Dennis Crowley
I like to build things (@Foursquare, @StreetFC, @LivingCitiesXYZ, @StockadeFC). Husband to @Chelsa, dada x3 👧🏼🧒🏼👶🏼. I enjoy snowboards, soccer & hot dogs
7 Book Recommendations by Dennis Crowley
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
Animal Crossing
Future Press
Do I want to read this TC Boyle book or dive into Animal Crossing for the first time?
The History of the Hudson River Valley
Vernon Benjamin
Beautifully illustrated and extensively researched, this history of the Hudson River Valley, which, because of its unique geography and proximity to Canada, was the site of many battles, chronicles its discovery all the way to its rise as a center of culture and commerce that is still evident today.Oh ps: my two new books! https://t.co/HlzXCaWOP9
- This multi-generational novel ranges over the history of the Hudson River Valley from the late seventeenth cenutry to the late 1960s with low humor, high seriousness, and magical, almost hallucinatory prose. It follows the interwoven destinies of families of Indians, lordy Dutch patrons, and yoemen.
Oh ps: my two new books! https://t.co/HlzXCaWOP9
How To Build A Car
Adrian Newey
'Adrian has a unique gift for understanding drivers and racing cars. He is ultra competitive but never forgets to have fun. An immensely likeable man.' Damon HillThe world's foremost designer in Formula One, Adrian Newey OBE is arguably one of Britain's greatest engineers and this is his fascinating, powerful memoir.How to Build a Car explores the story of Adrian's unrivalled 35-year career in Formula One through the prism of the cars he has designed, the drivers he has worked alongside and the races in which he's been involved. A true engineering genius, even in adolescence Adrian's thoughts naturally emerged in shape and form - he began sketching his own car designs at the age of 12 and took a welding course in his school summer holidays. From his early career in IndyCar racing and on to his unparalleled success in Formula One, we learn in comprehensive, engaging and highly entertaining detail how a car actually works. Adrian has designed for the likes of Mario Andretti, Nigel Mansell, Alain Prost, Damon Hill, David Coulthard, Mika Hakkinen, Mark Webber and Sebastian Vettel, always with a shark-like purity of purpose: to make the car go faster. And while his career has been marked by unbelievable triumphs, there have also been deep tragedies; most notably Ayrton Senna's death during his time at Williams in 1994. Beautifully illustrated with never-before-seen drawings, How to Build a Car encapsulates, through Adrian's remarkable life story, precisely what makes Formula One so thrilling - its potential for the total synchronicity of man and machine, the perfect combination of style, efficiency and speed.@srewats Btw, this "How to Build a Car" book arrived today (from Ebay!) and it's AMAZING. Thanks for the great recommendation!
The Hard Thing About Hard Things
Ben Horowitz
A lot of people talk about how great it is to start a business, but only Ben Horowitz is brutally honest about how hard it is to run one. In The Hard Thing About Hard Things, Ben Horowitz, cofounder of Andreessen Horowitz and one of Silicon Valley's most respected and experienced entrepreneurs, draws on his own story of founding, running, selling, buying, managing, and investing in technology companies to offer essential advice and practical wisdom for navigating the toughest problems business schools don't cover. His blog has garnered a devoted following of millions of readers who have come to rely on him to help them run their businesses. A lifelong rap fan, Horowitz amplifies business lessons with lyrics from his favorite songs and tells it straight about everything from firing friends to poaching competitors, from cultivating and sustaining a CEO mentality to knowing the right time to cash in. His advice is grounded in anecdotes from his own hard-earned rise—from cofounding the early cloud service provider Loudcloud to building the phenomenally successful Andreessen Horowitz venture capital firm, both with fellow tech superstar Marc Andreessen (inventor of Mosaic, the Internet's first popular Web browser). This is no polished victory lap; he analyzes issues with no easy answers through his trials, including demoting (or firing) a loyal friend; whether you should incorporate titles and promotions, and how to handle them; if it's OK to hire people from your friend's company; how to manage your own psychology, while the whole company is relying on you; what to do when smart people are bad employees; why Andreessen Horowitz prefers founder CEOs, and how to become one; whether you should sell your company, and how to do it. Filled with Horowitz's trademark humor and straight talk, and drawing from his personal and often humbling experiences, The Hard Thing About Hard Things is invaluable for veteran entrepreneurs as well as those aspiring to their own new ventures.@muneeb @bhorowitz @jerrycolonna @mattmochary + “Hard Things” book is def one. + Peer/CEO groups + dinners + Working w CEO coach (having someone I could talk honestly about about fears and insecurities about the job)
The Journey That Saved Curious George
Louise W. Borden
Via loves loves loves Curious George and she asks me to read it to her like 3x day. 🙉🐵🙈 Recently learned the authors escape Nazi occupied France by bicycle (!!) in WW2 and eventually made their way to USA. There’s a book about it too (just ordered!) https://t.co/HfLBn2DhxS