Reading List
#+description: Book club selections with descriptions and page counts
#+startup: inlineimages
Non-Fiction (General)
Black Moses
- pages
- 304
The remarkable story of Edward McCabe, a Black man who tried to establish a Black state within the United States. In this paradigm-shattering work of American history, Caleb Gayle recounts the extraordinary tale of Edward McCabe, a Black man who championed the audacious idea to create a state within the Union governed by and for Black people — and the racism, politics, and greed that thwarted him. As the sweeping changes and brief glimpses of hope brought by the Civil War and Reconstruction began to wither, both Blacks and whites searched for new places to settle. That was when Edward McCabe, a Black businessman and a rising political star in the American West, set in motion his plans to found a state within the Union for Black people to live in and govern.
Empire of AI
- pages
- 496
An eye-opening account of the tech arms race shaping our planet, from an award-winning journalist and AI insider to the world of Sam Altman and OpenAI. When longtime AI expert and journalist Karen Hao first began covering OpenAI in 2019, she thought they were the good guys. Founded as a nonprofit with safety enshrined as its core mission, it was meant, its leader Sam Altman told us, to act as a check against more purely market forces. But the core truth of this massively disruptive sector is that it requires an unprecedented amount of proprietary resources: the 'compute' power of scarce high-end chips, the sheer volume of data that needs to be amassed at scale, the humans on the ground 'cleaning it up' for sweatshop wages throughout the Global South, and a truly alarming spike in the need for energy and water underlying everything.
King of Kings
- pages
- 481
A stunningly revelatory narrative history of the Iranian Revolution, one of the most momentous events in modern times. This groundbreaking work exposes the jaw-dropping stupidity of the American government and traces the rise of religious nationalism, offering essential insights into today's global unrest. On New Year's Eve 1977, on a state visit to Iran, President Jimmy Carter toasted Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, praising Iran as "an island of stability" due to "your leadership." Fourteen months later the Shah fled Iran into exile, forced from the throne by a volcanic religious revolution led by a fiery cleric named Ayatollah Khomeini. The ensuing hostage crisis forever damaged America's standing in the world.
Being Jewish After the Destruction of Gaza
- pages
- 192
A bold, urgent appeal addressing one of the most important issues of our time. In Peter Beinart's view, one story dominates Jewish communal life: that of persecution and victimhood. It is a story that erases much of the nuance of Jewish religious tradition and warps our understanding of Israel and Palestine. After Gaza, where Jewish texts, history, and language have been deployed to justify mass slaughter and starvation, Beinart argues, Jews must tell a new story. After this war, whose horror will echo for generations, they must offer a new answer to the question: What does it mean to be a Jew?
Girl on Girl
- pages
- 352
How pop culture turned a generation of women against themselves. From Atlantic critic and Pulitzer Prize finalist Sophie Gilbert, a blazing critique of early aughts pop culture. What happened to feminism in the twenty-first century? Gilbert identifies an inflection point in the late 1990s and early 2000s, when the energy of third-wave and "riot grrrl" feminism collapsed into a regressive period of hyper-objectification, sexualization, and infantilization. Mining the darker side of nostalgia, Gilbert trains her keen analytic eye on the most revealing cultural objects of the era, across music, film, television, fashion, tabloid journalism, and more.
Fantasy
Yumi and the Nightmare Painter
- pages
- 480
A Cosmere novel from #1 New York Times bestselling author Brandon Sanderson. Yumi has spent her entire life in strict obedience, granting her the power to summon the spirits that bestow vital aid upon her society—but she longs for even a single day as a normal person. Painter patrols the dark streets dreaming of being a hero—a goal that has led to nothing but heartache and isolation, leaving him always on the outside looking in. In their own ways, both of them face the world alone. Suddenly flung together, Yumi and Painter must strive to right the wrongs in both their lives, reconciling their past and present while maintaining the precarious balance of each of their worlds.
Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil
- pages
- 535
A genre-defying novel about immortality and hunger from V.E. Schwab, the #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue. Three young women, their bodies planted in the same soil, their stories tangling like roots. In 1532, Santo Domingo, a young girl makes a desperate choice. In 1827, London, a young woman's tender heart is swept away by an invitation from a beautiful widow. In 2019, Boston, a young woman throws herself into the hunt for answers and revenge. This is a story about hunger, love, rage, and life—how it ends, and how it starts again.
Six of Crows
- pages
- 480
Ketterdam: a bustling hub of international trade where anything can be had for the right price—and no one knows that better than criminal prodigy Kaz Brekker. Kaz is offered a chance at a deadly heist that could make him rich beyond his wildest dreams. But he can't pull it off alone. A convict with a thirst for revenge. A sharpshooter who can't walk away from a wager. A runaway with a privileged past. A spy known as the Wraith. A Heartrender using her magic to survive the slums. A thief with a gift for unlikely escapes. Six dangerous outcasts. One impossible heist.
Dungeon Crawler Carl
- pages
- 464
The apocalypse will be televised! Join Coast Guard vet Carl and his ex-girlfriend's cat, Princess Donut, as they try to survive the end of the world—or just get to the next level—in a video game–like, trap-filled fantasy dungeon. A dungeon that's actually the set of a reality television show with countless viewers across the galaxy. Exploding goblins. Magical potions. Deadly, drug-dealing llamas. This ain't your ordinary game show. Welcome, Crawler. Welcome to the Dungeon. Survival is optional. Keeping the viewers entertained is not.
The River Has Roots
- pages
- 133
Follow the river Liss to the small town of Thistleford, on the edge of Faerie, and meet two sisters who cannot be separated, even in death. "Oh what is stronger than a death? Two sisters singing with one breath." In the small town of Thistleford, on the edge of Faerie, dwells the mysterious Hawthorn family. There, they tend and harvest the enchanted willows and honour an ancient compact to sing to them in thanks for their magic. None more devotedly than the family's latest daughters, Esther and Ysabel. But when Esther rejects a forceful suitor in favor of a lover from the land of Faerie, not only the sisters' bond but also their lives will be at risk.
Non-Fiction (Business / Leadership)
The Culture Code
- pages
- 304
The secrets of highly successful groups. Where does great culture come from? How do you build and sustain it in your group, or strengthen a culture that needs fixing? Daniel Coyle goes inside some of the world's most successful organizations—including the U.S. Navy's SEAL Team Six, IDEO, and the San Antonio Spurs—and reveals what makes them tick. He demystifies the culture-building process by identifying three key skills that generate cohesion and cooperation: building safety, sharing vulnerability, and establishing purpose.
Careless People
- pages
- 382
A Cautionary Tale of Power, Greed, and Lost Idealism. An explosive memoir charting one woman's career at the heart of one of the most influential companies on the planet, Careless People gives you a front-row seat to Facebook, the decisions that have shaped world events in recent decades, and the people who made them. From trips on private jets and encounters with world leaders to shocking accounts of misogyny and double standards behind the scenes, this searing memoir exposes both the personal and political fallout when unfettered power and a rotten company culture take hold.
Bullshit Jobs
- pages
- 304
A Theory. From David Graeber, the bestselling author of The Dawn of Everything and Debt—a powerful argument against the rise of meaningless, unfulfilling jobs and their consequences. Does your job make a meaningful contribution to the world? In the spring of 2013, David Graeber asked this question in a playful, provocative essay titled "On the Phenomenon of Bullshit Jobs." It went viral. There are hordes of people—HR consultants, communication coordinators, telemarketing researchers, corporate lawyers—whose jobs are useless, and, tragically, they know it.
Radical Candor
- pages
- 336
Be a Kick-Ass Boss Without Losing Your Humanity. The idea is simple: You don't have to choose between being a pushover and a jerk. Using Radical Candor—avoiding the perils of Obnoxious Aggression, Manipulative Insincerity, and Ruinous Empathy—you can be kind and clear at the same time. Kim Scott was a highly successful leader at Google before decamping to Apple, where she developed and taught a management class. Radical Candor is about caring personally and challenging directly, about soliciting criticism to improve your leadership and also providing guidance that helps others grow.
Know What Matters
- pages
- 272
Lessons from a Lifetime of Transformations. Ron Shaich, founder and former CEO of Panera Bread, shares the lessons he learned from a lifetime of asking what really matters and then making the transformations necessary to bring what really matters to life. Shaich is a business visionary who has been part of building three iconic restaurant brands: Au Bon Pain, Panera Bread, and now Cava. Along the way, he developed "fast casual," a $100 billion–plus segment of the industry. He illustrates these lessons with his experiences turning a 400-square-foot cookie store into 2,400 restaurants with $5 billion in revenue.
Wildcard
Love in a Fallen City
- pages
- 321
Eileen Chang is one of the great writers of twentieth-century China. At the heart of Chang's achievement is her short fiction—tales of love, longing, and the shifting and endlessly treacherous shoals of family life. Written when she was still in her twenties, these extraordinary stories combine an unsettled, probing, utterly contemporary sensibility, keenly alert to sexual politics and psychological ambiguity, with an intense lyricism that echoes the classics of Chinese literature. The collection includes: Aloeswood Incense, Love in a Fallen City, The Golden Cangue, Red Rose White Rose, Jasmine Tea, and Sealed Off.
When There Are Wolves Again
- pages
- 416
The extraordinary speculative novel of past, present, and future. Decades from now, two women sit beside a campfire and reflect on their life stories. Activist Lucy's earliest memories are of living with her grandparents during the 2020 pandemic and discovering her grandmother's love of birds. Filmmaker Hester was born on the day of the Chornobyl explosion and visits the site years later to film its feral dogs in the Exclusion Zone. Here she meets Lux, the wolf dog who will give her life meaning. Over half a century, their journeys take them from London to the Highlands to Somerset.
Ultramarine
- pages
- 143
The metaphysically disorienting tale of a female captain who loses control of her thinking—and her crew—aboard a cargo ship in the Atlantic. Ultramarine begins when the female captain agrees to let her crew stop the engines and go for a swim. But when they return, the crew of mariners is not the original 20, but 21. When the ship itself begins behaving strangely, a haunting question emerges: is she hallucinating, or is this real?
Taiwan Travelogue
- pages
- 298
A bittersweet story of love between two women, nested in an artful exploration of language, history, and power. May 1938. The young novelist Aoyama Chizuko has sailed from her home in Nagasaki, Japan, and arrived in Taiwan. She's been invited there by the Japanese government ruling the island, though she has no interest in their official banquets or imperialist agenda. Instead, Chizuko longs to experience real island life and to taste as much of its authentic cuisine as her famously monstrous appetite can bear.
Dead Money
- pages
- 407
A gripping thriller that pulls back the curtain on the secret world of tech billionaires. Don't call me a fixer. In her job as unofficial "problem solver" for Silicon Valley's most ruthless venture capitalist, Mackenzie Clyde's an expert at wrangling tech bros and their multimillions—even as her own shot at a windfall remains just out of reach. But now she's playing for higher stakes. The lightning-rod CEO of tech's hottest startup has just been murdered, leaving behind billions in "dead money" frozen in his will—and Mackenzie's boss is the company's chief investor.