As I have done in years past, I put together a leadership reading list for 2023. Again, similar to last year's post, the list is in no particular order and includes both books that I have read (mostly in this past year) or ones that I haven't but are on my list to read.
The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer by Siddhartha Mukherjee: Mukherjee is a physician and researcher at Columbia University who won the 2011 Pulitzer Prize in General Non-fiction for his first book, a comprehensive history of cancer. Mukherjee summarizes the book and explains the title in his author's note, "In a sense, this is a military history—one in which the adversary is formless, timeless, and pervasive. Here, too, there are victories and losses, campaigns upon campaigns, heroes and hubris, survival and resilience—and inevitably, the wounded, the condemned, the forgotten, the dead. In the end, cancer truly emerges, as a nineteenth-century surgeon once wrote in a book’s frontispiece, as “the emperor of all maladies, the king of terrors.” While a bit long, it’s a great book that captured my interest and was hard to put down.
One Mission: How Leaders Build a Team of Teams by Chris Fussell, C.W. Goodyear, and General Stanley McChrystal: I read General McChrystal's earlier book, Team of Teams: New Rules of Engagement for a Complex World a few years ago and absolutely loved it. I picked this book up at an airport bookstore on a business trip several months ago, but I just haven't had the time to read it yet. I plan to read it soon!
The Gene: An Intimate History by Siddhartha Mukherjee: I literally just finished this book, and all I can say is that if I had read this book during college, my courses in molecular biology and genetics would have made a ton more sense! Just as he did for cancer, Mukherjee provides an in-depth history of genetics, explaining in easy to understand terms all of the early groundbreaking experimental studies in genetics, including Mendel's pea plant experiments, Darwin's travels to the Galapagos Islands, which resulted in his book The Origin of Species, and the discovery of the structure of DNA by Watson and Crick. The book proceeds all the way through the Human Genome Project to gene therapy and finally to the most recent discovery of CRISPR/Cas9 and its myriad applications.
Leaders: Myth and Reality by General Stanley McChrystal, Jeff Eggers, and Jay Mangone: I've had this book on my list since I first heard about it. General McChrystal profiles thirteen leaders throughout history. As many of you know, I really enjoy reading about history, and I love reading about historical leaders even more!
Churchill: Walking with Destiny by Andrew Roberts: As I mentioned in a couple of posts last year ("Broken Like an Egg Shell..." and "Keep Buggering On"), I read this massive biography on Winston Churchill by Andrew Roberts and absolutely loved it! It's become one of my favorite biographies on one of my favorite leaders. I highly, highly recommend this one, even though it will take you some time to get through the more than 1,100 pages of text!
The Evolution of Cooperation by Robert Axelrod: I wrote about Axelrod's research in a post earlier this past year ("Tit for Tat"), so this one has been on my list of books to read too. Axelrod conducted his famous computerized Prisoner's Dilemma tournament and found that the best strategy for playing repetitive (often called "sequential games" in game theory) games of the Prisoner's Dilemma was a strategy based upon cooperation called the "Tit for Tat" strategy. I imagine that this book delves into that subject in greater detail.
The Innovator's Prescription: A Disruptive Solution for Health Care by Clayton Christensen: I've read (and enjoyed) a number of books by the late Harvard Business School professor Clayton Christensen, who unfortunately died from complications of leukemia in 2020. Christensen first described his concept of "disruptive innovation" in his book, The Innovator's Dilemma. In this book, Christensen applies his theory to health care and suggests possible ways that our health care delivery system can be improved.
The Art of Strategy: A Game Theorist's Guide to Success in Business and Life by Avinash Dixit and Barry Nalebuff: I've been posting a lot about game theory this past year, and this book is largely to blame! These two economics professors revised their classic text, Thinking Strategically (which I've also read) with this book on how to use game theory to make better business decisions. It's an absolute gem!
The Last King: The Misunderstood Reign of George III by Andrew Roberts: I've heard a lot about George III in my life, going all the way back to elementary school when I first learned about the Revolutionary War (and most recently in the musical Hamilton!), but I can honestly say that I don't really know much about him. I put this book on my list because I enjoyed Roberts' biography of Winston Churchill so much (see above).
And There Was Light: Abraham Lincoln and the American Struggle by Jon Meacham: My wife and I recently had some bookshelves installed in our living room, and while I was putting all our books away, she asked me, "You really like Abraham Lincoln, don't you?" It was a rhetorical question. Here's one of the latest biographies on arguably our greatest Presidents, so naturally this one makes it to the list this year.
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