Holiday Reading List

Given that Thanksgiving is right around the corner and several people have asked what's worth reading over the break, here are my top 10 recent reads, with something for everyone (at least in the non-fiction realm):

1. Educated: A Memoir, by Tara Westover (stunning true story journey of a girl born into a family of Mormon survivalists in Idaho who, with no formal education, ends up getting a PhD from Cambridge; a beautiful and haunting tale about breaking free from family in order to find yourself and the pain and loss of realizing there is no way back)

2. Bad Blood, by John Carreyrou (the suspenseful story of the Theranos scandal told by the WSJ reporter who broke it - reads like a thriller)

3. Political Tribes: Group Instinct and the Fate of Nations, by Amy Chua (brilliant and readable analysis of the tribal and group instincts that drive so much of human behavior and how the US and other nations so often overlook this in the geopolitical context)

4. Prisoners of Geography: Ten Maps that Explain Everything About the World, by Tim Marshall (fabulous geopolitical analysis of various regions of the world providing the geographical context: how geography shapes outlooks, wealth and conflicts; nice counterpoint to "The Revenge of Geography", by Robert Kaplan, which I reviewed previously).

5. Never Split the Difference: Negotiating as if Your Life Depended on It, by Chriss Voss (interesting take on negotiation technique as recounted by the FBI's former chief hostage negotiator; a counter-punch to theories generally espoused by academic experts).

6. Norse Mythology, by Neil Gaiman (brilliant rendering of the Norse myths by a fabulous author; this one is great to listen to as an audio book, curled up on a sofa and staring at a snowy landscape).

7. The Ghost Map: The Story of London's Most Terrifying Epidemic and How it Changed Science, Cities, and the Modern World, by Steven Johnson (riveting story about Dr. John Snow, who discovered that cholera was spread through water and not air; a fabulous portrait of Victorian London, the birth of modern science, innovation and the stubbornness of conventional wisdom, and the courage of one brilliant man; one of the best books I've read in a long time).

8. The Future of the Professions: How Technology will Transform the Work of Human Experts, by Richard Susskind and Daniel Susskind (thought provoking and brilliant book on how technology will radically change the professions in the coming decades).

9. Shark Drunk: The Art of Catching a Large Shark from a Tiny Rubber Dinghy in a Big Ocean, by Morten Stroksnes (beautifully written, funny and memorable story about two Norwegian men who set about trying to catch a Greenland shark in the Lofoten archipelago just North of the Arctic Circle and, in so doing, tackle existential questions and attempt to understand the ocean from every possible angle, drawing on poetry, science, history, ecology and their own, sometimes intoxicated, observations; hard to describe it other than that it is fabulous).

10. Legal Upheaval: A Guide to Creativity, Collaboration and Innovation in the Law, by Professor Michelle DeStefano (brilliant analysis of the three key ingredients for success in today's changing legal market: creativity, collaboration and innovation; Prof. DeStefano argues that collaboration toward innovation creates better and stickier client relationships that are also more profitable).