Q2+ 2025 Reading

These last couple quarters have been busy launching our podcast.

As part of that, I started writing a bi-weekly newsletter and giving more regular updates on all my reading (not just books). I want to make sure to keep up the habit of sharing books though, as I know that many of us enjoy reading longer form works and digging deeper with topics and while I'm no President Obama, I do read a lot and like to share what I learn.

This is my non-fiction/business book list and thus mostly consumed via audible with a few exceptions. I'm going to snap the chalk for 2025 with this list and move anything that happens next into the 2026.

Don't forget to share your suggestions for 2026 with me.

Was delighted to be included in this book covering a topic I care deeply about. When I think about personal and professional growth maximizers I can think of no bigger opportunity than finding blindspots and using that insight to expand my thinking. We had a delightful conversation about this topic on the podcast.

Picked this up with zero context - just heard it mentioned on the More or Less podcast and decided I was interested. Didn't realize I would be getting a great backstory to the Ellison family takes over media situation. I love unanticipated context told from a first person point of view.

I found the candor about his homosexuality and the deep personal trauma growing up in a world where being who you are was not allowed very eye opening. When my kids were in middle school, I recognized what a great gift to be living at a time and place where children could safely respond to their own puberty without fear. Of course, I realize now I was a bit naive about this topic (see blindspots above) but still feel that children today have better access to successful, loving and well adjusted role models across all sexual orientations.

The Barry Diller book recommended this book in passing and I decided "in for an inch". A heartbreaking and also hopeful tale of a similar repressive [pre-AIDs/ pre-digital homosexual] experience. I felt like I got an glimpse of a world I would never personally know and I appreciated the experience.

I then shifted back to the Silicon Valley experience catching up on a "cannon" book that I was unaware existed. It has a lot in common with the Careless People book and somehow I have the same reaction. On the plus side, getting an outsiders perspective on the absurdity of SV is always good and the warnings and concerns raised matter. On the other hand in both cases I struggled a bit with the way both authors distanced themselves ex post facto from the story they were telling.

This probably doesn't belong in this list because it was not really that insightful more general storytelling. I picked it up mostly for the context of the refugee experience. It did not give a good feeling about the topic that is certain.

I have written a lot about Sangeet's book, I highly recommend it for anyone who wants to apply systems thinking to the emerging opportunities of the re-shaping of globalization and the rise of new technology. We were lucky to have him on the podcast - recommend you give that episode a listen.

I think this book is a must read and not just for women. I personally stumbled into most of the insights of this book the hard way over more than a decade. It would be much faster and better to just read this book and learn how to maximize your opportunities.

Wish I remembered where I got the recommendation for this book. It's a long one, but one that I learned a lot from. I love the context shift from a western centered history telling to an eastern centered one. I personally found the reminder of the size and scale of the Dutch East India Company and the East India Company and the geopolitical impact they had on re-shaping the world useful when thinking about the massive private companies of today.

Not necessarily a fun read, but one that I found useful. I read this right after the predictable DOGE meltdown. Interesting insights into the intersection of wealth, network, will, ego and power. I also reflect at the resilience of Twitter even so (I still have an account but no longer post or read - I do still read referenced tweets in blogs on occasion).

h/t to Jess Von Bank for this one. It was a bit of a long read but had some interesting nuggets. Getting the lived context of the early industrial age was fun. I was less interested in the complexity of Laura's daughter Rose (which took up a LOT of the book, the author really didn't like Rose) and more interested in the insights of economic policy of the day.

For example, I was not aware of the economic depression prior to 1929 nor was I aware of the massive disaster of scaling up farming without proper credit infrastructure or public investment in shared resources (water) not to mention the disastrous environmental impacts (see Dust Bowl). The reality check of wide scale bankruptcy and near starvation was eye opening and the conversations on disaster assistance and the role of government also eye opening.

This was a balm to the soul, especially reading this during the DOGE situation. Being reminded of the good things and great people in our country and recognizing the patriotism of public service. Short but very uplifting read.

Our family are huge Ina fans and much of my kids early television passions were on the cooking channel so of course I wanted to read this. That said, she had me at the title. I loved her retrospective of how she built her business and navigated opportunities at a time where women were not offered many. I also really enjoyed being reminded of what it was like to grow up in a different era.

As I mentioned in the Uncanny Valley notes this one is a good paring with that book. It was very well done and a mix of surprising and unsurprising elements of both life in Silicon Valley and some of the interesting side effects of success. The storytelling was amazing but I did struggle a bit with a niggling sense of white washing of the authors personal accountability for her own choices and actions.

I think I am a better person for having read this book. It was not an easy read, but the narrative was one of thoughtfulness and compassion which made me reflect and gave me a better sense of my own blindspots. I liked the fact that I could disagree with some of the conclusions while feeling that I better understood the thinking. The author walked a the very fine line of making his audience able to hear his point - this is not easy to do and something I feel like I learned over and above the topic.

Of course I was excited to read this book and not just because I was interviewed/mentioned in it [humble brag]. I have been a fan of Charlotte Otter's writing from the moment I was first introduced to her blog almost two decades ago (!). I have read her fiction but I find her insights both on the nose and easy to understand -- something I personally struggle with in my own writing. In the case of this book she brings forward some important things to think about for any leader in this complex time. The role of reputation, the need to own your voice and the importance of authenticity - all values I hold dear. After you read this book I recommend you also subscribe to her Speech Bubbles podcast.