It is difficult to choose top books for the year—not the least because this is my first time publishing such a list. However, as promised last week, here is a list of books that are subjectively worth sharing.
1929 by Andrew Ross Sorkin
This book is about the stock market crash of 1929 and touches on the Great Depression that followed. The author has reconstructed a day-by-day account of the dealmaking, brinkmanship and fragility of the Wall Street bigwigs of the age. It is also a timely read given the fears about an AI bubble, which we talked about last month.
Chip War by Chris Miller
This book takes you on a captivating ride from the beginnings of the semiconductor industry to the present day. Semiconductors had somewhat faded from public consciousness until the 2020-2023 global chip shortage. However, the industry is as competitive and fast-moving as ever, and increasingly intertwined with geopolitics.
Founder vs Investor by Elizabeth Zalman and Jerry Neumann
This book about venture capital pits the viewpoints of a founder against those of an investor. Founders and investors often do not see eye-to-eye on topics such as money, valuation, control, exits, etc. The authors use a dialogue format to bring out their agreements, disagreements and everything in between.
Golden State by Michael Hiltzik
California rose from a Western frontier to the epicenter of American innovation in a rather short time. Its history is replete with societal upheavals, frontier spirit and boom-and-bust cycles. This book examines California’s history, and brings the reader to the challenges and opportunities of today.
The Thinking Machine by Stephen Witt
Nvidia’s hardware was behind AlexNet—a groundbreaking image classifier released in 2012—that kicked off a renaissance in deep learning. Nvidia and its longtime CEO, Jensen Huang, have not caught a breath since. This book presents a gripping tale about Huang, Nvidia and the rise of AI.
Jim and I are long members of the UChicago who stopped out for lack of time. I hope that at the January meeting you will tell us more about each book so that we will read one of them soon. It seems to me from your thumbnail descriptions description that Founder vs. Investor is built for lively discussions in several directions. Golden State sounds like great background for all of us because we were not raised here. Yours, Dotty.College '57 and Jim Guyot
Thanks - added these to my list of holds at the library.