as Vannevar Bush, Alan Turing, John von Neumann, J.C.R. Licklider, Doug Engelbart, Robert Noyce, Bill Gates, Steve Wozniak, Steve Jobs, Tim Berners-Lee, and Larry Page. This is the story of how their minds worked and what made them so inventive. It's also a narrative of how their ability to collaborate and master the art of teamwork made them even more creative. For an era that seeks to foster innovation, creativity, and teamwork, The Innovators shows how they happen"--It's been a while since I last read a purely coding book, but I usually don't regret it when I do. I have read more software history books than purely technical. Here's a list from a couple years back of some of my faves. https://t.co/J0o4JBmgy4 #DevDiscuss
Masters of Doom
David Kushner
“To my taste, the greatest American myth of cosmogenesis features the maladjusted, antisocial, genius teenage boy who, in the insular laboratory of his own bedroom, invents the universe from scratch. Masters of Doom is a particularly inspired rendition. Dave Kushner chronicles the saga of video game virtuosi Carmack and Romero with terrific brio. This is a page-turning, mythopoeic cyber-soap opera about two glamorous geek geniuses—and it should be read while scarfing down pepperoni pizza and swilling Diet Coke, with Queens of the Stone Age cranked up all the way.” —Mark Leyner, author of I Smell Esther Williams Masters of Doom is the amazing true story of the Lennon and McCartney of video games: John Carmack and John Romero. Together, they ruled big business. They transformed popular culture. And they provoked a national controversy. More than anything, they lived a unique and rollicking American Dream, escaping the broken homes of their youth to co-create the most notoriously successful game franchises in history—Doom and Quake—until the games they made tore them apart. Americans spend more money on video games than on movie tickets. Masters of Doom is the first book to chronicle this industry’s greatest story, written by one of the medium’s leading observers. David Kushner takes readers inside the rags-to-riches adventure of two rebellious entrepreneurs who came of age to shape a generation. The vivid portrait reveals why their games are so violent and why their immersion in their brilliantly designed fantasy worlds offered them solace. And it shows how they channeled their fury and imagination into products that are a formative influence on our culture, from MTV to the Internet to Columbine. This is a story of friendship and betrayal, commerce and artistry—a powerful and compassionate account of what it’s like to be young, driven, and wildly creative. From the Hardcover edition.It's been a while since I last read a purely coding book, but I usually don't regret it when I do. I have read more software history books than purely technical. Here's a list from a couple years back of some of my faves. https://t.co/J0o4JBmgy4 #DevDiscuss
Ghost in the Wires
Kevin Mitnick
Kevin Mitnick was the most elusive computer break-in artist in history. He accessed computers and networks at the world's biggest companies--and however fast the authorities were, Mitnick was faster, sprinting through phone switches, computer systems, and cellular networks. He spent years skipping through cyberspace, always three steps ahead and labeled unstoppable. But for Kevin, hacking wasn't just about technological feats-it was an old fashioned confidence game that required guile and deception to trick the unwitting out of valuable information. Driven by a powerful urge to accomplish the impossible, Mitnick bypassed security systems and blazed into major organizations including Motorola, Sun Microsystems, and Pacific Bell. But as the FBI's net began to tighten, Kevin went on the run, engaging in an increasingly sophisticated cat and mouse game that led through false identities, a host of cities, plenty of close shaves, and an ultimate showdown with the Feds, who would stop at nothing to bring him down. Ghost in the Wires is a thrilling true story of intrigue, suspense, and unbelievable escape, and a portrait of a visionary whose creativity, skills, and persistence forced the authorities to rethink the way they pursued him, inspiring ripples that brought permanent changes in the way people and companies protect their most sensitive information.It's been a while since I last read a purely coding book, but I usually don't regret it when I do. I have read more software history books than purely technical. Here's a list from a couple years back of some of my faves. https://t.co/J0o4JBmgy4 #DevDiscuss
The Years of Lyndon Johnson
Robert A. Caro
The political biography of our time, now available in a four-volume hardcover set. Robert A. Caro's life of Lyndon Johnson is one of the richest, most intensive and most revealing examinations ever undertaken of an American president. It is the magnum opus of a writer perfectly suited to his task: the Pulitzer Prize-winning biographer-historian, chronicler also of Robert Moses in The Power Broker, whose inspired research and profound understanding of the nature of ambition and the dynamics of power have made him a peerless explicator of political lives. "Taken together the installments of Mr. Caro's monumental life of Johnson . . . form a revealing prism by which to view the better part of a century in American life and politics during which the country experienced tumultuous and divisive social change. . .Gripping." --Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times "By writing the best presidential biography the country has ever seen, Caro has forever changed the way we think, and read, American history . . . It's his immense talent as a writer that has made his biography of Johnson one of America's most amazing literary achievements . . . As absorbing as a political thriller . . .A masterpiece, unlike any other work of American history published in the past. It's true that there will never be another Lyndon B. Johnson, but there will never be another Robert A. Caro, either." -NPR "One of the truly great political biographies of the modern age. A masterpiece" --The Times (London) The Path to Power reveals the genesis of the almost superhuman drive, energy, and urge to power that set LBJ apart. Chronicling the startling early emergence of Johnson's political genius, it follows him from his Texas boyhood through the years of the Depression in the Texas Hill Country to the triumph of his congressional debut in New Deal Washington, to his heartbreaking defeat in his first race for the Senate, and his attainment, nonetheless of the national power for which he hungered. National Book Critics Circle Award in Nonfiction Means of Ascent follows Johnson through his service in World War II to the foundation of his long-concealed fortune and the facts behind the myth he created about it. The explosive heart of the book is Caro's revelation of the true story of the fiercely contested 1948 senatorial election, which Johnson had to win or face certain political death, and which he did win--by "87 votes that changed history." Caro makes us witness to a momentous turning point in American politics; the tragic last stand of the old politics versus the new--the politics of issue versus the politics of image, mass manipulation, money and electronic dazzle. National Book Critics Circle Award in Biography Master of the Senate carries Johnson's story through his twelve remarkable years in the Senate. It is an unprecedented revelation of how legislative power works in America, how the Senate works, and how Johnson, in his ascent to the presidency, mastered the Senate as no political leader before him had ever done. In a breathtaking tour de force, Caro details Johnson's amazing triumph in maneuvering to passage the first civil rights legislation since 1875. Pulitzer Prize in Biography Los Angeles Times Book Award in Biography National Book Award in Nonfiction The Passage of Power is an unparalleled account of the battle between Johnson and John Kennedy for the 1960 presidential nomination, of the machinations behind Kennedy's decision to offer Johnson the vice presidency, of Johnson's powerlessness and humiliation in that role, and of the savage animosity between Johnson and Robert Kennedy. In Caro's description of the Kennedy assassination, which The New York Times called "the most riveting ever," we see the events of November 22, 1963, for the first time through Lyndon Johnson's eyes. And we watch as his political genius enables him to grasp the reins of the presidency with total command and, within weeks, make it wholly his own, surmounting unprecedented obstacles in order to fulfill the highest purpose of the office. National Book Critics Circle Award in Biography "Brilliant . . . Important . . . Remarkable ... In sparkling detail, Caro shows Johnson's genius for getting to people--friends, foes, and everyone in between--and how he used it to achieve his goals...With this fascinating and meticulous account, Robert Caro has once again done America a great service."-- President Bill Clinton, The New York Times Book Review (front cover) "The politicians' political book of choice...An encyclopedia of dirty tricks that would make Machiavelli seem naïve." London Literary Review "Making ordinary politics and policymaking riveting and revealing is what makes Caro a genius. Combined with his penetrating insight and fanatical research, Caro's Churchill-like prose elevates the life of a fairly influential president to stuff worthy of Shakespeare. . .Robert Caro stands alone as the unquestioned master of the contemporary American political biography." The Boston Globe@fulhack Robert Caro’s LBJ series and power broker
The Power Broker
Robert A. Caro
Moses is pictured as idealist reformer and political manipulator as his rise to power and eventual domination of New York State politics is documented@fulhack Robert Caro’s LBJ series and power broker
We Are Never Meeting in Real Life.
Samantha Irby
With heartfelt candor and her usual side-splitting bite, humorist, essayist, and blogger at bitchesgottaeat.com Samantha Irby captures powerful emotional truths while chronicling the disaster that has been her life. An ill-fated pilgrimage and romantic vacation to Nashville to scatter her estranged father's ashes, awkward sexual encounters, a Bachelorette application gone awry, and more-- sometimes you just have to laugh, even when your life is a dumpster fire.You literally can't go wrong with any of the three books of essays by Samantha Irby. Funny, beautiful, lots of pooping but also loving tenderness & vulnerability. https://t.co/KTGych01yX
Wie ich lernte, die Welt zu verstehen
Hans Rosling
Earlier this year I read @HansRosling's biography. In 1979-81 he worked as the only doctor in a region of 300,000 people in Mozambique when an epidemic broke out. Reading how he studied the disease – and how he fought the epidemic – made me respect this great man even more. https://t.co/IzSckpAIlI
Just Mercy
Bryan Stevenson
Winner of the NAACP Image Award for Best Nonfiction@jmcurtin @eji_org Amazing book by a true American hero
Chapters in My Life
Frederick Gates
@BooksChatterBot This is a cool idea! Please add all the books found at the following link. These are the best of the best - the top 5% of what is now over 600 books read and summarized https://t.co/SP0CSgfSzT
The Art of Learning
Josh Waitzkin
An eight-time national chess champion and world champion martial artist shares the lessons he has learned from two very different competitive arenas, identifying key principles about learning and performance that readers can apply to their life goals. Reprint. 35,000 first printing.@BooksChatterBot This is a cool idea! Please add all the books found at the following link. These are the best of the best - the top 5% of what is now over 600 books read and summarized https://t.co/SP0CSgfSzT
- "Dilbert creator Scott Adams offers his most personal book ever--a ... memoir of his many failures and what they eventually taught him about success. How do you go from hapless office worker to world-famous cartoonist and bestselling author in just a few years? No career guide can answer that, and not even Scott Adams (who actually did it) can give you a road map that works for everyone. But there's a lot to learn from his personal story, and a lot of humor along the way"--
@BooksChatterBot This is a cool idea! Please add all the books found at the following link. These are the best of the best - the top 5% of what is now over 600 books read and summarized https://t.co/SP0CSgfSzT
Personal History
Katharine Graham
The longtime owner of the Washington Post recounts her experiences, including how she rebounded from her husband's suicide to command the Post during Vietnam and Watergate@Apps_RG OMG I love love love love love that book
Pelosi
Molly Ball
An intimate, fresh perspective on the most powerful woman in American political history, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, by award-winning political journalist Molly Ball She’s the iconic leader who puts Donald Trump in his place, the woman with the toughness to take on a lawless president and defend American democracy. Ever since the Democrats took back the House in the 2018 midterm elections, Nancy Pelosi has led the opposition with strategic mastery and inimitable elan. It’s a remarkable comeback for the veteran politician who for years was demonized by the right and taken for granted by many in her own party—even though, as speaker under President Barack Obama, she deserves much of the credit for epochal liberal accomplishments from universal health care to gays in the military. How did a 79-year-old Italian grandmother in four-inch heels become the greatest legislator since LBJ—and how will she manage her greatest challenge yet, impeachment? Ball’s nuanced, page-turning portrait takes readers inside the life and times of this historic and underappreciated figure. Based on exclusive interviews with the Speaker and deep background reporting, Ball shows Pelosi through a thoroughly modern lens to explain how this extraordinary woman has met her moment.@Ed_Crooks @shannonpareil @AimeePKeane @rkapkap @turi @aasseily @christianhern @matthewclifford @TheAnnaGat @chris_wigley @azeem @brettbivens @gonsanchezs @sowers @eporres @rahulpowar @cee @itsflamant @robertwrighter @KimGhattas @arusbridger @MazzucatoM @drissbb @jtepper2 @shumonbasar @zinkovigor @MatildeGiglio @h0d3r @emmavj @Zielina @hannahsarney @YuanfenYang @rasmus_kleis @mfilippino @ointhefield @lilahrap @Emiliyadotcom @CardiffGarcia @BobbyAllyn @EricGPlatt @SycoraxPine @elliottholt @annaknicolaou @ConorDougherty Evidently there’s a “6 books within reach and 6 tags” thing going around. Here’s latest I’ve read in lockdown @bermanjeff @neal_katyal @auren @dpatil @OSullivanMeghan @jahimes https://t.co/nB7C2gnaMM
Edison
Edmund Morris
From Pulitzer Prize-winning author Morris comes a revelatory new biography ofThomas Alva Edison, the most prolific genius in American history.@Ed_Crooks @shannonpareil @AimeePKeane @rkapkap @turi @aasseily @christianhern @matthewclifford @TheAnnaGat @chris_wigley @azeem @brettbivens @gonsanchezs @sowers @eporres @rahulpowar @cee @itsflamant @robertwrighter @KimGhattas @arusbridger @MazzucatoM @drissbb @jtepper2 @shumonbasar @zinkovigor @MatildeGiglio @h0d3r @emmavj @Zielina @hannahsarney @YuanfenYang @rasmus_kleis @mfilippino @ointhefield @lilahrap @Emiliyadotcom @CardiffGarcia @BobbyAllyn @EricGPlatt @SycoraxPine @elliottholt @annaknicolaou @ConorDougherty Evidently there’s a “6 books within reach and 6 tags” thing going around. Here’s latest I’ve read in lockdown @bermanjeff @neal_katyal @auren @dpatil @OSullivanMeghan @jahimes https://t.co/nB7C2gnaMM
The Mastermind
Evan Ratliff
The incredible true story of the decade-long quest to bring down Paul Le Roux--the creator of a frighteningly powerful Internet-enabled cartel who merged the ruthlessness of a drug lord with the technological savvy of a Silicon Valley entrepreneur. "A tour de force of shoe-leather reporting--undertaken, amid threats and menacing, at considerable personal risk."--Los Angeles Times NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY The New York Times Book Review * NPR * Evening Standard * Kirkus Reviews It all started as an online prescription drug network, supplying hundreds of millions of dollars' worth of painkillers to American customers. It would not stop there. Before long, the business had turned into a sprawling multinational conglomerate engaged in almost every conceivable aspect of criminal mayhem. Yachts carrying $100 million in cocaine. Safe houses in Hong Kong filled with gold bars. Shipments of methamphetamine from North Korea. Weapons deals with Iran. Mercenary armies in Somalia. Teams of hit men in the Philippines. Encryption programs so advanced that the government could not break them. The man behind it all, pulling the strings from a laptop in Manila, was Paul Calder Le Roux--a reclusive programmer turned criminal genius who could only exist in the networked world of the twenty-first century, and the kind of self-made crime boss that American law enforcement had never imagined. For half a decade, DEA agents played a global game of cat-and-mouse with Le Roux as he left terror and chaos in his wake. Each time they came close, he would slip away. It would take relentless investigative work, and a shocking betrayal from within his organization, to catch him. And when he was finally caught, the story turned again, as Le Roux struck a deal to bring down his own organization and the people he had once employed. Award-winning investigative journalist Evan Ratliff spent four years piecing together this intricate puzzle, chasing Le Roux's empire and his shadowy henchmen around the world, conducting hundreds of interviews and uncovering thousands of documents. The result is a riveting, unprecedented account of a crime boss built by and for the digital age. Praise for The Mastermind "The Mastermind is true crime at its most stark and vivid depiction. Evan Ratliff's work is well done from beginning to end, paralleling his investigative work with the work of the many federal agents developing the case against LeRoux."--San Francisco Book Review (five stars) "A wholly engrossing story that joins the worlds of El Chapo and Edward Snowden; both disturbing and memorable."--Kirkus Reviews (starred review)@ianstarz I find I really get engrossed by books about tech fraud/over-exuberance, so the book about theranos, super pumped about uber, American kingpin about Silk Road, mastermind about Paul le roux. Classic disaster stories with fascinating central characters.
John F. Kennedy
Michael O'Brien
A portrait of the thirty-fifth president draws on newly released government archive material and the JFK library to offer insights into both his strengths and character flaws.Joe Kennedy giving JFK the painful truth. https://t.co/YNVOvGIxJG https://t.co/SevXRo5QXr
The Rumi Prescription
Melody Moezzi
A powerful personal journey to find meaning and life lessons in the words of a wildly popular 13th century poet. Rumi's inspiring and deceptively simple poems have been called ecstatic, mystical, and devotional. To writer and activist Melody Moezzi, they became a lifeline. In The Rumi Prescription, we follow her path of discovery as she translates Rumi's works for herself - to gain wisdom and insight in the face of a creative and spiritual roadblock. With the help of her father, who is a lifelong fan of Rumi's poetry, she immerses herself in this rich body of work, and discovers a 13th-century prescription for modern life. Addressing isolation, distraction, depression, fear, and other everyday challenges we face, the book offers a roadmap for living with intention and ease, and embracing love at every turn--despite our deeply divided and chaotic times. Most of all, it presents a vivid reminder that we already have the answers we seek, if we can just slow down to honor them. * You went out in search of gold far and wide, but all along you were gold on the inside. * Become the sky and the clouds that create the rain, not the gutter that carries it to the drain. * You already own all the sustenance you seek. If only you'd wake up and take a peek. * Quit being a drop. Make yourself an ocean.Coming up at the top of the hour, join us! Melody Moezzi is an award-winning author, activist, and attorney whose latest book is about addressing isolation, depression, fear, through the healing power of art. https://t.co/fMZysykl1o
The Year of Magical Thinking
Joan Didion
An autobiographical portrait of marriage and motherhood by the acclaimed author details her struggle to come to terms with life and death, illness, sanity, personal upheaval, and grief.@noampomsky This is great book and capturing of the pathways that get cut off in death/breakups Read it paired with When Breath Becomes Air, for all the tears
Shoe Dog
Phil Knight
In this instant and tenacious New York Times bestseller, Nike founder and board chairman Phil Knight “offers a rare and revealing look at the notoriously media-shy man behind the swoosh” (Booklist, starred review), illuminating his company’s early days as an intrepid start-up and its evolution into one of the world’s most iconic, game-changing, and profitable brands. Bill Gates named Shoe Dog one of his five favorite books of 2016 and called it “an amazing tale, a refreshingly honest reminder of what the path to business success really looks like. It’s a messy, perilous, and chaotic journey, riddled with mistakes, endless struggles, and sacrifice. Phil Knight opens up in ways few CEOs are willing to do.” Fresh out of business school, Phil Knight borrowed fifty dollars from his father and launched a company with one simple mission: import high-quality, low-cost running shoes from Japan. Selling the shoes from the trunk of his car in 1963, Knight grossed eight thousand dollars that first year. Today, Nike’s annual sales top $30 billion. In this age of start-ups, Knight’s Nike is the gold standard, and its swoosh is one of the few icons instantly recognized in every corner of the world. But Knight, the man behind the swoosh, has always been a mystery. In Shoe Dog, he tells his story at last. At twenty-four, Knight decides that rather than work for a big corporation, he will create something all his own, new, dynamic, different. He details the many risks he encountered, the crushing setbacks, the ruthless competitors and hostile bankers—as well as his many thrilling triumphs. Above all, he recalls the relationships that formed the heart and soul of Nike, with his former track coach, the irascible and charismatic Bill Bowerman, and with his first employees, a ragtag group of misfits and savants who quickly became a band of swoosh-crazed brothers. Together, harnessing the electrifying power of a bold vision and a shared belief in the transformative power of sports, they created a brand—and a culture—that changed everything.@izshreyansh This book is so well written. Almost a page turner.
Margaret Wise Brown
Leonard S. Marcus
Margaret Wise Brown, the author of Goodnight Moon and dozens of other children's classics, all but invented the picture book as we know it today. Combining poetic instinct with a profound empathy for small children, she knew of a child's need for security, love, and a sense of being at home in the world and she brought that unique tenderness to the page. Yet these were comforts that eluded her. Brown's youthful presence and professional success as an editor, bestselling author, and self-styled impresario masked an insecurity that left her restless and vulnerable. In this moving biography, Marcus portrays Brown's complex character and her tragic, seesaw life. Her literary achievement and groundbreaking discoveries about small children's emotional needs were offset by tormented romances including a passionate relationship with Michael Strange, the celebrity socialite once married to John Barrymore.@finejuli @ambernoelle I've been looking forward to this book for so long!
The Immortal Irishman
Timothy Egan
Weekend reading rec: Timothy Egan’s “The Immortal Irishman.” A bit like Alexander Hamilton, Thomas Meagher lived about six lives in one, and experienced Dickensian bad luck — survived the Irish famine, escaped the penal colony in Australia, went onto become a Civil War hero. https://t.co/idGCIiao91
Shoe Dog
Phil Knight
In this candid and riveting memoir, for the first time ever, Nike founder and CEO Phil Knight shares the inside story of the company’s early days as an intrepid start-up and its evolution into one of the world’s most iconic, game-changing, and profitable brands. In 1962, fresh out of business school, Phil Knight borrowed $50 from his father and created a company with a simple mission: import high-quality, low-cost athletic shoes from Japan. Selling the shoes from the trunk of his lime green Plymouth Valiant, Knight grossed $8,000 his first year. Today, Nike’s annual sales top $30 billion. In an age of startups, Nike is the ne plus ultra of all startups, and the swoosh has become a revolutionary, globe-spanning icon, one of the most ubiquitous and recognizable symbols in the world today. But Knight, the man behind the swoosh, has always remained a mystery. Now, for the first time, in a memoir that is candid, humble, gutsy, and wry, he tells his story, beginning with his crossroads moment. At 24, after backpacking around the world, he decided to take the unconventional path, to start his own business—a business that would be dynamic, different. Knight details the many risks and daunting setbacks that stood between him and his dream—along with his early triumphs. Above all, he recalls the formative relationships with his first partners and employees, a ragtag group of misfits and seekers who became a tight-knit band of brothers. Together, harnessing the transcendent power of a shared mission, and a deep belief in the spirit of sport, they built a brand that changed everything.What are the best books and other resources that might help people manage cash better in their business right now? There must be many people thinking and worried about cash management this weekend. The best *story* about cash management might be Phil Knight's memoir Shoe Dog.
Working
Robert A. Caro
"Short autobiography about author's processes of researching, interviewing, and writing his books"--@ChuckWendig Yesterday I finished Robert Caro's "Working" - a book of stories about uncovering and telling stories. I also finished the last episode of Banshee, an amazing, intense, puply, wonderful TV series.
Shoe Dog
Phil Knight
In this candid and riveting memoir, for the first time ever, Nike founder and CEO Phil Knight shares the inside story of the company’s early days as an intrepid start-up and its evolution into one of the world’s most iconic, game-changing, and profitable brands. In 1962, fresh out of business school, Phil Knight borrowed $50 from his father and created a company with a simple mission: import high-quality, low-cost athletic shoes from Japan. Selling the shoes from the trunk of his lime green Plymouth Valiant, Knight grossed $8,000 his first year. Today, Nike’s annual sales top $30 billion. In an age of startups, Nike is the ne plus ultra of all startups, and the swoosh has become a revolutionary, globe-spanning icon, one of the most ubiquitous and recognizable symbols in the world today. But Knight, the man behind the swoosh, has always remained a mystery. Now, for the first time, in a memoir that is candid, humble, gutsy, and wry, he tells his story, beginning with his crossroads moment. At 24, after backpacking around the world, he decided to take the unconventional path, to start his own business—a business that would be dynamic, different. Knight details the many risks and daunting setbacks that stood between him and his dream—along with his early triumphs. Above all, he recalls the formative relationships with his first partners and employees, a ragtag group of misfits and seekers who became a tight-knit band of brothers. Together, harnessing the transcendent power of a shared mission, and a deep belief in the spirit of sport, they built a brand that changed everything.But it's also surprisingly common that good ideas incubate when there isn't overwhelming focus. Reading Phil Knight's "Shoe Dog," I was surprised by how many years Nike ran as a shoestring outfit that was essentially a side hustle
Wie ich lernte, die Welt zu verstehen
Hans Rosling
Hans Rosling told journalist Fanny Härgestam the story of his life. It’s beautiful to learn how Hans Rosling became the man he was. https://t.co/0NPenqsMon
Think Black
Clyde W. Ford
@ABetterJones “Think Black” by @clydefordauthor
Masters of Doom
David Kushner
Presents a dual biography of John Carmack and John Romero, the creators of the video games Doom and Quake, assessing the impact of their creation on American pop culture and revealing how their success eventually destroyed their relationship.“If you want to learn to code, read Masters of Doom, not O’Reilly’s C++ for beginners. Fall in love with the idea, so that you can spend more time doing what you love.” https://t.co/CgUetv5yGg
The Cuckoo's Egg
Cliff Stoll
The first true account of computer espionage tells of a year-long single-handed hunt for a computer thief who sold information from American computer files to Soviet intelligence agentsGood Talk
Mira Jacob
"Snippets of dialogue between Jacob...and her family and friends form the basis of this breezy but poignant graphic memoir that takes on racism, love, and the election of President Trump."--@espiers Good Talk
Autobiography of a Yogi (Self-Realization Fellowship)
Paramahansa Yogananda
Paramahansa Yogananda's remarkable life story takes you on an unforgettable exploration of the world of saints and yogis, science and miracles, death and resurrection.@oliveremberton Here's a fun twist on the idea. @ellenrhymes calls this Finding Your Bible — the one book that influences everything you do. Three examples: 1) Steve Jobs: Autobiography of a Yogi 2) Bob Dylan: On the Road 3) Shakespeare: Ovid's Metamorphoses https://t.co/RdHE0twII9
The Years of Lyndon Johnson
Robert A. Caro
The political biography of our time, now available in a four-volume hardcover set. Robert A. Caro's life of Lyndon Johnson is one of the richest, most intensive and most revealing examinations ever undertaken of an American president. It is the magnum opus of a writer perfectly suited to his task: the Pulitzer Prize-winning biographer-historian, chronicler also of Robert Moses in The Power Broker, whose inspired research and profound understanding of the nature of ambition and the dynamics of power have made him a peerless explicator of political lives. "Taken together the installments of Mr. Caro's monumental life of Johnson . . . form a revealing prism by which to view the better part of a century in American life and politics during which the country experienced tumultuous and divisive social change. . .Gripping." --Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times "By writing the best presidential biography the country has ever seen, Caro has forever changed the way we think, and read, American history . . . It's his immense talent as a writer that has made his biography of Johnson one of America's most amazing literary achievements . . . As absorbing as a political thriller . . .A masterpiece, unlike any other work of American history published in the past. It's true that there will never be another Lyndon B. Johnson, but there will never be another Robert A. Caro, either." -NPR "One of the truly great political biographies of the modern age. A masterpiece" --The Times (London) The Path to Power reveals the genesis of the almost superhuman drive, energy, and urge to power that set LBJ apart. Chronicling the startling early emergence of Johnson's political genius, it follows him from his Texas boyhood through the years of the Depression in the Texas Hill Country to the triumph of his congressional debut in New Deal Washington, to his heartbreaking defeat in his first race for the Senate, and his attainment, nonetheless of the national power for which he hungered. National Book Critics Circle Award in Nonfiction Means of Ascent follows Johnson through his service in World War II to the foundation of his long-concealed fortune and the facts behind the myth he created about it. The explosive heart of the book is Caro's revelation of the true story of the fiercely contested 1948 senatorial election, which Johnson had to win or face certain political death, and which he did win--by "87 votes that changed history." Caro makes us witness to a momentous turning point in American politics; the tragic last stand of the old politics versus the new--the politics of issue versus the politics of image, mass manipulation, money and electronic dazzle. National Book Critics Circle Award in Biography Master of the Senate carries Johnson's story through his twelve remarkable years in the Senate. It is an unprecedented revelation of how legislative power works in America, how the Senate works, and how Johnson, in his ascent to the presidency, mastered the Senate as no political leader before him had ever done. In a breathtaking tour de force, Caro details Johnson's amazing triumph in maneuvering to passage the first civil rights legislation since 1875. Pulitzer Prize in Biography Los Angeles Times Book Award in Biography National Book Award in Nonfiction The Passage of Power is an unparalleled account of the battle between Johnson and John Kennedy for the 1960 presidential nomination, of the machinations behind Kennedy's decision to offer Johnson the vice presidency, of Johnson's powerlessness and humiliation in that role, and of the savage animosity between Johnson and Robert Kennedy. In Caro's description of the Kennedy assassination, which The New York Times called "the most riveting ever," we see the events of November 22, 1963, for the first time through Lyndon Johnson's eyes. And we watch as his political genius enables him to grasp the reins of the presidency with total command and, within weeks, make it wholly his own, surmounting unprecedented obstacles in order to fulfill the highest purpose of the office. National Book Critics Circle Award in Biography "Brilliant . . . Important . . . Remarkable ... In sparkling detail, Caro shows Johnson's genius for getting to people--friends, foes, and everyone in between--and how he used it to achieve his goals...With this fascinating and meticulous account, Robert Caro has once again done America a great service."-- President Bill Clinton, The New York Times Book Review (front cover) "The politicians' political book of choice...An encyclopedia of dirty tricks that would make Machiavelli seem naïve." London Literary Review "Making ordinary politics and policymaking riveting and revealing is what makes Caro a genius. Combined with his penetrating insight and fanatical research, Caro's Churchill-like prose elevates the life of a fairly influential president to stuff worthy of Shakespeare. . .Robert Caro stands alone as the unquestioned master of the contemporary American political biography." The Boston GlobeFinished reading the first 2. Among many other things, this bio is a primer on what it means to “will things into existence” and to be “relentlessly resourceful”. Written by Caro, there probably isn’t a more detailed study of the subject out there 😅 https://t.co/dhsn0nGm8L
The Undying
Anne Boyer
Award-winning poet and essayist Anne Boyer delivers a one-of-a-kind meditation on pain, vulnerability, mortality, medicine, art, time, space, exhaustion, and economics—sharing her true story of coping with cancer, both the illness and the industry, in The Undying. A week after her forty-first birthday, the acclaimed poet Anne Boyer was diagnosed with highly aggressive triple-negative breast cancer. For a single mother living paycheck to paycheck who had always been the caregiver rather than the one needing care, the catastrophic illness was both a crisis and an initiation into new ideas about mortality and the gendered politics of illness. A twenty-first-century Illness as Metaphor, as well as a harrowing memoir of survival, The Undying explores the experience of illness as mediated by digital screens, weaving in ancient Roman dream diarists, cancer hoaxers and fetishists, cancer vloggers, corporate lies, John Donne, pro-pain ”dolorists,” the ecological costs of chemotherapy, and the many little murders of capitalism. It excoriates the pharmaceutical industry and the bland hypocrisies of ”pink ribbon culture” while also diving into the long literary line of women writing about their own illnesses and ongoing deaths: Audre Lorde, Kathy Acker, Susan Sontag, and others. A genre-bending memoir in the tradition of The Argonauts, The Undying will break your heart, make you angry enough to spit, and show you contemporary America as a thing both desperately ill and occasionally, perversely glorious. Includes black-and-white illustrations@PENamerica The finalists are: @ilya_poet for Deaf Republic Anne Boyer for The Undying Yiyun Li for Where Reasons End @ReeAmilcarScott for The World Does Not Require You Chris Ware for Rusty Brown
Who Is Michael Ovitz?
Michael Ovitz
"Michael Ovitz co-founded CAA in 1975 and served as its chairman until 1995. For most of the past two decades he has been a private investor and an advisor to Silicon Valley entrepreneurs. This is his first book"--Book 2 Lessons: -The truth is the ultimate sales tool. -Favors come back around. -No conflict, no interest. https://t.co/ISNQ282cww
Good Talk
Mira Jacob
"Snippets of dialogue between Jacob...and her family and friends form the basis of this breezy but poignant graphic memoir that takes on racism, love, and the election of President Trump."--@Intentionaut @radicallyrach Fun Home by Alison Bechdel (yes, her) https://t.co/VX1QBpw0Lz Good Talk by Mira Jacob https://t.co/D2knDWMrdA
Persepolis
Marjane Satrapi
The great-granddaughter of Iran's last emperor and the daughter of ardent Marxists describes growing up in Tehran in a country plagued by political upheaval and vast contradictions between public and private life. Reprint. 75,000 first printing.@Intentionaut @radicallyrach +1 Maus (a staggering, genre defining work) +1 Persepolis (and also a good movie adaptation) Watchmen is hugely influential (and is not literally the same story as the recent series) I *loved* the sad, desperate, violent, and touching "Sweet Tooth" by Jeff Lemire (I love him)
DisneyWar
James B. Stewart
DisneyWar is the breathtaking, dramatic inside story of what drove America's best-known entertainment company to civil war, told by one of our most acclaimed writers and reporters.If you enjoyed the Iger bio, recommend pairing it with DisneyWar See the old guard, when *they* were young and trying to shake things up. Classic prequel You know how it'll end, but get to see how it got there Way crazier story. Should be on HBO https://t.co/nNsgKu6nlp
Just Mercy
Bryan Stevenson
Winner of the NAACP Image Award for Best Nonfiction@dhmeyer @JustMercyFilm Amazing book too
The Cuckoo's Egg
Cliff Stoll
The first true account of computer espionage tells of a year-long single-handed hunt for a computer thief who sold information from American computer files to Soviet intelligence agentsClifford Stoll’s THE CUCKOO’S EGG was the 1st book I read thru the night into the morning to finish. It’s a real-life cyber crime story… from over 30 years ago. He’s now my neighbor in Oakland (literally around the corner). Read WIRED’s Profile: https://t.co/8ujQZZdWPI
The Unlikely Disciple
Kevin Roose
No drinking. No smoking. No cursing. No dancing. No R-rated movies. Kevin Roose wasn't used to rules like these. As a sophomore at Brown University, he spent his days drinking fair-trade coffee, singing in an a cappella group, and fitting right in with Brown's free-spirited, ultra-liberal student body. But when Roose leaves his Ivy League confines to spend a semester at Liberty University, a conservative Baptist school in Lynchburg, Virginia, obedience is no longer optional. Liberty is the late Reverend Jerry Falwell's "Bible Boot Camp" for young evangelicals, his training ground for the next generation of America's Religious Right. Liberty's ten thousand undergraduates take courses like Evangelism 101, hear from guest speakers like Sean Hannity and Karl Rove, and follow a forty-six-page code of conduct that regulates every aspect of their social lives. Hoping to connect with his evangelical peers, Roose decides to enroll at Liberty as a new transfer student, leaping across the God Divide and chronicling his adventures in this daring report from the front lines of America's culture war. His journey takes him from an evangelical hip-hop concert to choir practice at Falwell's legendary Thomas Road Baptist Church. He experiments with prayer, participates in a spring break mission trip to Daytona Beach (where he learns to preach the gospel to partying coeds), and pays a visit to Every Man's Battle, an on-campus support group for chronic masturbators. He meets pastors' kids, closet doubters, Christian rebels, and conducts what would be the last print interview of Rev. Falwell's life. Hilarious and heartwarming, respectful and thought-provoking, THE UNLIKELY DISCIPLE will inspire and entertain believers and nonbelievers alike.If you enjoy this genre, also recommend the book The Unlikely Disciple, about an Ivy League (Brown) student who transfers to Liberty University for a semester—and finds it isn’t what he expected https://t.co/wXYwIUuc0p
Masters of Doom
David Kushner
“To my taste, the greatest American myth of cosmogenesis features the maladjusted, antisocial, genius teenage boy who, in the insular laboratory of his own bedroom, invents the universe from scratch. Masters of Doom is a particularly inspired rendition. Dave Kushner chronicles the saga of video game virtuosi Carmack and Romero with terrific brio. This is a page-turning, mythopoeic cyber-soap opera about two glamorous geek geniuses—and it should be read while scarfing down pepperoni pizza and swilling Diet Coke, with Queens of the Stone Age cranked up all the way.” —Mark Leyner, author of I Smell Esther Williams Masters of Doom is the amazing true story of the Lennon and McCartney of video games: John Carmack and John Romero. Together, they ruled big business. They transformed popular culture. And they provoked a national controversy. More than anything, they lived a unique and rollicking American Dream, escaping the broken homes of their youth to co-create the most notoriously successful game franchises in history—Doom and Quake—until the games they made tore them apart. Americans spend more money on video games than on movie tickets. Masters of Doom is the first book to chronicle this industry’s greatest story, written by one of the medium’s leading observers. David Kushner takes readers inside the rags-to-riches adventure of two rebellious entrepreneurs who came of age to shape a generation. The vivid portrait reveals why their games are so violent and why their immersion in their brilliantly designed fantasy worlds offered them solace. And it shows how they channeled their fury and imagination into products that are a formative influence on our culture, from MTV to the Internet to Columbine. This is a story of friendship and betrayal, commerce and artistry—a powerful and compassionate account of what it’s like to be young, driven, and wildly creative. From the Hardcover edition.Red Notice
Bill Browder
Expelled from Russia after exposing corruption in Russian companies, an investment broker describes how his attorney was detained, tortured and beaten to death for testifying against Russian law enforcement officers who stole millions in taxes paid to the government. Illustrations. Tour.Red Notice
Bill Browder
Expelled from Russia after exposing corruption in Russian companies, an investment broker describes how his attorney was detained, tortured and beaten to death for testifying against Russian law enforcement officers who stole millions in taxes paid to the government. Illustrations. Tour..@jbrowder1 and I talk about his father Bill Browder, his remarkable life & book "Red Notice", and reasons why Bill has had a red notice sent on him 12 times. Part 5 of 7 Full discussion 👇 https://t.co/mPjUlmdBOt
The Cuckoo's Egg
Cliff Stoll
The first true account of computer espionage tells of a year-long single-handed hunt for a computer thief who sold information from American computer files to Soviet intelligence agents30 years ago, Cliff Stoll published The Cuckoo's Egg, a seminal book on how to hunt hackers. We caught up with him at his workshop, where he demoed a homemade forklift robot that helps him manage a warehouse of Klein bottles he sells online. https://t.co/7ZdzEnWXMN https://t.co/tGT2BAUMeQ
Lenin
Victor Sebestyen
"Since the birth of Soviet Russia, Vladimir Lenin has been viewed as a controversial figure, revered and reviled for his rigid political ideals. He continues to fascinate as a man who made history, and created the first Communist state, a model that would later be imitated by nearly half the countries in the world. Drawing on new research, including the diaries, memoirs, and personal letters of both Lenin and his friends, Victor Sebestyen's biography--the first in English in nearly two decades--is not only a political examination of one of the most important historical figures of the twentieth century, but a portrait of Lenin the man. Lenin was someone who loved nature, hunting, fishing and could identify hundreds of species of plants, a despotic ruler whose closest ties and friendships were with women. The long-suppressed story of the complex love triangle Lenin had with his wife, and his mistress and comrade, reveals a different character to the coldly one-dimensional figure of the legend. Sebestyen also reveals Lenin as a ruthless and single-minded despot and a 'product of his time and place: a violent, tyrannical and corrupt Russia.' He seized power in a coup, promised a revolution, a socialist utopia for the people, offered simple solutions to complex issues and constantly lied; in fact, what he created was more 'a mirror image of the Romanov autocracy.' He authorized the deaths of thousands of people, and created a system based on the idea that political terror against opponents was justified for the greater ideal. One of his old comrades who had once admired him said he 'desired the good... but created evil.' And that would include his invention of Stalin, who would take Lenin's system of the gulag and the secret police to new heights"--@dbchhbr @ritholtz https://t.co/TdBbXhpUeU
Red Notice
Bill Browder
Expelled from Russia after exposing corruption in Russian companies, an investment broker describes how his attorney was detained, tortured and beaten to death for testifying against Russian law enforcement officers who stole millions in taxes paid to the government. Illustrations. Tour..@jbrowder1 and I talk about his father Bill Browder, his remarkable life & book "Red Notice", and reasons why Bill has had a red notice sent on him 12 times. Part 5 of 7 Full discussion 👇 https://t.co/RkRq3M8M2O
Once More We Saw Stars
Jayson Greene
"A gripping and beautiful book about the power of love in the face of unimaginable loss." --Cheryl Strayed For readers of The Bright Hour and When Breath Becomes Air, a moving, transcendent memoir of loss and a stunning exploration of marriage in the wake of unimaginable grief. As the book opens: two-year-old Greta Greene is sitting with her grandmother on a park bench on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. A brick crumbles from a windowsill overhead, striking her unconscious, and she is immediately rushed to the hospital. But although it begins with this event and with the anguish Jayson and his wife, Stacy, confront in the wake of their daughter's trauma and the hours leading up to her death, Once More We Saw Stars quickly becomes a narrative that is as much about hope and healing as it is about grief and loss. Jayson recognizes, even in the midst of his ordeal, that there will be a life for him beyond it--that if only he can continue moving forward, from one moment to the next, he will survive what seems unsurvivable. With raw honesty, deep emotion, and exquisite tenderness, he captures both the fragility of life and absoluteness of death, and most important of all, the unconquerable power of love. This is an unforgettable memoir of courage and transformation--and a book that will change the way you look at the world.@Jayson_Greene Your book was so beautiful - thank you for writing it.
How We Fight for Our Lives
Saeed Jones
WINNER OF THE 2019 KIRKUS PRIZE IN NONFICTION WINNER OF THE 2020 STONEWALL BOOK AWARD-ISRAEL FISHMAN NONFICTION AWARD ONE OF THE NEW YORK TIMES’S 100 NOTABLE BOOKS OF 2019 One of the best books of the year as selected by The Washington Post; NPR; Time; The New Yorker; O, The Oprah Magazine; Harper’s Bazaar; Elle; Kirkus Reviews; Publishers Weekly; BuzzFeed; Goodreads; School Library Journal; and many more. “A moving, bracingly honest memoir that reads like fevered poetry.” —The New York Times Book Review “Jones’s voice and sensibility are so distinct that he turns one of the oldest of literary genres inside out and upside down.” —NPR’S Fresh Air “People don’t just happen,” writes Saeed Jones. “We sacrifice former versions of ourselves. We sacrifice the people who dared to raise us. The ‘I’ it seems doesn’t exist until we are able to say, ‘I am no longer yours.’” Haunted and haunting, How We Fight for Our Lives is a stunning coming-of-age memoir. Jones tells the story of a young, black, gay man from the South as he fights to carve out a place for himself, within his family, within his country, within his own hopes, desires, and fears. Through a series of vignettes that chart a course across the American landscape, Jones draws readers into his boyhood and adolescence—into tumultuous relationships with his family, into passing flings with lovers, friends, and strangers. Each piece builds into a larger examination of race and queerness, power and vulnerability, love and grief: a portrait of what we all do for one another—and to one another—as we fight to become ourselves. An award-winning poet, Jones has developed a style that’s as beautiful as it is powerful—a voice that’s by turns a river, a blues, and a nightscape set ablaze. How We Fight for Our Lives is a one-of-a-kind memoir and a book that cements Saeed Jones as an essential writer for our time.I read SO many good memoirs this year. @ruthreichl @alexanderchee @LisaBrennanJobs @theferocity https://t.co/41ofcEnbMC
Save Me the Plums
Ruth Reichl
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * Trailblazing food writer and beloved restaurant critic Ruth Reichl took the job (and the risk) of a lifetime when she entered the high-stakes world of magazine publishing. Now, for the first time, she chronicles her groundbreaking tenure as editor in chief of Gourmet. "A must for any food lover . . . Reichl is a warm, intimate writer. She peels back the curtain to a glamorous time of magazine-making. You'll tear through this memoir."--Refinery29 NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY Real Simple * Good Housekeeping * Town & Country When Condé Nast offered Ruth Reichl the top position at America's oldest epicurean magazine, she declined. She was a writer, not a manager, and had no inclination to be anyone's boss. Yet Reichl had been reading Gourmet since she was eight; it had inspired her career. How could she say no? This is the story of a former Berkeley hippie entering the corporate world and worrying about losing her soul. It is the story of the moment restaurants became an important part of popular culture, a time when the rise of the farm-to-table movement changed, forever, the way we eat. Readers will meet legendary chefs like David Chang and Eric Ripert, idiosyncratic writers like David Foster Wallace, and a colorful group of editors and art directors who, under Reichl's leadership, transformed stately Gourmet into a cutting-edge publication. This was the golden age of print media--the last spendthrift gasp before the Internet turned the magazine world upside down. Complete with recipes, Save Me the Plums is a personal journey of a woman coming to terms with being in charge and making a mark, following a passion and holding on to her dreams--even when she ends up in a place she never expected to be. Praise for Save Me the Plums "Poignant and hilarious . . . simply delicious . . . Each serving of magazine folklore is worth savoring. In fact, Reichl's story is juicier than a Peter Luger porterhouse. Dig in."--The New York Times Book Review "In this smart, touching, and dishy memoir . . . Ruth Reichl recalls her years at the helm of Gourmet magazine with clear eyes, a sense of humor, and some very appealing recipes."--Town & Country "If you haven't picked up food writing queen Ruth Reichl's new book, Save Me the Plums, I highly recommend you fix that problem. . . . Reichl is in top form and ready to dish, with every chapter seeming like a dedicated behind-the-scenes documentary on its own."--Soleil Ho, San Francisco ChronicleI read SO many good memoirs this year. @ruthreichl @alexanderchee @LisaBrennanJobs @theferocity https://t.co/41ofcEnbMC
Know My Name
Chanel Miller
To really fuck yourself up, follow it with my favorite memoir of the year and the book that's stuck with me the longest. https://t.co/1PIl8y5t5m
Drive-Thru Dreams
Adam Chandler
@geneweingarten @MonicaHesse @LisaTaddeo @stepville Three books which each tell a slightly different and occasionally fucked up story about how capitalism is probably going to ruin us all, by @MikeIsaac @AdamChandler and David Wallace Wells https://t.co/OHuRjxWRrJ
Just Mercy
Bryan Stevenson
Winner of the NAACP Image Award for Best Nonfiction@geneweingarten @MonicaHesse @LisaTaddeo Three slightly older non-fiction books I was late to read but am SO glad I picked up - by @stepville, Matthew Desmond, and Bryan Stevenson https://t.co/7J9hkxubyj
Maid
Stephanie Land
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER Evicted meets Nickel and Dimed in Stephanie Land's memoir about working as a maid, a beautiful and gritty exploration of poverty in America. Includes a foreword by Barbara Ehrenreich. At 28, Stephanie Land's plans of breaking free from the roots of her hometown in the Pacific Northwest to chase her dreams of attending a university and becoming a writer, were cut short when a summer fling turned into an unexpected pregnancy. She turned to housekeeping to make ends meet, and with a tenacious grip on her dream to provide her daughter the very best life possible, Stephanie worked days and took classes online to earn a college degree, and began to write relentlessly. She wrote the true stories that weren't being told: the stories of overworked and underpaid Americans. Of living on food stamps and WIC (Women, Infants, and Children) coupons to eat. Of the government programs that provided her housing, but that doubled as halfway houses. The aloof government employees who called her lucky for receiving assistance while she didn't feel lucky at all. She wrote to remember the fight, to eventually cut through the deep-rooted stigmas of the working poor. Maid explores the underbelly of upper-middle class America and the reality of what it's like to be in service to them. "I'd become a nameless ghost," Stephanie writes about her relationship with her clients, many of whom do not know her from any other cleaner, but who she learns plenty about. As she begins to discover more about her clients' lives-their sadness and love, too-she begins to find hope in her own path. Her compassionate, unflinching writing as a journalist gives voice to the "servant" worker, and those pursuing the American Dream from below the poverty line. Maid is Stephanie's story, but it's not her alone. It is an inspiring testament to the strength, determination, and ultimate triumph of the human spirit.@geneweingarten @MonicaHesse @LisaTaddeo Three slightly older non-fiction books I was late to read but am SO glad I picked up - by @stepville, Matthew Desmond, and Bryan Stevenson https://t.co/7J9hkxubyj
Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!
Richard P. Feynman
The outrageous exploits of one of this century's greatest scientific minds and a legendary American original.@xhckr Reading: God Emporer of Dune Why are we Yelling by @buster The Book of Dust, Volume 2 Fav: Foundation Saga Golden Compass Ishmael How to Win Friends Surely You’re Joking Mr. Feynman But I have opinions on “favorite” books....
At the Existentialist Café
Sarah Bakewell
"First published in Great Britain by Chatto & Windus, 2016."At the Existentialist Café: Freedom, Being, and Apricot Cocktails with Jean-Paul Sartre, Simone de Beauvoir,Albert Camus, Martin Heidegger, Maurice Merleau-Ponty and Others, Sarah Bakewell (2016) https://t.co/eVsX6ctFl7
Wild
Cheryl Strayed
A powerful, blazingly honest, inspiring memoir: the story of a 1,100 mile solo hike that broke down a young woman reeling from catastrophe--and built her back up again.Wild, Cheryl Strayed (2013) https://t.co/nRyDymkRj9
Although of Course You End Up Becoming Yourself
David Lipsky
Shares the author's travels with the late David Foster Wallace based on interviews from the 1996 "Infinite Jest" book tour, covering such topics as Wallace's literary process, struggles with fame, and battle with mental illness.Although Of Course You End Up Becoming Yourself: A Road Trip with David Foster Wallace, David Lipsky (2010) https://t.co/gqCctuIMKp
Medium Raw
Anthony Bourdain
An instant New York Times bestseller and the follow-up to the mega-hit Kitchen Confidential In the ten years since Anthony Bourdain's classic Kitchen Confidential first alerted us to the idiosyncrasies and lurking perils of eating out, much has changed for the subculture of chefs and cooks, for the restaurant business–and for Anthony Bourdain. Medium Raw tracks Bourdain's unexpected voyage from journeyman cook to globe-traveling professional eater and drinker, and even to fatherhood, in a series of takes-no-prisoners confessions, rants, investigations, and interrogations of some of the most controversial figures in food. Beginning with a secret, highly illegal after-hours gathering of powerful chefs that he compares to a mafia summit, Bourdain pulls back the curtain–but never pulls his punches–on the modern gastronomical revolution. Cutting right to the bone, Bourdain sets his sights on some of the biggest names in the foodie world, including David Chang, the young superstar chef; the revered Alice Waters; the Top Chef contestants; and many more. Medium Raw is the deliciously funny, shockingly delectable result, sure to delight philistines and gourmands alike.Medium Raw: A Bloody Valentine to the World of Food and the People Who Cook, Anthony Bourdain (2010) https://t.co/CYoaem0hNA
Know My Name
Chanel Miller
be like chanel miller https://t.co/OVjPkr1z6h
The Lords of Creation
Frederick Lewis Allen
"The story of the immense financial and corporate expansion which took place in the United States between the depression of the eighteen-nineties and the crisis of the nineteen-thirties."--Preface.I'm writing a very long piece on common economic plot lines, and the boom bust cycle causing people to overdose on good ideas pops up a lot. 1880s railroads, from the book Lords of Creation: https://t.co/MHnDeNxJgH
An Illuminated Life
Heidi Ardizzone
Examines the secret life of Belle de Costa Greene, who was responsible for shaping the Pierpont Morgan Library collection and who became a luminary in New York high society, describing how the daughter of free people of color invented a Portuguese grandmother to enter white society to take the art world by storm.@aaprocter She's amazing! I've seen this book in the gift shop at the Morgan, haven't gotten it yet, though! https://t.co/ipP4rfYIau
This is Going to Hurt
Adam Kay
To build a castle
Vladimir Bukovsky
Expelled Soviet political protester and activist recounts his dozen years imprisoned in jails, labor camps and psychiatric hospitals, his fight for change and freedom, and profiling modern daily Russian existenceYou can honor Bukovsky's legacy by reading his works. To Build a Castle and Judgment in Moscow are essential. You will also understand more about the USSR, evil, & totalitarianism than 99% of Russia pundits today! https://t.co/0HcYcyVLSZ
How We Fight for Our Lives
Saeed Jones
WINNER OF THE 2019 KIRKUS PRIZE IN NONFICTION WINNER OF THE 2020 STONEWALL BOOK AWARD-ISRAEL FISHMAN NONFICTION AWARD ONE OF THE NEW YORK TIMES’S 100 NOTABLE BOOKS OF 2019 One of the best books of the year as selected by The Washington Post; NPR; Time; The New Yorker; O, The Oprah Magazine; Harper’s Bazaar; Elle; Kirkus Reviews; Publishers Weekly; BuzzFeed; Goodreads; School Library Journal; and many more. “A moving, bracingly honest memoir that reads like fevered poetry.” —The New York Times Book Review “Jones’s voice and sensibility are so distinct that he turns one of the oldest of literary genres inside out and upside down.” —NPR’S Fresh Air “People don’t just happen,” writes Saeed Jones. “We sacrifice former versions of ourselves. We sacrifice the people who dared to raise us. The ‘I’ it seems doesn’t exist until we are able to say, ‘I am no longer yours.’” Haunted and haunting, How We Fight for Our Lives is a stunning coming-of-age memoir. Jones tells the story of a young, black, gay man from the South as he fights to carve out a place for himself, within his family, within his country, within his own hopes, desires, and fears. Through a series of vignettes that chart a course across the American landscape, Jones draws readers into his boyhood and adolescence—into tumultuous relationships with his family, into passing flings with lovers, friends, and strangers. Each piece builds into a larger examination of race and queerness, power and vulnerability, love and grief: a portrait of what we all do for one another—and to one another—as we fight to become ourselves. An award-winning poet, Jones has developed a style that’s as beautiful as it is powerful—a voice that’s by turns a river, a blues, and a nightscape set ablaze. How We Fight for Our Lives is a one-of-a-kind memoir and a book that cements Saeed Jones as an essential writer for our time.Good morning, here are some of the (many) books I’ve liked lately! https://t.co/lel3vPOWMm
Know My Name
Chanel Miller
"Looking back, all the ones who doubted or hurt or nearly conquered me faded away, and I am the only one standing. So now, the time has come. I dust myself off, and go on." power, grace & vulnerability from Chanel Miller https://t.co/zm78n2nNsJ https://t.co/A6kureYNF2
Home Work
Julie Andrews
The follow-up to 2008's acclaimed memoir Home, Julie Andrews shares career highlights, personal experiences and reflective insights that have contributed to her enchanting legacy.Starting in 1963 where Home left off, Julie Andrews recalls her break-out roles in The Sound of Music and as the title character in Mary Poppinsbefore divulging many of the intimate details from her later years, spanning the 1960s until the early 1990s.In the 1960s Julie starred in three films that were the biggest money-makers yet for each studio: The Sound of Music(20th Century Fox), Mary Poppins (Disney) and Thoroughly Modern Millie (Universal). She was described by the HollywoodReporter as 'the object of the most intense and sustained love affairs between moviegoers and a star in the history of motion pictures'. Beginning with Julie's account of the immortal roles of Mary Poppins and Maria von Trapp, we learn about her personal experiences of motherhood, along with the unfortunate demise of her marriage to costume and set designer Tony Walton, and her second marriage to the love of her life, renowned Hollywood director Blake Edwards. From here Andrews shares with us her ascent to a timeless stardom as she went on to perform in various films, Broadway shows, television specials and her own self-titled television sitcom.This is the story in her own words of how Julie Andrews became one of our most beloved entertainers, the winner of multiple awards including Grammys, Emmys, Golden Globes and an Academy Award.Dear Girls
Ali Wong
Wong's heartfelt and hilarious letters to her daughters cover everything they need to know in life, like the unpleasant details of dating, how to be a working mom in a male-dominated profession, and how she trapped their dad. Though addressed to her daughters, the letters are absurdly funny, surprisingly moving, and enlightening (and gross) for all.Netflix comedy special(s)? Check. Write, star, & produce her own rom-com? Check. Author? Check. @aliwong is out with her 1st book— a collection of essays written to her daughters. You'll laugh in public while reading. Read our hilarious Q+A w/ her here: https://t.co/FkE2jqeDuU https://t.co/XodBd1ySqk
Boyd
Robert Coram
John Boyd may be the most remarkable unsung hero in all of American military history. Some remember him as the greatest U.S. fighter pilot ever -- the man who, in simulated air-to-air combat, defeated every challenger in less than forty seconds. Some recall him as the father of our country's most legendary fighter aircraft -- the F-15 and F-16. Still others think of Boyd as the most influential military theorist since Sun Tzu. They know only half the story. Boyd, more than any other person, saved fighter aviation from the predations of the Strategic Air Command. His manual of fighter tactics changed the way every air force in the world flies and fights. He discovered a physical theory that forever altered the way fighter planes were designed. Later in life, he developed a theory of military strategy that has been adopted throughout the world and even applied to business models for maximizing efficiency. And in one of the most startling and unknown stories of modern military history, the Air Force fighter pilot taught the U.S. Marine Corps how to fight war on the ground. His ideas led to America's swift and decisive victory in the Gulf War and foretold the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. On a personal level, Boyd rarely met a general he couldn't offend. He was loud, abrasive, and profane. A man of daring, ferocious passion and intractable stubbornness, he was that most American of heroes -- a rebel who cared not for his reputation or fortune but for his country. He was a true patriot, a man who made a career of challenging the shortsighted and self-serving Pentagon bureaucracy. America owes Boyd and his disciples -- the six men known as the "Acolytes" -- a great debt. Robert Coram finally brings to light the remarkable story of a man who polarized all who knew him, but who left a legacy that will influence the military -- and all of America -- for decades to come. ..For more on Boyd, this is an excellent source: https://t.co/qKZyPppQZb
Working
Robert A. Caro
"Short autobiography about author's processes of researching, interviewing, and writing his books"--Book recommendation: Caro is one of the greatest biographers alive, and “Working” is a look inside the method. https://t.co/49eULc9xDG
Liar's Poker
Michael Lewis
The author recounts his experiences on the lucrative Wall Street bond market of the 1980s, where young traders made millions in a very short time, in a humorous account of greed and epic folly.@gabcimato I'm a BIG fan of everything by Michael Lewis. Liar's Poker is a good one. I just finished reading The Silent Patient if you like psychological thrillers.
Robin
Dave Itzkoff
"From New York Times reporter Dave Itzkoff comes the definitive biography of Robin Williams-- a compelling portrait of one of America's most beloved and misunderstood entertainers. From his rapid-fire stand-up comedy riffs to his breakout role in Mork & Mindy and his powerful Academy Award-winning performance in Good Will Hunting, Robin Williams was a singularly innovative actor and comedian. He often came across as a man possessed, holding forth on culture, politics, and personal revelation-- all with mercurial, tongue-twisting intensity as he inhabited and shed one character after another. But as Dave Itzkoff shows in this revelatory biography, Williams's comic brilliance masked a deep well of conflicting emotions and self-doubt. In his comedy and in celebrated films like Dead Poets Society; Good Morning, Vietnam; The Fisher King; Aladdin; and Mrs. Doubtfire, he showcased his limitless gift for improvisation, bringing his characters to life and using humor to seek deeper truths. Itzkoff also shows how Williams struggled mightily with addiction and depression and with a debilitating condition at the end of his life that affected him in ways his fans never knew. Drawing on more than a hundred original interviews with family, friends, and colleagues, as well as extensive archival research, Robin is a fresh and original look at a performer whose work touched so many of our lives"--Book jacket.Two great books: Biography of Robin Williams. Amazing dude: https://t.co/LmwLh7WpJh Memoir by Michael Collins, Apollo 11 astronaut. Craziest things humans have ever done: https://t.co/k6mxpYAPSY
Genius
James Gleick
A biography of the flamboyant Nobel Prize-winning scientist describes how Feynman cracked safes, played the bongos, studied the behavior of Jell-O, and conducted experiments in seduction, all in the name of science. Reprint. 125,000 first printing. $50,000 ad/promo. Tour.Just ordered Brand's "How Buildings Learn", Illich's "Deschooling Society", Ostrom's "Governing the Commons", Adams's "Watership Down", Lakatos's "Proofs and Refutations", Gleick's "Genius". Six books I love, and hope someone else will enjoy too.
Know My Name
Chanel Miller
i didn't realize chanel miller's book is already out: just ordered straight to kindle https://t.co/OVjPkr1z6h
Think Black
Clyde W. Ford
Ordered: https://t.co/KGjy6oGSfy https://t.co/KGq760Is7X
Tuxedo Park
Jennet Conant
Presents the story of financier Alfred Lee Loomis and his role in the American victory during World War II, discussing Tuxedo Park, the lavish safe haven he created for some of the world's greatest scientists to meet and share ideas.Really enjoyed reading this book. A lot more people should know about Alfred Loomis https://t.co/lGhoZbg0zz
Man's Search for Meaning
Viktor Emil Frankl
Viennese psychiatrist tells his grim experiences in a German concentration camp which led him to logotherapy, an existential method of psychiatry.@paulg @rivatez Man’s Search For Meaning
Liar's Poker
Michael Lewis
The author recounts his experiences on the lucrative Wall Street bond market of the 1980s, where young traders made millions in a very short time, in a humorous account of greed and epic folly.@paulg @rivatez Liar's Poker by Michael Lewis, which motivated me to drop out of a PhD for Wall Street, and then motivated me to write my own memoir.
The Choice
Edith Eva Eger
A powerful, moving memoir, and a practical guide to healing, written by Dr. Edie Eger, an eminent psychologist whose own experiences as a Holocaust survivor help her treat patients suffering from traumatic stress disorders.The Choice by Edith Eger. Edith survived Auschwitz and takes the reader through her experiences there with a storyteller's voice, as well as how she learned to overcome her trauma with this lesson: we can’t change the past, but we always have a choice in approaching the future.
Good Talk
Mira Jacob
"Snippets of dialogue between Jacob...and her family and friends form the basis of this breezy but poignant graphic memoir that takes on racism, love, and the election of President Trump."--@DaveHogue @wordstern +1 your mom - "The Overstory" is really impressive. If we're recommending other stuff then "Good Talk" by Mira Jacobs.
Boyd
Robert Coram
John Boyd may be the most remarkable unsung hero in all of American military history. Some remember him as the greatest U.S. fighter pilot ever -- the man who, in simulated air-to-air combat, defeated every challenger in less than forty seconds. Some recall him as the father of our country's most legendary fighter aircraft -- the F-15 and F-16. Still others think of Boyd as the most influential military theorist since Sun Tzu. They know only half the story. Boyd, more than any other person, saved fighter aviation from the predations of the Strategic Air Command. His manual of fighter tactics changed the way every air force in the world flies and fights. He discovered a physical theory that forever altered the way fighter planes were designed. Later in life, he developed a theory of military strategy that has been adopted throughout the world and even applied to business models for maximizing efficiency. And in one of the most startling and unknown stories of modern military history, the Air Force fighter pilot taught the U.S. Marine Corps how to fight war on the ground. His ideas led to America's swift and decisive victory in the Gulf War and foretold the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. On a personal level, Boyd rarely met a general he couldn't offend. He was loud, abrasive, and profane. A man of daring, ferocious passion and intractable stubbornness, he was that most American of heroes -- a rebel who cared not for his reputation or fortune but for his country. He was a true patriot, a man who made a career of challenging the shortsighted and self-serving Pentagon bureaucracy. America owes Boyd and his disciples -- the six men known as the "Acolytes" -- a great debt. Robert Coram finally brings to light the remarkable story of a man who polarized all who knew him, but who left a legacy that will influence the military -- and all of America -- for decades to come. ..@davefontenot @typesfast https://t.co/b5ISC8iWK6
The Conquest of Gaul
Julius Caesar
The Roman leader's memoirs recount his campaigns against the Gallic tribes conducted between 58 and 50 B.C@nathanbraun I knew people would ask that, and the problem is that it would take an essay to answer. An essay I will definitely write. Meanwhile: My Family and Other Animals, The Conquest of Gaul, Franklin's autobiography.
My Family and Other Animals
Gerald Durrell
A memoir of an English boy growing up on the Greek island of Corfu recounts the author's humorous adventures as he collects all kinds of animals and insects and brings them back to the house, much to his family's dismay.@nathanbraun I knew people would ask that, and the problem is that it would take an essay to answer. An essay I will definitely write. Meanwhile: My Family and Other Animals, The Conquest of Gaul, Franklin's autobiography.
The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin
Benjamin Franklin
The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin was written by Benjamin Franklin from 1771 to 1790; however, Franklin himself appears to have called the work his Memoirs. Although it had a torturous publication history after Franklin's death, this work has become one of the most famous and influential examples of autobiography ever written.@nathanbraun I knew people would ask that, and the problem is that it would take an essay to answer. An essay I will definitely write. Meanwhile: My Family and Other Animals, The Conquest of Gaul, Franklin's autobiography.
Barbarian Days
William Finnegan
Surfing only looks like a sport. To initiates, it is something else entirely: a beautiful addiction, a demanding course of study, a morally dangerous pastime, a way of life. Raised in California and Hawaii, Finnegan started surfing as a child. He has chased waves all over the world, wandering for years through the South Pacific, Australia, Asia, Africa. A bookish boy, and then an excessively adventurous young man, he went on to become a writer and war reporter. Barbarian Days takes us deep into unfamiliar worlds, some of them right under our noses -- off the coasts of New York and San Francisco. It immerses the reader in the edgy camaraderie of close male friendships annealed in challenging waves.If you read books, read William Finnegan's Barbarian Days. It's one of those rare books that divide your life into two parts: before you read it, and after. https://t.co/BTODaei5hr
Barbarian Days
William Finnegan
Surfing only looks like a sport. To initiates, it is something else entirely: a beautiful addiction, a demanding course of study, a morally dangerous pastime, a way of life. Raised in California and Hawaii, Finnegan started surfing as a child. He has chased waves all over the world, wandering for years through the South Pacific, Australia, Asia, Africa. A bookish boy, and then an excessively adventurous young man, he went on to become a writer and war reporter. Barbarian Days takes us deep into unfamiliar worlds, some of them right under our noses -- off the coasts of New York and San Francisco. It immerses the reader in the edgy camaraderie of close male friendships annealed in challenging waves.William Finnegan's _Barbarian Days_ is so good that I find myself looking forward to getting home so I can read more of it. https://t.co/BTODaei5hr
The Power Broker
Robert A. Caro
Moses is pictured as idealist reformer and political manipulator as his rise to power and eventual domination of New York State politics is documentedOk @kevinakwok you finally got me https://t.co/bstLdNYLQW
A Sense of Where You Are
John McPhee
When John McPhee met Bill Bradley, both were at the beginning of their careers. A Sense of Where You Are, McPhee's first book, is about Bradley when he was the best basketball player Princeton had ever seen. McPhee delineates for the reader the training and techniques that made Bradley the extraordinary athlete he was, and this part of the book is a blueprint of superlative basketball. But athletic prowess alone would not explain Bradley's magnetism, which is in the quality of the man himself—his self-discipline, his rationality, and his sense of responsibility. Here is a portrait of Bradley as he was in college, before his time with the New York Knicks and his election to the U.S. Senate—a story that suggests the abundant beginnings of his professional careers in sport and politics.@Austen A Sense of Where You Are.
A Mind at Play
Jimmy Soni
Chronicles the life and times of the lesser-known Information Age intellect, revealing how his discoveries and innovations set the stage for the digital era, influencing the work of such collaborators and rivals as Alan Turing, John von Neumann and Vannevar Bush.@Grady_Booch This looks promising https://t.co/O6sPmsmDmy
Alan Partridge: Nomad
Alan Partridge
@round I finished "Alan Partridge - Nomad" last night!
Mob Girl
Teresa Carpenter
From the Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter and author of Missing Beauty comes a fascinating inside look at the mafia. Growing up among racketeers on the Lower East Side of New York City, Arlyne Brickman associated with mobsters. Drawn to the glamorous and flashy lifestyle, she was soon dating "wiseguys" and running errands for them; but after years as a mob girlfriend, Arlyne began to get in on the action herself—eventually becoming a police informant and major witness in the government's case against the Colombo crime family.Conspiracy
Ryan Holiday
An NPR Book Concierge Best Book of 2018! A Sunday Times of London Pick of the Paperbacks A stunning story about how power works in the modern age--the book the New York Times called "one helluva page-turner" and The Sunday Times of London celebrated as "riveting...an astonishing modern media conspiracy that is a fantastic read." Pick up the book everyone is talking about. In 2007, a short blogpost on Valleywag, the Silicon Valley-vertical of Gawker Media, outed PayPal founder and billionaire investor Peter Thiel as gay. Thiel's sexuality had been known to close friends and family, but he didn't consider himself a public figure, and believed the information was private. This post would be the casus belli for a meticulously plotted conspiracy that would end nearly a decade later with a $140 million dollar judgment against Gawker, its bankruptcy and with Nick Denton, Gawker's CEO and founder, out of a job. Only later would the world learn that Gawker's demise was not incidental--it had been masterminded by Thiel. For years, Thiel had searched endlessly for a solution to what he'd come to call the "Gawker Problem." When an unmarked envelope delivered an illegally recorded sex tape of Hogan with his best friend's wife, Gawker had seen the chance for millions of pageviews and to say the things that others were afraid to say. Thiel saw their publication of the tape as the opportunity he was looking for. He would come to pit Hogan against Gawker in a multi-year proxy war through the Florida legal system, while Gawker remained confidently convinced they would prevail as they had over so many other lawsuit--until it was too late. The verdict would stun the world and so would Peter's ultimate unmasking as the man who had set it all in motion. Why had he done this? How had no one discovered it? What would this mean--for the First Amendment? For privacy? For culture? In Holiday's masterful telling of this nearly unbelievable conspiracy, informed by interviews with all the key players, this case transcends the narrative of how one billionaire took down a media empire or the current state of the free press. It's a study in power, strategy, and one of the most wildly ambitious--and successful--secret plots in recent memory. Some will cheer Gawker's destruction and others will lament it, but after reading these pages--and seeing the access the author was given--no one will deny that there is something ruthless and brilliant about Peter Thiel's shocking attempt to shake up the world.@jon_choi_ https://t.co/Yp4nFLUnsY
The right stuff
Tom Wolfe
A narrative of the early days of the U.S. space program and the people who made it happen, including Chuck Yeager, Pete Conrad, Gus Grissom, and John Glenn.@argyris 'The Right Stuff', which is very timely given the Apollo anniversary.
The Passage of Power
Robert A. Caro
Examines Lyndon Johnson's volatile relationships with John and Robert Kennedy, describes JFK's assassination from Johnson's viewpoint, and recounts his accomplishments as president before they were overshadowed by the Vietnam War.@lpolovets @kevinakwok Just finished book three and ordered The Passage of Power! Also taking a look at some of the other books that have won Biography Pulitzers and seeing if there's anyone that rivals Caro.. https://t.co/WHfLLrd9Kp
Shoe Dog
Phil Knight
In this candid and riveting memoir, for the first time ever, Nike founder and CEO Phil Knight shares the inside story of the company’s early days as an intrepid start-up and its evolution into one of the world’s most iconic, game-changing, and profitable brands. In 1962, fresh out of business school, Phil Knight borrowed $50 from his father and created a company with a simple mission: import high-quality, low-cost athletic shoes from Japan. Selling the shoes from the trunk of his lime green Plymouth Valiant, Knight grossed $8,000 his first year. Today, Nike’s annual sales top $30 billion. In an age of startups, Nike is the ne plus ultra of all startups, and the swoosh has become a revolutionary, globe-spanning icon, one of the most ubiquitous and recognizable symbols in the world today. But Knight, the man behind the swoosh, has always remained a mystery. Now, for the first time, in a memoir that is candid, humble, gutsy, and wry, he tells his story, beginning with his crossroads moment. At 24, after backpacking around the world, he decided to take the unconventional path, to start his own business—a business that would be dynamic, different. Knight details the many risks and daunting setbacks that stood between him and his dream—along with his early triumphs. Above all, he recalls the formative relationships with his first partners and employees, a ragtag group of misfits and seekers who became a tight-knit band of brothers. Together, harnessing the transcendent power of a shared mission, and a deep belief in the spirit of sport, they built a brand that changed everything.@Visage_1 @nachkari So far... The Firm (McKinsey), Shoe Dog (Nike), The Fish Who Ate the Whale (United Fruit), Bitter Brew (Anheuser Busch)
The Fish That Ate the Whale
Rich Cohen
The author of Sweet and Low presents a historical profile of Samuel Zemurray that traces his rise from a penniless youth to one of the world's wealthiest and most powerful men, offering insight into his capitalist talents and the ways in which his life reflected the best and worst of American business dealings.@gerstenzang @kylebrussell Sam, I was inspired by your business history thread a while ago and read several books from the list including The Fish That Ate the Whale and The Firm.
Medieval Technology and Social Change
Lynn Townsend White
Bibliography.@mikebala @mckaywrigley Bartlett's Making of Europe, White's Medieval Technology and Social Change, Fletcher's Quest for El Cid to start with.
The Sixth Man
Andre Iguodala
"A standout sports memoir from NBA powerhouse, a swingman and NBA All-Star of the Golden State Warriors"--Find your organization’s “Sixth Man (or Woman)” and you’ll be in great shape for growth! Great read, highly recommend @andre’s book! @zoom_us https://t.co/pWZVhUQozA
The Power Broker
Robert A. Caro
Moses is pictured as idealist reformer and political manipulator as his rise to power and eventual domination of New York State politics is documented@kevinakwok @calcsam read “The Power Broker” and “Working” - thanks to you! LBJ books are on deck
Working
Robert A. Caro
"Short autobiography about author's processes of researching, interviewing, and writing his books"--@kevinakwok @calcsam read “The Power Broker” and “Working” - thanks to you! LBJ books are on deck
This Is Not a T-Shirt
Bobby Hundreds
The story of The Hundreds and the precepts that made it an iconic streetwear brand by Bobby Hundreds himself Streetwear occupies that rarefied space where genuine "cool" coexists with big business; where a star designer might work concurrently with Nike, a tattoo artist, Louis Vuitton, and a skateboard company. It’s the ubiquitous style of dress comprising hoodies, sneakers, and T-shirts. In the beginning, a few brands defined this style; fewer still survived as streetwear went mainstream. They are the OGs, the “heritage brands.” The Hundreds is one of those persevering companies, and Bobby Hundreds is at the center of it all. The creative force behind the brand, Bobby Kim, a.k.a. Bobby Hundreds, has emerged as a prominent face and voice in streetwear. In telling the story of his formative years, he reminds us that The Hundreds was started by outsiders; and this is truly the story of streetwear culture. In This Is Not a T-Shirt, Bobby Hundreds cements his spot as a champion of an industry he helped create and tells the story of The Hundreds—with anecdotes ranging from his Southern California, punk-DIY-tinged youth to the brand’s explosive success. Both an inspiring memoir and an expert assessment of the history and future of streetwear, this is the tale of Bobby’s commitment to his creative vision and to building a real community.Pre-ordered @bobbyhundreds new book on brand, culture and community Startups can learn from recent trends in streetwear: Outsiders are disrupting heritage fashion brands Community is informing product development https://t.co/P71trI5XNM
The Choice
Edith Eva Eger
A powerful, moving memoir, and a practical guide to healing, written by Dr. Edie Eger, an eminent psychologist whose own experiences as a Holocaust survivor help her treat patients suffering from traumatic stress disorders.Dr. Edith Eger is 91 & still kicking 💃🏾 I recommend her book “The Choice: Embrace The Possible” to every human. It’s about surviving the Holocaust & how YOU can release yourself from the trauma of whatever is going on in your life. Our @SuperSoulSunday airs tomorrow at 11a. https://t.co/sk3JOIYVMR
In the City of Bikes
Pete Jordan
When Pete Jordan arrives in Amsterdam to study how to make America's cities more bicycle-friendly, he immediately falls in love with the city that already lives life on two wheels. His new bride, Amy Joy, joins Pete, and despite their financial hardships and instability, she eventually finds her own new calling as a bicycle mechanic as Pete discovers the untold history of cycling in Amsterdam. From its beginnings as an elitis t pastime in the 1890s to the street-consuming craze of the 1920s, from the bicycle's role in a citywide resistance to the Nazi occupation to the White Bikes of the 1960s and the bike fishermen of today, Jordan chronicles the evolution of Amsterdam's cycling. Part personal memoir, part history of cycling, part fascinating street-level tour of Amsterdam, In the City of Bikes is the story of a man who loves bikes—in a city that loves bikes.Jokes aside, the history of cycling in Amsterdam is very interesting. A lot of recent, deliberate effort to prioritize bikes. https://t.co/Gcincho8zc More: https://t.co/z07WJpNaba
The Professor and the Madman
Simon Winchester
The Professor and the Madman, masterfully researched and eloquently written, is an extraordinary tale of madness, genius, and the incredible obsessions of two remarkable men that led to the making of the Oxford English Dictionary -- and literary history. The compilation of the OED began in 1857, it was one of the most ambitious projects ever undertaken. As definitions were collected, the overseeing committee, led by Professor James Murray, discovered that one man, Dr. W. C. Minor, had submitted more than ten thousand. When the committee insisted on honoring him, a shocking truth came to light: Dr. Minor, an American Civil War veteran, was also an inmate at an asylum for the criminally insane. This P.S. edition features an extra 16 pages of insights into the book, including author interviews, recommended reading, and more.@JoshDance @morganhousel Yea, I learned from this book!! https://t.co/f0fjG7PWmy People keep finding it interesting, maybe I should do a little book report on it
Educated
Tara Westover
‘An amazing story, and truly inspiring. The kind of book everyone will enjoy. IT’S EVEN BETTER THAN YOU’VE HEARD.’ – Bill Gates Selected as a book of the year by AMAZON, THE TIMES, SUNDAY TIMES, GUARDIAN, NEW YORK TIMES, ECONOMIST, NEW STATESMAN, VOGUE, IRISH TIMES, IRISH EXAMINER and RED MAGAZINE THE MULTI-MILLION COPY BESTSELLER A Book of the Decade, 2010-2020 (Independent) ________________________ Tara Westover and her family grew up preparing for the End of Days but, according to the government, she didn’t exist. She hadn’t been registered for a birth certificate. She had no school records because she’d never set foot in a classroom, and no medical records because her father didn’t believe in hospitals. As she grew older, her father became more radical and her brother more violent. At sixteen, Tara knew she had to leave home. In doing so she discovered both the transformative power of education, and the price she had to pay for it. ________________________ · From one of TIME magazine's 100 most influential people of 2019 · Shortlisted for the 2018 BAMB Readers' Awards · Recommended as a summer read by Barack Obama, Antony Beevor, India Knight, Blake Morrison and Nina Stibbe@Kantrowitz Short story sci-fi that will 🤯: Exhilation by Ted Chiang Memoir that till suck you in 😳: Educated by Tara Westover Non-fiction that will change your life 🧘♂️: Why Buddhism is True by Robert Wright
The Meanest Man in Congress
Timothy McNulty
A native of Beaumont, Texas, and a World War II veteran, Jack Brooks served for forty-two years in the U.S. Congress, representing Texas_s 9th district. One of the most influential congressmen nobody ever heard of, Brooks is finally getting his due in this new biography, the first ever written about his life. The Meanest Man in Congress: Jack Brooks and the Making of an American Century chronicles in fascinating detail not only the career of a remarkable lawmaker, which spanned the tenures of ten U.S. presidents, but also the epic sweep of American history in the latter half of the 20th century, from the Kennedy assassination to the Iran-Contra affair.Packed with anecdotes about the irascible Brooks based on his personal correspondence, interviews with his peers and family members, and more, this meticulous biography traces the incredible life and times of a true public servant, a man who applied his tenacious will to practical, across-the-aisle governance for the good of his constituents and his country. At a time when Brooks_s brand of selfless service is in short supply and American politics has become a zero-sum game, distinguished authors Timothy McNulty and Brendan McNulty bring into high relief the character of a man who knew how to compromise and bargain, negotiate and cooperate to get things done.I bet "The Meanest Man In Congress", Jack Brooks of Texas, would have much to say & do about both Trump and today's Democrats! A coincidence put me in touch with his son, and I'm looking forward to this new biography. https://t.co/gBq1cUXyhT
Working
Robert A Caro
Robert A. Caro, 'one of the great reporters of our time and probably the greatest biographer’ (Sunday Times), is one of the most acclaimed writers of his generation, whose biographies are widely considered to be masterpieces. In Working he offers a captivating account of his life as a writer, describing the sometimes staggering lengths to which he has gone in order to produce his books and offering priceless insights into the art and craft of non-fiction writing. Anyone interested in investigative journalism and the pursuit of truth, in the writer’s process and the creation of literature, in the art of interviewing or simply the psychology of excellence will find a masterclass in all these subjects within these pages. Readers already familiar with Caro’s work, meanwhile, will be thrilled at the revelations on offer, including how he discovered the fiercely guarded secrets of his subjects, how he constructed the pivotal scenes in his books and the fullest description yet of his forthcoming final volume of The Years of Lyndon Johnson. Including several of Caro’s most famous speeches and interviews alongside the new material, Working is the self-portrait of a man who knows the meaning and importance of great story-telling. It is, like all his books, an utterly riveting example of that too.Robert Caro's book Working succeeds on so many levels: brilliant lessons on the art of researching and writing, a teaser for his great biographies, an endearing autobiography. A quick and delightful read. I can't recommend it highly enough. https://t.co/UJ9X04xx9W
1944
Jay Winik
It was not inevitable that World War II would end as it did, or that it would even end well. 1944 was a year that could have stymied the Allies and cemented Hitler's waning power. Instead, it saved those democracies-but with a fateful cost. 1944 witnessed a series of titanic events: FDR at the pinnacle of his wartime leadership as well as his re-election, the planning of Operation Overlord with Churchill and Stalin, the unprecedented D-Day invasion, the liberation of Paris and the horrific Battle of the Bulge, and the tumultuous conferences that finally shaped the coming peace. But on the way, millions of more lives were still at stake as President Roosevelt was exposed to mounting evidence of the most grotesque crime in history, the Final Solution. Just as the Allies were landing in Normandy, the Nazis were accelerating the killing of millions of European Jews. Winik shows how escalating pressures fell on an all but dying Roosevelt, whose rapidly deteriorating health was a closely guarded secret. Here then, as with D-Day, was a momentous decision for the president. Was winning the war the best way to rescue the Jews? Was a rescue even possible? Or would it get in the way of defeating Hitler? In a year when even the most audacious undertakings were within the world's reach, including the liberation of Europe, one challenge-saving Europe's Jews-seemed to remain beyond Roosevelt's grasp. Winik provides a stunningly fresh look at the twentieth century's most pivotal year. 1944: FDR and the Year that Changed Historyis the first book to tell these events with such moral clarity and unprecedented sweep, and a moving appreciation of the extraordinary struggles of the era's outsized figures.@dwr https://t.co/9q9bCfmI4i
The Moment of Lift
Melinda Gates
A timely call to action for women's empowerment by the influential co-chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation identifies the link between women's equality and societal health, sharing uplifting insights by international advocates in the fight against gender bias. --PublisherI would say this even if I weren’t married to the author: @melindagates’s new book “The Moment of Lift” is a terrific read. You can see for yourself by downloading a free excerpt: https://t.co/BdQoC5LiIv https://t.co/Wa2GwCio4H
Working
Robert A. Caro
"Short autobiography about author's processes of researching, interviewing, and writing his books"--@brian_armstrong It’s the inside cover of this book https://t.co/pDvEbp3BDO
The Moment of Lift
Melinda Gates
A timely call to action for women's empowerment by the influential co-chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation identifies the link between women's equality and societal health, sharing uplifting insights by international advocates in the fight against gender bias. --Publisher“The Moment of Lift” is a wise, honest, and beautifully written book about how empowering women lifts up everyone.
Shoe Dog
Phil Knight
In this instant and tenacious New York Times bestseller, Nike founder and board chairman Phil Knight “offers a rare and revealing look at the notoriously media-shy man behind the swoosh” (Booklist, starred review), illuminating his company’s early days as an intrepid start-up and its evolution into one of the world’s most iconic, game-changing, and profitable brands. Bill Gates named Shoe Dog one of his five favorite books of 2016 and called it “an amazing tale, a refreshingly honest reminder of what the path to business success really looks like. It’s a messy, perilous, and chaotic journey, riddled with mistakes, endless struggles, and sacrifice. Phil Knight opens up in ways few CEOs are willing to do.” Fresh out of business school, Phil Knight borrowed fifty dollars from his father and launched a company with one simple mission: import high-quality, low-cost running shoes from Japan. Selling the shoes from the trunk of his car in 1963, Knight grossed eight thousand dollars that first year. Today, Nike’s annual sales top $30 billion. In this age of start-ups, Knight’s Nike is the gold standard, and its swoosh is one of the few icons instantly recognized in every corner of the world. But Knight, the man behind the swoosh, has always been a mystery. In Shoe Dog, he tells his story at last. At twenty-four, Knight decides that rather than work for a big corporation, he will create something all his own, new, dynamic, different. He details the many risks he encountered, the crushing setbacks, the ruthless competitors and hostile bankers—as well as his many thrilling triumphs. Above all, he recalls the relationships that formed the heart and soul of Nike, with his former track coach, the irascible and charismatic Bill Bowerman, and with his first employees, a ragtag group of misfits and savants who quickly became a band of swoosh-crazed brothers. Together, harnessing the electrifying power of a bold vision and a shared belief in the transformative power of sports, they created a brand—and a culture—that changed everything.What is best business story you’ve ever read (think Shoe Dog)? https://t.co/h1YfTq5iSs
A Sense of the World
Jason Roberts
He was known simply as the Blind Traveler -- a solitary, sightless adventurer who, astonishingly, fought the slave trade in Africa, survived a frozen captivity in Siberia, hunted rogue elephants in Ceylon, and helped chart the Australian outback. James Holman (1786-1857) became "one of the greatest wonders of the world he so sagaciously explored," triumphing not only over blindness but crippling pain, poverty, and the interference of well-meaning authorities (his greatest feat, a circumnavigation of the globe, had to be launched in secret). Once a celebrity, a bestselling author, and an inspiration to Charles Darwin and Sir Richard Francis Burton, the charismatic, witty Holman outlived his fame, dying in an obscurity that has endured -- until now. A Sense of the World is a spellbinding and moving rediscovery of one of history's most epic lives. Drawing on meticulous research, Jason Roberts ushers us into the Blind Traveler's uniquely vivid sensory realm, then sweeps us away on an extraordinary journey across the known world during the Age of Exploration. Rich with suspense, humor, international intrigue, and unforgettable characters, this is a story to awaken our own senses of awe and wonder.@morganhousel This one is great. Another good one about an extraordinary blind person is: A Sense of the World: How a Blind Man Became History's Greatest Traveler https://t.co/aHeH0JPElQ
Here Is Real Magic
Nate Staniforth
An extraordinary memoir about finding wonder in everyday life, from magician Nate Staniforth. Nate Staniforth has spent most of his life and all of his professional career trying to understand wonder--what it is, where to find it, and how to share it with others. He became a magician because he learned at a young age that magic tricks don't have to be frivolous. Magic doesn't have to be about sequins and smoke machines--rather, it can create a moment of genuine astonishment. But after years on the road as a professional magician, crisscrossing the country and performing four or five nights a week, every week, Nate was disillusioned, burned out, and ready to quit. Instead, he went to India in search of magic. Here Is Real Magic follows Nate Staniforth's evolution from an obsessed young magician to a broken wanderer and back again. It tells the story of his rediscovery of astonishment--and the importance of wonder in everyday life--during his trip to the slums of India, where he infiltrated a three-thousand-year-old clan of street magicians. Here Is Real Magic is a call to all of us--to welcome awe back into our lives, to marvel in the everyday, and to seek magic all around us.Two good books: Crashing Through (man blinded at age 3, regains vision at age 46 after experimental surgery) https://t.co/cAkTkThuya Here is Real Magic (life of a traveling magician) https://t.co/0jWIzlQDsN
Crashing Through
Robert Kurson
Blinded at age three, Mike May overcame his disability to become a competitive downhill skiier and a member of the CIA, and in 1999 undertook an experimental surgery in an attempt to restore his sight.Two good books: Crashing Through (man blinded at age 3, regains vision at age 46 after experimental surgery) https://t.co/cAkTkThuya Here is Real Magic (life of a traveling magician) https://t.co/0jWIzlQDsN
Boyd
Robert Coram
John Boyd may be the most remarkable unsung hero in all of American military history. Some remember him as the greatest U.S. fighter pilot ever -- the man who, in simulated air-to-air combat, defeated every challenger in less than forty seconds. Some recall him as the father of our country's most legendary fighter aircraft -- the F-15 and F-16. Still others think of Boyd as the most influential military theorist since Sun Tzu. They know only half the story. Boyd, more than any other person, saved fighter aviation from the predations of the Strategic Air Command. His manual of fighter tactics changed the way every air force in the world flies and fights. He discovered a physical theory that forever altered the way fighter planes were designed. Later in life, he developed a theory of military strategy that has been adopted throughout the world and even applied to business models for maximizing efficiency. And in one of the most startling and unknown stories of modern military history, the Air Force fighter pilot taught the U.S. Marine Corps how to fight war on the ground. His ideas led to America's swift and decisive victory in the Gulf War and foretold the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. On a personal level, Boyd rarely met a general he couldn't offend. He was loud, abrasive, and profane. A man of daring, ferocious passion and intractable stubbornness, he was that most American of heroes -- a rebel who cared not for his reputation or fortune but for his country. He was a true patriot, a man who made a career of challenging the shortsighted and self-serving Pentagon bureaucracy. America owes Boyd and his disciples -- the six men known as the "Acolytes" -- a great debt. Robert Coram finally brings to light the remarkable story of a man who polarized all who knew him, but who left a legacy that will influence the military -- and all of America -- for decades to come . . .(4) "Boyd: The Fighter Pilot Who Changed the Art of War". Boyd invented the OODA loop and the heart of not just modern battle strategy but also organizational strategy. Also rare for a *strategist* to have such huge impact.
Just Kids
Patti Smith
It was the summer Coltrane died, the summer of love and riots, and the summer when a chance encounter in Brooklyn led two young people on a path of art, devotion, and initiation. Patti Smith would evolve as a poet and performer, and Robert Mapplethorpe would direct his highly provocative style toward photography. Bound in innocence and enthusiasm, they traversed the city from Coney Island to Forty-second Street, and eventually to the celebrated round table of Max's Kansas City, where the Andy Warhol contingent held court. In 1969, the pair set up camp at the Hotel Chelsea and soon entered a community of the famous and infamous—the influential artists of the day and the colorful fringe. It was a time of heightened awareness, when the worlds of poetry, rock and roll, art, and sexual politics were colliding and exploding. In this milieu, two kids made a pact to take care of each other. Scrappy, romantic, committed to create, and fueled by their mutual dreams and drives, they would prod and provide for one another during the hungry years. Just Kids begins as a love story and ends as an elegy. It serves as a salute to New York City during the late sixties and seventies and to its rich and poor, its hustlers and hellions. A true fable, it is a portrait of two young artists' ascent, a prelude to fame.Reading Patti Smith's Just Kids... her prose, in particular, makes me wish all memoirs came with an accompanying playlist/soundtrack. https://t.co/s7UzFi73zA
The River of Doubt
Candice Millard
At once an incredible adventure narrative and a penetrating biographical portrait, The River of Doubt is the true story of Theodore Roosevelt’s harrowing exploration of one of the most dangerous rivers on earth. The River of Doubt—it is a black, uncharted tributary of the Amazon that snakes through one of the most treacherous jungles in the world. Indians armed with poison-tipped arrows haunt its shadows; piranhas glide through its waters; boulder-strewn rapids turn the river into a roiling cauldron. After his humiliating election defeat in 1912, Roosevelt set his sights on the most punishing physical challenge he could find, the first descent of an unmapped, rapids-choked tributary of the Amazon. Together with his son Kermit and Brazil’s most famous explorer, Cândido Mariano da Silva Rondon, Roosevelt accomplished a feat so great that many at the time refused to believe it. In the process, he changed the map of the western hemisphere forever. Along the way, Roosevelt and his men faced an unbelievable series of hardships, losing their canoes and supplies to punishing whitewater rapids, and enduring starvation, Indian attack, disease, drowning, and a murder within their own ranks. Three men died, and Roosevelt was brought to the brink of suicide. The River of Doubt brings alive these extraordinary events in a powerful nonfiction narrative thriller that happens to feature one of the most famous Americans who ever lived. From the soaring beauty of the Amazon rain forest to the darkest night of Theodore Roosevelt’s life, here is Candice Millard’s dazzling debut.@dougboneparth @iancassel Have you read “river of doubt?” Teddy was amazing
Fearless
Eric Blehm
Chronicles the life of Navy SEAL Team Six operator Adam Brown, a man whose heroism and devotion still stand as a beacon to his friends and family, even after his death in the Afghan Hindu Kush mountains in 2010.@LingleScott Loved the book
Jesse Livermore - Boy Plunger
Tom Rubython
Jesse Livermore, was the most successful stock trader that ever operated. Singlehandedly he caused the two great Wall Street crashes of 1907 and 1929, making millions from both. Briefly in the early 1930s he was one of the world s richest men with a personal fortune believed to be worth over $150 million. It was too extreme a change of fortunes and Livermore shot himself in a New York hotel lobby in 1940 aged just 63."@ReformedBroker This one: https://t.co/PNG6lWYWBG
Into Thin Air
Jon Krakauer
The author describes his spring 1996 trek to Mt. Everest, a disastrous expedition that claimed the lives of eight climbers, and explains why he survived@polina_marinova Into Thin Air by Krakauer Red Notice by Browder Complications by Gawande All amazing. All must-reads.
Red Notice
Bill Browder
Expelled from Russia after exposing corruption in Russian companies, an investment broker describes how his attorney was detained, tortured and beaten to death for testifying against Russian law enforcement officers who stole millions in taxes paid to the government. Illustrations. Tour.@polina_marinova Into Thin Air by Krakauer Red Notice by Browder Complications by Gawande All amazing. All must-reads.
Complications
Atul Gawande
Drawing from compelling true accounts of patients and doctors, a provocative examination of the power and limits of modern medicine reveals a world where science is uncertain, information is limited, and deadly mistakes occur. 60,000 first printing.@polina_marinova Into Thin Air by Krakauer Red Notice by Browder Complications by Gawande All amazing. All must-reads.
Crashing Through
Robert Kurson
Blinded at age three, Mike May overcame his disability to become a competitive downhill skiier and a member of the CIA, and in 1999 undertook an experimental surgery in an attempt to restore his sight.@patrick_oshag Crashing Through: The Extraordinary True Story of the Man Who Dared to See https://t.co/BLCWU37GiK
Titan
Ron Chernow
The author draws on Rockefeller's own papers to provide a biography of the legendary oilman, capitalist, and philanthropist@faizaaaaan @arjunblj https://t.co/CHAOxLtAnx
Thick
Tressie McMillan Cottom
In eight highly praised treatises on beauty, media, money, and more, Tressie McMillan Cottom transforms narrative moments into analyses of whiteness, black misogyny, and statussignaling as means of survival for black womenLast book I read was Thick by @tressiemcphd but it was too good to not finish in one sitting. So need a new book!
Small Fry
Lisa Brennan-Jobs
A frank, smart and captivating memoir by the daughter of Apple founder Steve Jobs. Born on a farm and named in a field by her parents—artist Chrisann Brennan and Steve Jobs—Lisa Brennan-Jobs’s childhood unfolded in a rapidly changing Silicon Valley. When she was young, Lisa’s father was a mythical figure who was rarely present in her life. As she grew older, her father took an interest in her, ushering her into a new world of mansions, vacations, and private schools. His attention was thrilling, but he could also be cold, critical and unpredictable. When her relationship with her mother grew strained in high school, Lisa decided to move in with her father, hoping he’d become the parent she’d always wanted him to be. Small Fry is Lisa Brennan-Jobs’s poignant story of a childhood spent between two imperfect but extraordinary homes. Scrappy, wise, and funny, young Lisa is an unforgettable guide through her parents' fascinating and disparate worlds. Part portrait of a complex family, part love letter to California in the seventies and eighties, Small Fry is an enthralling book by an insightful new literary voice.Pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed "Small Fry" by Lisa Brennan-Jobs. Started out assuming proximity to celebrity was thin substance for a book
How to Be Alone
Lane Moore
The former Sex & Relationships Editor for Cosmopolitan and host of the wildly popular comedy show Tinder Live with Lane Moore presents her poignant, funny, and deeply moving first book. Lane Moore is a rare performer who is as impressive onstage—whether hosting her iconic show Tinder Live or being the enigmatic front woman of It Was Romance—as she is on the page, as both a former writer for The Onion and an award-winning sex and relationships editor for Cosmopolitan. But her story has had its obstacles, including being her own parent, living in her car as a teenager, and moving to New York City to pursue her dreams. Through it all, she looked to movies, TV, and music as the family and support systems she never had. From spending the holidays alone to having better “stranger luck” than with those closest to her to feeling like the last hopeless romantic on earth, Lane reveals her powerful and entertaining journey in all its candor, anxiety, and ultimate acceptance—with humor always her bolstering force and greatest gift. How to Be Alone is a must-read for anyone whose childhood still feels unresolved, who spends more time pretending to have friends online than feeling close to anyone in real life, who tries to have genuine, deep conversations in a roomful of people who would rather you not. Above all, it’s a book for anyone who desperately wants to feel less alone and a little more connected through reading her words.@triketora How to be Alone by @hellolanemoore https://t.co/a12RjwlWRL
The White Darkness
David Grann
By the New York Times bestselling author of Killers of the Flower Moon, a powerful true story of adventure and obsession in the Antarctic, lavishly illustrated with color photographs Henry Worsley was a devoted husband and father and a decorated British special forces officer who believed in honor and sacrifice. He was also a man obsessed. He spent his life idolizing Ernest Shackleton, the nineteenth-century polar explorer, who tried to become the first person to reach the South Pole, and later sought to cross Antarctica on foot. Shackleton never completed his journeys, but he repeatedly rescued his men from certain death, and emerged as one of the greatest leaders in history. Worsley felt an overpowering connection to those expeditions. He was related to one of Shackleton's men, Frank Worsley, and spent a fortune collecting artifacts from their epic treks across the continent. He modeled his military command on Shackleton's legendary skills and was determined to measure his own powers of endurance against them. He would succeed where Shackleton had failed, in the most brutal landscape in the world. In 2008, Worsley set out across Antarctica with two other descendants of Shackleton's crew, battling the freezing, desolate landscape, life-threatening physical exhaustion, and hidden crevasses. Yet when he returned home he felt compelled to go back. On November 2015, at age 55, Worsley bid farewell to his family and embarked on his most perilous quest: to walk across Antarctica alone. David Grann tells Worsley's remarkable story with the intensity and power that have led him to be called "simply the best narrative nonfiction writer working today." Illustrated with more than fifty stunning photographs from Worsley's and Shackleton's journeys, The White Darkness is both a gorgeous keepsake volume and a spellbinding story of courage, love, and a man pushing himself to the extremes of human capacity.@colinobrady If you want to get a sense of what Colin O’Brady did I very much recommend reading ‘White Darkness’ – the portrait of polar explorer Henry Worsley by the great @DavidGrann. https://t.co/Luf35qtbKZ
Masters of Doom
David Kushner
Presents a dual biography of John Carmack and John Romero, the creators of the video games Doom and Quake, assessing the impact of their creation on American pop culture and revealing how their success eventually destroyed their relationship.@dwr “Masters of Doom” is a really fun read https://t.co/kVJ8lAJMmu. Still reading “The Power Broker”, but it’s also in top 3 for this year
Reading Lolita in Tehran
Azar Nafisi
Describes growing up in the Islamic Republic of Iran and the group of young women who came together at her home in secret every Thursday to read and discuss great books of Western literature, explaining the influence of Lolita, The Great Gatsby, Pride and Prejudice, and other works on their lives and goals. Reader's Guide included. Reissue. 75,000 first printing.34. The God of Small Things - Arundhuti Roy (@SHeavenrich bears witness to me crying at the ending in a kid’s playground) 35. Human Acts 👐🏾- Han Kang 36. Reading Lolita in Tehran - Azar Nafisi 37. History of the Paradox ⁉️Philosophy and Labyrinths of the Mind - Roy Sorensen
Personal History
Katharine Graham
As seen in the new movie The Post, directed by Steven Spielberg and starring Meryl Streep, here is the captivating, inside story of the woman who piloted the Washington Post during one of the most turbulent periods in the history of American media. In this bestselling and widely acclaimed memoir, Katharine Graham, the woman who piloted the Washington Post through the scandals of the Pentagon Papers and Watergate, tells her story - one that is extraordinary both for the events it encompasses and for the courage, candour and dignity of its telling. Here is the awkward child who grew up amid material wealth and emotional isolation; the young bride who watched her brilliant, charismatic husband - a confidant to John F. Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson - plunge into the mental illness that would culminate in his suicide. And here is the widow who shook off her grief and insecurity to take on a president and a pressman's union as she entered the profane boys' club of the newspaper business. As timely now as ever, Personal History is an exemplary record of our history and of the woman who played such a shaping role within them, discovering her own strength and sense of self as she confronted - and mastered - the personal and professional crises of her fascinating life."Personal History: Katharine Graham" Bought this after watching "The Post". You can sense how much larger-than-life she was and her personality/grit jumps off the pages. https://t.co/FODSVAUVzw
Churchill
Andrew Roberts
THE INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER A SUNDAY TIMES, THE TIMES, ECONOMIST, DAILY TELEGRAPH, EVENING STANDARD, OBSERVER BOOK OF THE YEAR 'Undoubtedly the best single-volume life of Churchill ever written' Dominic Sandbrook, Sunday Times A magnificently fresh and unexpected biography of Churchill, by one of Britain's most acclaimed historians Winston Churchill towers over every other figure in twentieth-century British history. By the time of his death at the age of 90 in 1965, many thought him to be the greatest man in the world. There have been over a thousand previous biographies of Churchill. Andrew Roberts now draws on over forty new sources, including the private diaries of King George VI, used in no previous Churchill biography to depict him more intimately and persuasively than any of its predecessors. The book in no way conceals Churchill's faults and it allows the reader to appreciate his virtues and character in full: his titanic capacity for work (and drink), his ability see the big picture, his willingness to take risks and insistence on being where the action was, his good humour even in the most desperate circumstances, the breadth and strength of his friendships and his extraordinary propensity to burst into tears at unexpected moments. Above all, it shows us the wellsprings of his personality - his lifelong desire to please his father (even long after his father's death) but aristocratic disdain for the opinions of almost everyone else, his love of the British Empire, his sense of history and its connection to the present. During the Second World War, Churchill summoned a particular scientist to see him several times for technical advice. 'It was the same whenever we met', wrote the young man, 'I had a feeling of being recharged by a source of living power.' Harry Hopkins, President Roosevelt's emissary, wrote 'Wherever he was, there was a battlefront.' Field Marshal Sir Alan Brooke, Churchill's essential partner in strategy and most severe critic in private, wrote in his diary, 'I thank God I was given such an opportunity of working alongside such a man, and of having my eyes opened to the fact that occasionally supermen exist on this earth.'"Churchill: Walking with Destiny" - I'm a Churchill buff and while nothing can compete with the Manchester series, this is a great read. https://t.co/DGWxxyfRR5
Born Standing Up
Steve Martin
Steve Martin has been an international star for over thirty years. Here, for the first time, he looks back to the beginning of his career and charmingly evokes the young man he once was. Born in Texas but raised in California, Steve was seduced early by the comedy shows that played on the radio when the family travelled back and forth to visit relatives. When Disneyland opened just a couple of miles away from home, an enchanted Steve was given his first chance to learn magic and entertain an audience. He describes how he noted the reaction to each joke in a ledger - 'big laugh' or 'quiet' - and assiduously studied the acts of colleagues, stealing jokes when needed. With superb detail, Steve recreates the world of small, dark clubs and the fear and exhilaration of standing in the spotlight. While a philosophy student at UCLA, he worked hard at local clubs honing his comedy and slowly attracting a following until he was picked up to write for TV. From here on, Steve Martin became an acclaimed comedian, packing out venues nationwide. One night, however, he noticed empty seats and realised he had 'reached the top of the rollercoaster'. BORN STANDING UP is a funny and riveting chronicle of how Steve Martin became the comedy genius we now know and is also a fascinating portrait of an era."Born Standing Up: A Comic's Life - Steve Martin" - Not sure how I never read this before 2018, one of the best autobiographies you'll read. https://t.co/jPCeRXaNI6
Revolution Française
Sophie Pedder
He emerged from nowhere to seize the presidency, defeat populism and upend French party politics. Who is Emmanuel Macron? How far can he really change France? In Revolution Française, Sophie Pedder examines the first year in office of France's youngest and most exciting president in modern times, with unique perspective from her time as head of The Economist's Paris bureau. President Emmanuel Macron's vision for France is far more radical than many realise. His remarkable ascent from obscurity to the presidency is both a dramatic story of personal ambition and the tale of a wounded once-proud country in deep need of renewal. What shaped this enigmatic character, the precociously bright student and talented networker from northern France; the philosophy graduate and Rothschild banker who married his school drama teacher? How did a political outsider manage to defy the unwritten rules of the Fifth Republic and secure the presidency at his first attempt? And what are the underlying ideas behind his vision? This book chronicles Macron's remarkable rise from independent outsider to the Élysée Palace, situating the achievement in a broader context: France's slide into self-doubt, political gridlock and a seeming reluctance to embrace change; the roots of populism and discontent; the fractures caused by globalisation and the Le Pen factor. Looking back on the young president's dramatic first year in power, with analysis of his key reforms and lofty ambitions, it asks how far it is possible for Macron to reinvent a conservative nation uneasy about embracing the future. Can the man nicknamed 'Jupiter' really return France to its former greatness, or will he, by the time his mandate expires, end up as just another side note in political history? Punctuated with first-hand conversations and reporting, this book takes on all of these questions, concluding with a fascinating and exclusive interview with Macron recorded in early 2018. Pedder's riveting, and essential, book will be one of the most captivating political books of this year."Revolution Française: Emmanuel Macron and the quest to reinvent a nation" - Helped me understand the Macron phenomenon. This might need a new section now post yellow-vests. https://t.co/iM0ENzXAPh
Conspiracy
Ryan Holiday
An NPR Book Concierge Best Book of 2018! A Sunday Times of London Pick of the Paperbacks A stunning story about how power works in the modern age--the book the New York Times called "one helluva page-turner" and The Sunday Times of London celebrated as "riveting...an astonishing modern media conspiracy that is a fantastic read." Pick up the book everyone is talking about. In 2007, a short blogpost on Valleywag, the Silicon Valley-vertical of Gawker Media, outed PayPal founder and billionaire investor Peter Thiel as gay. Thiel's sexuality had been known to close friends and family, but he didn't consider himself a public figure, and believed the information was private. This post would be the casus belli for a meticulously plotted conspiracy that would end nearly a decade later with a $140 million dollar judgment against Gawker, its bankruptcy and with Nick Denton, Gawker's CEO and founder, out of a job. Only later would the world learn that Gawker's demise was not incidental--it had been masterminded by Thiel. For years, Thiel had searched endlessly for a solution to what he'd come to call the "Gawker Problem." When an unmarked envelope delivered an illegally recorded sex tape of Hogan with his best friend's wife, Gawker had seen the chance for millions of pageviews and to say the things that others were afraid to say. Thiel saw their publication of the tape as the opportunity he was looking for. He would come to pit Hogan against Gawker in a multi-year proxy war through the Florida legal system, while Gawker remained confidently convinced they would prevail as they had over so many other lawsuit--until it was too late. The verdict would stun the world and so would Peter's ultimate unmasking as the man who had set it all in motion. Why had he done this? How had no one discovered it? What would this mean--for the First Amendment? For privacy? For culture? In Holiday's masterful telling of this nearly unbelievable conspiracy, informed by interviews with all the key players, this case transcends the narrative of how one billionaire took down a media empire or the current state of the free press. It's a study in power, strategy, and one of the most wildly ambitious--and successful--secret plots in recent memory. Some will cheer Gawker's destruction and others will lament it, but after reading these pages--and seeing the access the author was given--no one will deny that there is something ruthless and brilliant about Peter Thiel's shocking attempt to shake up the world.Okay, since @calebhicks asked — the four best books I read in 2018: Thinking in Bets, Annie Duke, The Science of Success, Charles Koch, A Gentleman in Moscow, Amor Towles, Conspiracy: Ryan Holiday, Bonus round: An Absolutely Remarkable Thing, Hank Green.
1944
Jay Winik
It was not inevitable that World War II would end as it did, or that it would even end well. 1944 was a year that could have stymied the Allies and cemented Hitler's waning power. Instead, it saved those democracies-but with a fateful cost. 1944 witnessed a series of titanic events: FDR at the pinnacle of his wartime leadership as well as his re-election, the planning of Operation Overlord with Churchill and Stalin, the unprecedented D-Day invasion, the liberation of Paris and the horrific Battle of the Bulge, and the tumultuous conferences that finally shaped the coming peace. But on the way, millions of more lives were still at stake as President Roosevelt was exposed to mounting evidence of the most grotesque crime in history, the Final Solution. Just as the Allies were landing in Normandy, the Nazis were accelerating the killing of millions of European Jews. Winik shows how escalating pressures fell on an all but dying Roosevelt, whose rapidly deteriorating health was a closely guarded secret. Here then, as with D-Day, was a momentous decision for the president. Was winning the war the best way to rescue the Jews? Was a rescue even possible? Or would it get in the way of defeating Hitler? In a year when even the most audacious undertakings were within the world's reach, including the liberation of Europe, one challenge-saving Europe's Jews-seemed to remain beyond Roosevelt's grasp. Winik provides a stunningly fresh look at the twentieth century's most pivotal year. 1944: FDR and the Year that Changed Historyis the first book to tell these events with such moral clarity and unprecedented sweep, and a moving appreciation of the extraordinary struggles of the era's outsized figures.Best books I read this year: 1944 https://t.co/ApigFBQxxR Rocket Men https://t.co/FtSLdWpzbr Seinfeldia https://t.co/hiM1exhMMI Born Standing Up https://t.co/dMvs2CDocd Fantasyland https://t.co/sn7JhTry8L
Educated
Tara Westover
‘An amazing story, and truly inspiring. The kind of book everyone will enjoy. IT’S EVEN BETTER THAN YOU’VE HEARD.’ – Bill Gates Selected as a book of the year by AMAZON, THE TIMES, SUNDAY TIMES, GUARDIAN, NEW YORK TIMES, ECONOMIST, NEW STATESMAN, VOGUE, IRISH TIMES, IRISH EXAMINER and RED MAGAZINE THE MULTI-MILLION COPY BESTSELLER A Book of the Decade, 2010-2020 (Independent) ________________________ Tara Westover and her family grew up preparing for the End of Days but, according to the government, she didn’t exist. She hadn’t been registered for a birth certificate. She had no school records because she’d never set foot in a classroom, and no medical records because her father didn’t believe in hospitals. As she grew older, her father became more radical and her brother more violent. At sixteen, Tara knew she had to leave home. In doing so she discovered both the transformative power of education, and the price she had to pay for it. ________________________ · From one of TIME magazine's 100 most influential people of 2019 · Shortlisted for the 2018 BAMB Readers' Awards · Recommended as a summer read by Barack Obama, Antony Beevor, India Knight, Blake Morrison and Nina Stibbe@audcrane @business Thank you Audrey! The coolest part is in the pic my book is directly under Educated, which was my personal favorite book of 2018. Basking in the proximity.
In The Garden of Beasts
Erik Larson
Berlin,1933. William E. Dodd, a mild-mannered academic from Chicago, has to his own and everyone else's surprise, become America's first ambassador to Hitler's Germany, in a year that proves to be a turning point in history. Dodd and his family, notably his vivacious daughter, Martha, observe at first-hand the many changes - some subtle, some disturbing, and some horrifically violent - that signal Hitler's consolidation of power. Dodd has little choice but to associate with key figures in the Nazi party, his increasingly concerned cables make little impact on an indifferent U.S. State Department, while Martha is drawn to the Nazis and their vision of a 'New Germany' and has a succession of affairs with senior party players, including first chief of the Gestapo, Rudolf Diels. But as the year darkens, Dodd and his daughter find their lives transformed and any last illusion they might have about Hitler are shattered by the violence of the 'Night of the Long Knives' in the summer of 1934 that established him as supreme dictator. Suffused with the tense atmosphere of the times, and with brilliant portraits of Hitler, Goebbels, Goering and Himmler amongst others, Erik Larson's new book sheds unique light on events as they unfold, resulting in an unforgettable, addictively readable work of narrative history.@geoffreydgraham @EconTalker @JamesRomm Yes. I like that one too. By the way, the busts of Nero in the Uffizi, especially the one of a six-year-old Nero, look remarkably like the orange one. Also very good, In the Garden of Beasts, by Erik Larsen https://t.co/1PLkrv0zaw
Masters of Doom
David Kushner
Presents a dual biography of John Carmack and John Romero, the creators of the video games Doom and Quake, assessing the impact of their creation on American pop culture and revealing how their success eventually destroyed their relationship.@armadsen Masters of Doom
Masters of Doom
David Kushner
“To my taste, the greatest American myth of cosmogenesis features the maladjusted, antisocial, genius teenage boy who, in the insular laboratory of his own bedroom, invents the universe from scratch. Masters of Doom is a particularly inspired rendition. Dave Kushner chronicles the saga of video game virtuosi Carmack and Romero with terrific brio. This is a page-turning, mythopoeic cyber-soap opera about two glamorous geek geniuses—and it should be read while scarfing down pepperoni pizza and swilling Diet Coke, with Queens of the Stone Age cranked up all the way.” —Mark Leyner, author of I Smell Esther Williams Masters of Doom is the amazing true story of the Lennon and McCartney of video games: John Carmack and John Romero. Together, they ruled big business. They transformed popular culture. And they provoked a national controversy. More than anything, they lived a unique and rollicking American Dream, escaping the broken homes of their youth to co-create the most notoriously successful game franchises in history—Doom and Quake—until the games they made tore them apart. Americans spend more money on video games than on movie tickets. Masters of Doom is the first book to chronicle this industry’s greatest story, written by one of the medium’s leading observers. David Kushner takes readers inside the rags-to-riches adventure of two rebellious entrepreneurs who came of age to shape a generation. The vivid portrait reveals why their games are so violent and why their immersion in their brilliantly designed fantasy worlds offered them solace. And it shows how they channeled their fury and imagination into products that are a formative influence on our culture, from MTV to the Internet to Columbine. This is a story of friendship and betrayal, commerce and artistry—a powerful and compassionate account of what it’s like to be young, driven, and wildly creative. From the Hardcover edition.@AustenAllred "Masters of Doom". And "Show Stopper!". Both 💯 https://t.co/QnsK9xNRiq https://t.co/tj0rbgJiFs
Character Studies
Mark Singer
Filled with profiles of fascinating Americans, this selection of biographical essays by the New Yorker writer features produce farmer Tom Chino, illusionist Ricky Jay, director Martin Scorcese, chefs Alice Waters and Wolfgang Puck, and many others. Reprint.This is Mark Singer’s beguiling, must-read @NewYorker profile, “Secrets of the Magus,” that first introduced me and hooked me on Ricky Jay. One of the best profiles I have ever read about a remarkable and most singular man https://t.co/OaWfOnPnd5
Churchill
Andrew Roberts
Draws on extensive new materials, from private letters to transcripts of war cabinet meetings, to present a portrait of the iconic war leader that discusses Churchill's motivations and unwavering faith in the British Empire.@sarthakgh @jbaksht Ok will switch to Churchill. https://t.co/F3PMxthCWB
Boyd
Robert Coram
John Boyd may be the most remarkable unsung hero in all of American military history. Some remember him as the greatest U.S. fighter pilot ever -- the man who, in simulated air-to-air combat, defeated every challenger in less than forty seconds. Some recall him as the father of our country's most legendary fighter aircraft -- the F-15 and F-16. Still others think of Boyd as the most influential military theorist since Sun Tzu. They know only half the story. Boyd, more than any other person, saved fighter aviation from the predations of the Strategic Air Command. His manual of fighter tactics changed the way every air force in the world flies and fights. He discovered a physical theory that forever altered the way fighter planes were designed. Later in life, he developed a theory of military strategy that has been adopted throughout the world and even applied to business models for maximizing efficiency. And in one of the most startling and unknown stories of modern military history, the Air Force fighter pilot taught the U.S. Marine Corps how to fight war on the ground. His ideas led to America's swift and decisive victory in the Gulf War and foretold the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. On a personal level, Boyd rarely met a general he couldn't offend. He was loud, abrasive, and profane. A man of daring, ferocious passion and intractable stubbornness, he was that most American of heroes -- a rebel who cared not for his reputation or fortune but for his country. He was a true patriot, a man who made a career of challenging the shortsighted and self-serving Pentagon bureaucracy. America owes Boyd and his disciples -- the six men known as the "Acolytes" -- a great debt. Robert Coram finally brings to light the remarkable story of a man who polarized all who knew him, but who left a legacy that will influence the military -- and all of America -- for decades to come . . .@michael_nielsen “Boyd” by Robert Coram is a great read.
John F. Kennedy
Michael O'Brien
A portrait of the thirty-fifth president draws on newly released government archive material and the JFK library to offer insights into both his strengths and character flaws.@patrick_oshag This JFK bio is probably the longest book I've read and pretty sure I was just as engaged on the last page as the first. Very well written: https://t.co/BexdpVvgRl
Seinfeldia
Jennifer Keishin Armstrong
The hilarious behind-the-scenes story of two guys who went out for coffee and dreamed up Seinfeld—the cultural sensation that changed television and bled into the real world, altering the lives of everyone it touched. Comedians Larry David and Jerry Seinfeld never thought anyone would watch their silly little sitcom about a New York comedian sitting around talking to his friends. NBC executives didn’t think anyone would watch either, but they bought it anyway, hiding it away in the TV dead zone of summer. But against all odds, viewers began to watch, first a few and then many, until nine years later nearly forty million Americans were tuning in weekly. In Seinfeldia, acclaimed TV historian and entertainment writer Jennifer Keishin Armstrong celebrates the creators and fans of this American television phenomenon, bringing readers behind-the-scenes of the show while it was on the air and into the world of devotees for whom it never stopped being relevant, a world where the Soup Nazi still spends his days saying “No soup for you!”, Joe Davola gets questioned every day about his sanity, Kenny Kramer makes his living giving tours of New York sights from the show, and fans dress up in Jerry’s famous puffy shirt, dance like Elaine, and imagine plotlines for Seinfeld if it were still on TV.Two good recent reads: Seinfeldia (The early idea, production, and cultural impact of Seinfeld) https://t.co/bERzcTRr6O Born Standing Up (Steve Martin's biography on his early standup days) https://t.co/KuVnYq2sSr Showbusiness has to be one of the hardest businesses.
Born Standing Up
Steve Martin
The riveting, mega-bestselling, beloved and highly acclaimed memoir of a man, a vocation, and an era named one of the ten best nonfiction titles of the year by Time and Entertainment Weekly. In the mid-seventies, Steve Martin exploded onto the comedy scene. By 1978 he was the biggest concert draw in the history of stand-up. In 1981 he quit forever. This book is, in his own words, the story of “why I did stand-up and why I walked away.” Emmy and Grammy Award–winner, author of the acclaimed New York Times bestsellers Shopgirl and The Pleasure of My Company, and a regular contributor to The New Yorker, Martin has always been a writer. His memoir of his years in stand-up is candid, spectacularly amusing, and beautifully written. At age ten Martin started his career at Disneyland, selling guidebooks in the newly opened theme park. In the decade that followed, he worked in the Disney magic shop and the Bird Cage Theatre at Knott’s Berry Farm, performing his first magic/comedy act a dozen times a week. The story of these years, during which he practiced and honed his craft, is moving and revelatory. The dedication to excellence and innovation is formed at an astonishingly early age and never wavers or wanes. Martin illuminates the sacrifice, discipline, and originality that made him an icon and informs his work to this day. To be this good, to perform so frequently, was isolating and lonely. It took Martin decades to reconnect with his parents and sister, and he tells that story with great tenderness. Martin also paints a portrait of his times—the era of free love and protests against the war in Vietnam, the heady irreverence of The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour in the late sixties, and the transformative new voice of Saturday Night Live in the seventies. Throughout the text, Martin has placed photographs, many never seen before. Born Standing Up is a superb testament to the sheer tenacity, focus, and daring of one of the greatest and most iconoclastic comedians of all time.Two good recent reads: Seinfeldia (The early idea, production, and cultural impact of Seinfeld) https://t.co/bERzcTRr6O Born Standing Up (Steve Martin's biography on his early standup days) https://t.co/KuVnYq2sSr Showbusiness has to be one of the hardest businesses.
Who Is Michael Ovitz?
Michael Ovitz
"Michael Ovitz co-founded CAA in 1975 and served as its chairman until 1995. For most of the past two decades he has been a private investor and an advisor to Silicon Valley entrepreneurs. This is his first book"--@impcapital —https://t.co/K5nPhIyBf6 https://t.co/CdwvzAg5Po
The Jasons
Ann K. Finkbeiner
Profiles a group of elite scientists who inherited from the Manhattan Project a mission to counsel the government on potential military applications of scientific breakthroughs, in an account that cites their contributions to such projects the "Star Wars" missile defense program and the national system for predicting global climate. Reprint. 35,000 first printing.@sriramk https://t.co/fri8fKGlwF
- Understand the life and teachings of Osho, one of the twentieth century’s most unusual gurus and philosophers, in Autobiography of a Spiritually Incorrect Mystic. In 1990, Osho prepared for his departure from the body that had served him for fifty-nine years—in the words of his attending physician—“as calmly as though he were packing for a weekend in the country.” Who was this man, known as the Sex Guru, the “self-appointed bhagwan” (Rajneesh), the Rolls-Royce Guru, the Rich Man’s Guru, and simply the Master? Drawn from nearly five thousand hours of Osho’s recorded talks, this is the story of his youth and education, his life as a professor of philosophy and years of travel teaching the importance of meditation, and the true legacy he sought to leave behind: a religion-less religion centered on individual awareness and responsibility and the teaching of “Zorba the Buddha,” a celebration of the whole human being. Osho challenges readers to examine and break free of the conditioned belief systems and prejudices that limit their capacity to enjoy life in all its richness. He has been described by the Sunday Times of London as one of the “1000 Makers of the 20th Century” and by Sunday Mid-Day (India) as one of the ten people—along with Gandhi, Nehru, and Buddha—who have changed the destiny of India. Since his death in 1990, the influence of his teachings continues to expand, reaching seekers of all ages in virtually every country of the world.
@kaus__02 Autobiography of a Spiritually Incorrect Mystic.
Shoe Dog
Phil Knight
In this candid and riveting memoir, for the first time ever, Nike founder and CEO Phil Knight shares the inside story of the company’s early days as an intrepid start-up and its evolution into one of the world’s most iconic, game-changing, and profitable brands. In 1962, fresh out of business school, Phil Knight borrowed $50 from his father and created a company with a simple mission: import high-quality, low-cost athletic shoes from Japan. Selling the shoes from the trunk of his lime green Plymouth Valiant, Knight grossed $8,000 his first year. Today, Nike’s annual sales top $30 billion. In an age of startups, Nike is the ne plus ultra of all startups, and the swoosh has become a revolutionary, globe-spanning icon, one of the most ubiquitous and recognizable symbols in the world today. But Knight, the man behind the swoosh, has always remained a mystery. Now, for the first time, in a memoir that is candid, humble, gutsy, and wry, he tells his story, beginning with his crossroads moment. At 24, after backpacking around the world, he decided to take the unconventional path, to start his own business—a business that would be dynamic, different. Knight details the many risks and daunting setbacks that stood between him and his dream—along with his early triumphs. Above all, he recalls the formative relationships with his first partners and employees, a ragtag group of misfits and seekers who became a tight-knit band of brothers. Together, harnessing the transcendent power of a shared mission, and a deep belief in the spirit of sport, they built a brand that changed everything.Nike wanted a shoe called Aztec, but Adidas already had the name. Phil Knight and his vp: “Who was the guy who kicked the shit out of the Aztecs?” he asked. “Cortez,” I said. He grunted. “Okay. Let’s call it the Cortez.” One of the best biz books ever: https://t.co/FianQLuYG1
Where the money was
Willie Sutton
Willie Sutton is credited with saying, "I robbed banks because that's where the money was." In his biography he says he never said that. Here's why he did it (btw, highly, highly underestimated book.) https://t.co/qDTGDxMnQ9 https://t.co/nUUaueK1Ho
Grinding It Out
Ray Kroc
"He either enchants or antagonizes everyone he meets. But even his enemies agree there are three things Ray Kroc does damned well: sell hamburgers, make money, and tell stories." --from Grinding It Out Few entrepreneurs can claim to have radically changed the way we live, and Ray Kroc is one of them. His revolutions in food-service automation, franchising, shared national training, and advertising have earned him a place beside the men and women who have founded not only businesses, but entire empires. But even more interesting than Ray Kroc the business man is Ray Kroc the man. Not your typical self-made tycoon, Kroc was fifty-two years old when he opened his first franchise. In Grinding It Out, you'll meet the man behind McDonald's, one of the largest fast-food corporations in the world with over 32,000 stores around the globe. Irrepressible enthusiast, intuitive people person, and born storyteller, Kroc will fascinate and inspire you on every page.Choose Your Own Disaster
Dana Schwartz
A hilarious, quirky, and unflinchingly honest memoir about one young woman's terrible and life-changing decisions while hoping (and sometimes failing) to find herself, in the style of Never Have I Ever and Adulting. Join Dana Schwartz on a journey revisiting all of the terrible decisions she made in her early twenties through the internet's favorite method of self-knowledge: the quiz. Part-memoir, part-VERY long personality test, CHOOSE YOUR OWN DISASTER is a manifesto about the millennial experience and modern feminism and how the easy advice of "you can be anything you want!" is actually pretty fucking difficult when there are so many possible versions of yourself it seems like you could be. Dana has no idea who she is, but at least she knows she's a Carrie, a Ravenclaw, a Raphael, a Belle, a former emo kid, a Twitter addict, and a millennial just trying her best.If you follow her, you need to read it. (And if you don’t, you’re missing out!) https://t.co/afkAzj2ad2
Tuxedo Park
Jennet Conant
Presents the story of financier Alfred Lee Loomis and his role in the American victory during World War II, discussing Tuxedo Park, the lavish safe haven he created for some of the world's greatest scientists to meet and share ideas.“Society, to be permanently interesting, must be made up of idle professionals, not professional idlers.” https://t.co/T0UagpiqYF
Memo from David O. Selznick
David O. Selznick
Short Run@sknthla I love that book. Here’s my first print copy, all beaten to hell. Bezos 6-page memos in an age when that was the only way for a producer to communicate to a production team. https://t.co/d7KUhykp1P
Masters of Doom
David Kushner
Presents a dual biography of John Carmack and John Romero, the creators of the video games Doom and Quake, assessing the impact of their creation on American pop culture and revealing how their success eventually destroyed their relationship.Fun read about the history of the gaming industry. It’s mind-blowing how a John Carmack or Jeff Dean level programmer can singlehandedly push an entire field forward https://t.co/FLeZU2N3M7
Choose Your Own Disaster
Dana Schwartz
A hilarious, quirky, and unflinchingly honest memoir about one young woman's terrible and life-changing decisions while hoping (and sometimes failing) to find herself, in the style of Never Have I Ever and Adulting. Join Dana Schwartz on a journey revisiting all of the terrible decisions she made in her early twenties through the internet's favorite method of self-knowledge: the quiz. Part-memoir, part-VERY long personality test, CHOOSE YOUR OWN DISASTER is a manifesto about the millennial experience and modern feminism and how the easy advice of "you can be anything you want!" is actually pretty fucking difficult when there are so many possible versions of yourself it seems like you could be. Dana has no idea who she is, but at least she knows she's a Carrie, a Ravenclaw, a Raphael, a Belle, a former emo kid, a Twitter addict, and a millennial just trying her best.Have said it before, but I'll say it again -- so excited for @DanaSchwartzzz's book coming out this month! https://t.co/0NwgFyvh0d
Leonardo Da Vinci
Walter Isaacson
"He was history's most creative genius. What secrets can he teach us? The [bestselling biographer] brings Leonardo da Vinci to life in this exciting new biography. Drawing on thousands of pages from Leonardo's astonishing notebooks and new discoveries about his life and work, Walter Isaacson weaves a narrative that connects his art to his science. He shows how Leonardo's genius was based on skills we can improve in ourselves, such as passionate curiosity, careful observation, and an imagination so playful that it flirted with fantasy. His creativity, like that of other great innovators, came from standing at the intersection of the humanities and technology. He peeled flesh off the faces of cadavers, drew the muscles that move the lips, and then painted history's most memorable smile on the Mona Lisa. He explored the math of optics, showed how light rays strike the cornea, and produced illusions of changing perspectives in The Last Supper. Isaacson also describes how Leonardo's lifelong enthusiasm for staging theatrical productions informed his paintings and inventions. His ability to combine art and science, made iconic by his drawing of what may be himself inside a circle and a square, remains the enduring recipe for innovation. His life should remind us of the importance of instilling, both in ourselves and our children, not just received knowledge but a willingness to question it; to be imaginative and, like talented misfits and rebels in any era, to think different."--Jacket.I’m fortunate to own one of the 32 surviving journals of Leonardo da Vinci, so I was eager to read @WalterIsaacson’s new Leonardo biography. It did not disappoint: https://t.co/Ohl2oWUobV https://t.co/jmi3vCGTrx
The Wizard and the Prophet
Charles Mann
From the best-selling, award-winning author of 1491 and 1493--an incisive portrait of the two little-known twentieth-century scientists, Norman Borlaug and William Vogt, whose diametrically opposed views shaped our ideas about the environment, laying the groundwork for how people in the twenty-first century will choose to live in tomorrow's world. In forty years, Earth's population will reach ten billion. Can our world support that? What kind of world will it be? Those answering these questions generally fall into two deeply divided groups--Wizards and Prophets, as Charles Mann calls them in this balanced, authoritative, nonpolemical new book. The Prophets, he explains, follow William Vogt, a founding environmentalist who believed that in using more than our planet has to give, our prosperity will lead us to ruin. Cut back! was his mantra. Otherwise everyone will lose! The Wizards are the heirs of Norman Borlaug, whose research, in effect, wrangled the world in service to our species to produce modern high-yield crops that then saved millions from starvation. Innovate! was Borlaug's cry. Only in that way can everyone win! Mann delves into these diverging viewpoints to assess the four great challenges humanity faces--food, water, energy, climate change--grounding each in historical context and weighing the options for the future. With our civilization on the line, the author's insightful analysis is an essential addition to the urgent conversation about how our children will fare on an increasingly crowded Earth.Actually though everyone should read The Wizard and the Prophet both: a) to get this joke and b) because it is excellent https://t.co/PKVuF0lFg3
Chasing Hillary
Amy Chozick
New York Times bestseller “The Devil Wears Prada meets The Boys on the Bus”—New York Times The dishy, rollicking, and deeply personal story of what really happened in the 2016 election, as seen through the eyes of the New York Times reporter who gave eight years of her life to covering the First Woman President who wasn't. For a decade, award-winning New York Times journalist Amy Chozick chronicled Hillary Clinton’s pursuit of the presidency. Chozick’s front-row seat, initially covering Clinton’s imploding 2008 campaign, and then her assignment to “The Hillary Beat” ahead of the 2016 election, took her to 48 states and set off a nearly ten-years-long journey in which the formative years of her twenties and thirties became – both personally and professionally – intrinsically intertwined to Clinton’s presidential ambitions. Chozick’s candor and clear-eyed perspective—from her seat on the Hillary bus and reporting from inside the campaign’s Brooklyn headquarters, to her run-ins with Donald J. Trump and her globetrotting with Bill Clinton— provide fresh intrigue and insights into the story we thought we all knew. This is the real story of what happened, with the kind of dishy, inside details that repeatedly surprise and enlighten. But Chasing Hillary is also a rollicking, irreverent, refreshingly honest personal story of how the would-be first woman president looms over Chozick’s life. And, as she gets married, attempts to infiltrate the upper echelons of political journalism and inquires about freezing her eggs so she can have children after the 2016 campaign, Chozick dives deeper into decisions Clinton made at similar points in her life. In the process, Chozick came to see Clinton not as an unknowable enigma and political animal but as a complex person, full of contradictions and forged in the political battles and media storms that had long predated Chozick’s years of coverage. Trailing Clinton through all of the highs and lows of the most noxious and wildly dramatic presidential election in American history, Chozick comes to understand what drove Clinton, how she accomplished what no woman had before, and why she ultimately failed. Poignant, illuminating, laugh-out-loud funny, Chasing Hillary is a campaign book like never before that reads like a fast-moving political novel.Halfway through @amychozick’s Chasing Hillary. The best books give you a sense of the author, and Chozick comes across as charming and fair. This & @KatyTurNBC’s may be the best books on the 2016 election. (P.S. the world’s immeasurably worse off for not having David Carr.)
Autobiography of a Yogi
Yogananda (Paramahansa)
Yesterday, I had the pleasure of getting coffee with a talented entrepreneur from India who I initially met through Twitter. He gifted “Autobiography of a Yogi” which has been on my reading list for years. The power of Twitter never ceases to amaze me. https://t.co/IlAFudU6ag
The Right Stuff
Tom Wolfe
Enhanced by hundreds of period photographs, presents an illustrated edition of the classic portrait of America's early space program and its first astronauts.I’ve been reading (and loving) Tom Wolfe’s “The Right Stuff” recently. My kingdom to have been a postwar test pilot.
Born Standing Up
Steve Martin
The riveting, mega-bestselling, beloved and highly acclaimed memoir of a man, a vocation, and an era named one of the ten best nonfiction titles of the year by Time and Entertainment Weekly. In the mid-seventies, Steve Martin exploded onto the comedy scene. By 1978 he was the biggest concert draw in the history of stand-up. In 1981 he quit forever. This book is, in his own words, the story of “why I did stand-up and why I walked away.” Emmy and Grammy Award–winner, author of the acclaimed New York Times bestsellers Shopgirl and The Pleasure of My Company, and a regular contributor to The New Yorker, Martin has always been a writer. His memoir of his years in stand-up is candid, spectacularly amusing, and beautifully written. At age ten Martin started his career at Disneyland, selling guidebooks in the newly opened theme park. In the decade that followed, he worked in the Disney magic shop and the Bird Cage Theatre at Knott’s Berry Farm, performing his first magic/comedy act a dozen times a week. The story of these years, during which he practiced and honed his craft, is moving and revelatory. The dedication to excellence and innovation is formed at an astonishingly early age and never wavers or wanes. Martin illuminates the sacrifice, discipline, and originality that made him an icon and informs his work to this day. To be this good, to perform so frequently, was isolating and lonely. It took Martin decades to reconnect with his parents and sister, and he tells that story with great tenderness. Martin also paints a portrait of his times—the era of free love and protests against the war in Vietnam, the heady irreverence of The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour in the late sixties, and the transformative new voice of Saturday Night Live in the seventies. Throughout the text, Martin has placed photographs, many never seen before. Born Standing Up is a superb testament to the sheer tenacity, focus, and daring of one of the greatest and most iconoclastic comedians of all time.@patrick_oshag If you have less than one hour: Tao Te Ching by Stephen Mitchell If you want an entertaining success story: Born Standing Up by Steve Martin If you want to broaden your thinking: The Art of Possibility by Zander If you want to listen to a great writer: Just Kids by Patti Smith
Just Kids
Patti Smith
It was the summer Coltrane died, the summer of love and riots, and the summer when a chance encounter in Brooklyn led two young people on a path of art, devotion, and initiation. Patti Smith would evolve as a poet and performer, and Robert Mapplethorpe would direct his highly provocative style toward photography. Bound in innocence and enthusiasm, they traversed the city from Coney Island to Forty-second Street, and eventually to the celebrated round table of Max's Kansas City, where the Andy Warhol contingent held court. In 1969, the pair set up camp at the Hotel Chelsea and soon entered a community of the famous and infamous—the influential artists of the day and the colorful fringe. It was a time of heightened awareness, when the worlds of poetry, rock and roll, art, and sexual politics were colliding and exploding. In this milieu, two kids made a pact to take care of each other. Scrappy, romantic, committed to create, and fueled by their mutual dreams and drives, they would prod and provide for one another during the hungry years. Just Kids begins as a love story and ends as an elegy. It serves as a salute to New York City during the late sixties and seventies and to its rich and poor, its hustlers and hellions. A true fable, it is a portrait of two young artists' ascent, a prelude to fame.@patrick_oshag If you have less than one hour: Tao Te Ching by Stephen Mitchell If you want an entertaining success story: Born Standing Up by Steve Martin If you want to broaden your thinking: The Art of Possibility by Zander If you want to listen to a great writer: Just Kids by Patti Smith
Fair Shot
Chris Hughes
Introduction -- How it happens -- The dismantling of the American dream -- Africa & back -- The precariat -- A guaranteed income for working people -- Worthwhile work -- Untethered idealism -- Everybody likes a tax credit -- What we owe one another -- AfterwordThemed bedtime reading https://t.co/QWqFPLWFxf
Mountains Beyond Mountains
Tracy Kidder
A portrait of infectious disease expert Dr. Paul Farmer follows the efforts of this unconventional Harvard physician to understand the world's great health, economic, and social problems and to bring healing to humankind.Advice Not Given
Mark Epstein
"Most people will never find a great psychiatrist or a great Buddhist teacher, but Mark Epstein is both, and the wisdom he imparts in Advice Not Given is an act of generosity and compassion. The book is a tonic for the ailments of our time."--Ann Patchett, New York Times bestselling author of Commonwealth Our ego, and its accompanying sense of nagging self-doubt as we work to be bigger, better, smarter, and more in control, is one affliction we all share. But while our ego is at once our biggest obstacle, it can also be our greatest hope. We can be at its mercy or we can learn to work with it. With great insight, and in a deeply personal style, renowned psychiatrist and author Dr. Mark Epstein offers a how-to guide that refuses a quick fix. In Advice Not Given, he reveals how Buddhism and Western psychotherapy, two traditions that developed in entirely different times and places, both identify the ego as the limiting factor in our well-being, and both come to the same conclusion: When we give the ego free rein, we suffer; but when it learns to let go, we are free.Next up on the reading list Advice Not Given: A Guide to Getting Over Yourself by @Mepstein108 https://t.co/hAHFYO6BWL
Choose Your Own Disaster
Dana Schwartz
A hilarious, quirky, and unflinchingly honest memoir about one young woman's terrible and life-changing decisions while hoping (and sometimes failing) to find herself, in the style of Never Have I Ever and Adulting. Join Dana Schwartz on a journey revisiting all of the terrible decisions she made in her early twenties through the internet's favorite method of self-knowledge: the quiz. Part-memoir, part-VERY long personality test, CHOOSE YOUR OWN DISASTER is a manifesto about the millennial experience and modern feminism and how the easy advice of "you can be anything you want!" is actually pretty fucking difficult when there are so many possible versions of yourself it seems like you could be. Dana has no idea who she is, but at least she knows she's a Carrie, a Ravenclaw, a Raphael, a Belle, a former emo kid, a Twitter addict, and a millennial just trying her best.Preordered @DanaSchwartzzz's memoir, out in June. This is your scheduled reminder that (a) @DanaSchwartzzz is one the most insightful people on Twitter at a time when nuance is unfashionable and (b) everyone 💙 preorders. Please the publishing gods today: https://t.co/afkAzj2ad2
When Breath Becomes Air
Paul Kalanithi
A cloth bag containing eight copies of the title.I was touched by "When Breath Becomes Air.” It’s the best nonfiction book I’ve read in a long time. https://t.co/Pq9aet2plB
Elon Musk
Ashlee Vance
In the spirit of Steve Jobs and Moneyball, Elon Musk is both an illuminating and authorized look at the extraordinary life of one of Silicon Valley’s most exciting, unpredictable, and ambitious entrepreneurs—a real-life Tony Stark—and a fascinating exploration of the renewal of American invention and its new “makers.” Elon Musk spotlights the technology and vision of Elon Musk, the renowned entrepreneur and innovator behind SpaceX, Tesla, and SolarCity, who sold one of his Internet companies, PayPal, for $1.5 billion. Ashlee Vance captures the full spectacle and arc of the genius’s life and work, from his tumultuous upbringing in South Africa and flight to the United States to his dramatic technical innovations and entrepreneurial pursuits. Vance uses Musk’s story to explore one of the pressing questions of our age: can the nation of inventors and creators who led the modern world for a century still compete in an age of fierce global competition? He argues that Musk—one of the most unusual and striking figures in American business history—is a contemporary, visionary amalgam of legendary inventors and industrialists including Thomas Edison, Henry Ford, Howard Hughes, and Steve Jobs. More than any other entrepreneur today, Musk has dedicated his energies and his own vast fortune to inventing a future that is as rich and far-reaching as the visionaries of the golden age of science-fiction fantasy. Thorough and insightful, Elon Musk brings to life a technology industry that is rapidly and dramatically changing by examining the life of one of its most powerful and influential titans.Tesla motors, May 2004 https://t.co/lyatMyNqb7
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks
Rebecca Skloot
Documents the story of how scientists took cells from an unsuspecting descendant of freed slaves and created a human cell line that has been kept alive indefinitely, enabling discoveries in such areas as cancer research, in vitro fertilization and gene mapping. Includes reading-group guide. Reprint. A best-selling book.Examples Sapiens - 10 yr of research Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks - 10 yr of interviews Complications by Gawande - 10 yr of medicine
Complications
Atul Gawande
Drawing from compelling true accounts of patients and doctors, a provocative examination of the power and limits of modern medicine reveals a world where science is uncertain, information is limited, and deadly mistakes occur. 60,000 first printing.Examples Sapiens - 10 yr of research Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks - 10 yr of interviews Complications by Gawande - 10 yr of medicine
The Girl with the Lower Back Tattoo
Amy Schumer
Schumer "mines her past for stories about her teenage years, her family, relationships, and sex and shares the experiences that have shaped who she is--a woman with the courage to bare her soul to stand up for what she believes in, all while making us laugh"--Amazon.com.Look what I have!! This beautiful soul/lady new book "TGWTLBT" #GoGetItAsap #ShesAmazing @amyschumer #LoveYou https://t.co/NIwu1zSfB8
Dave Hill Doesn't Live Here Anymore
Dave Hill
"A painfully funny series of autobiographical essays, centered around the relationship between comedian Dave Hill and his dad, in the wake of his mother's death, as father and son redefine their relationship--and Dave, finally, becomes a man"--I'm interviewing the great Dave Hill tomorrow night at 7 at Brooklyn's Book Court about his hilarious new book. Come!
The Third Wave
Steve Case
The #1 New York Times and Wall Street Journal bestseller from Steve Case—the co-founder of AOL—presents “a compelling roadmap for the future…that can help us make sense of the technological changes reshaping our economy and the world. A fascinating read” (Sheryl Sandberg, Facebook COO and founder of LeanIn.org). Steve Case—a pioneer who made the Internet part of everyday life—was on the leading edge of a revolution in 1985 when he co-founded AOL, the first Internet company to go public and the most successful business of the 1990s. Back then Case was an entrepreneur in an industry that hadn’t really been invented yet, but he had a sense how dramatically the Internet would transform business and society. In The Third Wave, he uses his insights garnered from nearly four decades of working as an innovator, investor, and businessman to argue the importance of entrepreneurship and to chart a path for future innovators. We are entering, as Case explains, the “Third Wave” of the Internet. The first wave saw AOL and other companies lay the foundation for consumers to connect to the Internet. The second wave saw companies like Google and Facebook build on top of the Internet to create search and social networking capabilities, while apps like Snapchat and Instagram leveraged the smartphone revolution. Now, Case argues, we’re entering the Third Wave: a period in which entrepreneurs will vastly transform major “real world” sectors such as health, education, transportation, energy, and food—and in the process change the way we live our daily lives. Part memoir, part manifesto, and part playbook for the future, The Third Wave explains the ways in which newly emerging technology companies will have to rethink their relationships with customers, with competitors, and with governments; and offers advice for how entrepreneurs can make winning business decisions and strategies—and how all of us can make sense of this ever-changing digital age..@KaraSwisher talks to @SteveCase about his new book “The Third Wave” and the future of entrepreneurship in America: https://t.co/2kMrfIOLSX
The Calling
Barry Blanchard
Blanchard shares the story of how he became hooked on climbing in his early teens and became one of the world's most respected alpinists.Rare mountaineering literature that leaves you empathetically exhausted yet laughing out loud: @Barry_Blanchard 's http://t.co/z7qcGBU3VY
The Professor and the Madman
Simon Winchester
The Professor and the Madman, masterfully researched and eloquently written, is an extraordinary tale of madness, genius, and the incredible obsessions of two remarkable men that led to the making of the Oxford English Dictionary -- and literary history. The compilation of the OED began in 1857, it was one of the most ambitious projects ever undertaken. As definitions were collected, the overseeing committee, led by Professor James Murray, discovered that one man, Dr. W. C. Minor, had submitted more than ten thousand. When the committee insisted on honoring him, a shocking truth came to light: Dr. Minor, an American Civil War veteran, was also an inmate at an asylum for the criminally insane. This P.S. edition features an extra 16 pages of insights into the book, including author interviews, recommended reading, and more.@ianus @kottke Thanks for pointer. Enjoyed the book. See also Winchester's, Professor and the Madman, an early example of crowd sourcing.
Turn the Ship Around!
L. David Marquet
Outlines a model of leadership designed to overcome poor morale, low performance, and high turnover while building engaged, healthy teams.@Penelope_Fay Check out @ldavidmarquet's book Turn This Ship Around. He has first hand experience that validates your hunch
For the Love of Physics
Walter Lewin
Largely autobiographical account of the author's life as one who fell in love first with physics and then with teaching physics to students.Great teachers make even tough topics engaging. In his book "For the Love of Physics", MIT’s Walter Lewin shows how http://t.co/xRwOUQLF
Showing Up for Life
William H. Gates
Through stories and anecdotes, the father of one of the most successful businessmen in history conveys the values and principles he has learned in life, has instilled in his children, and which he now practices on a world stage as the co-chair of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Original.In NY with my Dad, talking about the paperback edition of his book – “Showing Up For Life" - about to tape w/Larry King airing tonight...