I last posted a reading list in early May highlighting at a few great books I read in the month of April. Coming to the end of the summer, I thought it may be worthwhile if I highlighted my summer reading. It has been a busy few months of reading, and there have been a few gems. At the bottom I will highlight 3 books that I think are well worth your time. For the truly curious, I thought I would list first everything I’ve read.
Life Planning
First a little background, for the last year I have been hard at work on a rough draft of a book focused on how people who are or become wealthy can best engage with their wealth where it becomes a strategic tool to enhance their lives. In the course of that process, the importance of heeding the Delphic maxim to “Know Thyself” has become so apparent. I wanted to dive in and explore more deeply different processes, tools, and questions for doing so. Here were 5 recent works on that front
- Life Planning for You – George Kinder
- Living the Life You Were Meant to Live – Tom Paterson
- When to Jump – Mike Lewis
- The Top 5 Regrets of the Dying – Bronnie Ware
- Family – The Compact Among Generations – Jay Hughes
Management
- Managing the Professional Services Firm – David Maister
- HBR Guide to Making Every Meeting Matter
- Captain Class – Sam Walker
Old Men Telling Great Tales
- I Love Capitalism – Ken Langone’s new autobiography
- When I Stop Talking You’ll Know I’m Dead – Jerry Weintraub
Other interesting stories
- Conspiracy – Ryan Holiday
- Tiger Woods – Jeff Benedict
- Molly’s Game – Molly Bloom
- Wild – Cheryl Strayed
The Books You Should Read
Conspiracy – Ryan Holiday
Ryan Holiday shifts from his more recent works reinterpreting Stoicism into a modern context with this fascinating tale – I couldn’t put it down. Plucked straight from the headlines, Holiday dives deeply into Hulk Hogan’s lawsuit of Gawker Media after Gawker posted online a sex tape in which Hogan appeared. What surfaced after an almost 5 year long legal proceeding was that Hogan’s litigation effort was funded by the billionaire founder of Paypal, Peter Thiel. Holiday found himself in the somewhat unique position of being friends with both the vanquished (Gawker/Nick Denton) and the champion (Thiel), and Conspiracy is his recounting of Thiel’s near decade long attempt to bring about the end of Gawker.
What makes the work that much more enjoyable, aside from the made for the movies plot, is how Holiday weaves in a historical and reflective look back at past conspiracies and the pre-conditions and steps that lead to either success or failure when traditional methods for attaining or using power are no longer viable. Can’t say enough good stuff about this one.
Tiger Woods – Jeff Benedict
There have been many biographies written about Tiger, and some have called this one the best. While Benedict breaks new ground in some parts of the book, the intensive focus on how Tiger was raised and the nature of his childhood were truly eye-opening. While we are all familiar with his denouement that fateful Thanksgiving weekend, what Benedict shows is that the series of events that culminated there, were in some ways an inevitability for Tiger.
Managing the Professional Services Firm – David Maister
Maister, a former professor at Harvard Business School turned consultant to the consultant, expertly delves into the unique structures, management challenges and opportunities of firms where the assets of the business walk out the door each night. In a world that is increasingly becoming more focused on the delivery of services or services alongside a product, Maister was a prophet for the future given that this work was written in 1994.