It’s important for me to keep up-to-date and informed regarding current affairs – not only global politics, but also looking at the world’s business leaders and what has fueled their success. I also get a lot from reading the history of specific issues and events.
March 30, 2022
A great book I read recently is Indra Nooyi’s new memoir My Life in Full: Work, Family, and Our Future. Nooyi, the former chair and CEO of PepsiCo, is one of the only women to run a Fortune 50 company and among the most strategic thinkers of our time. In the memoir, she describes the events that shaped her life as a woman of color and an immigrant, from her childhood and early education in 1960s India to the Yale School of Management to her rise as a corporate consultant and strategist who was appointed to one of the most senior executive ranks in business.
February 19, 2022
In light of Holocaust Remembrance Day, it seems like a powerful moment to recommend these three books to read in succession. I’m hoping no one in the world will experience the horror, participate in, or be the victim of these types of atrocities fueled by racism and divisive, egotistical goals again. All The Frequent Troubles of Our Days by Rebecca Donner is the true story of an American woman in the German resistance in Nazi-ruled Germany. Mildred Harnack was 26 when her PhD studies took her to Berlin. From 1932, a small band of activists started holding secret meetings in her apartment.
January 28, 2022
This was a big year for reading for me as I embraced audiobooks and can listen during all my down or travel time. I read a very human story with lots of familiar political friends and relationships Both/And by Huma Abedin and The World As It Is by Ben Rhodes. Both of these books are definitely worth reading.
January 3, 2022
Two great history books that I’ve read and that I recommend reading together are Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind and A Short History of Humanity: A New History of Old Europe. Sapiens, written by the historian Yuval Noah Harari, does an excellent job of tracing the great story of the rise of our own species and documents humanity’s creation and evolution throughout the ages. Looking into the intersections of biology and history, Dr. Harari takes his narrative all the way back to 70,000 years ago, when the first beginnings of modern cognition began to take place in homo sapiens. He then goes on to trace the start of the agricultural revolution, the scientific revolution, the industrial revolution, the information revolution, and all the way up to where we were in 2014: the biotechnological revolution.
December 8, 2021
