Recommended reading for leaders

 

By Orlando Martins, CEO and Founder.

In my line of work reading, researching, analysing and adding context before drawing conclusions is a key part of the job. There is one part of the job however that I am starting to lose patience for and that is the digesting of pseudo-academic papers that go on for far too long (in one case 47 pages too long).

It isn’t that I won’t do it, it is simply that for me to bother to read past the initial executive summary, I have to be really engaged in the subject and feel optimistic that there is a chance of me learning something meaningful. It is for this reason that I still read books. I know many think it is a thing of the past but there is a joy in turning pages, underlining, annotating for later and allowing my brain the space to absorb the message or some entertaining thought.

This is a rolling blog which the team and I will continue to grow and include more excellent reads. Please feel free to email me directly at [email protected] with suggestions.

Non-Fiction

Biographical 

Genghis Khan: life, death and resurrection – John Man 
Genghis Khan – creator of the greatest empire the world has ever seen – is one of history’s immortals. John Man’s towering achievement in this book, enriched by his experiences in China and Mongolia today, is to bring this little-known story vividly and viscerally to life.

Duveen: The Story of the Most Spectacular Art Dealer of All Time – SN Behrman
A startling number of masterpieces now in American museums are there because of the shrewdness of one man, Joseph Duveen, art dealer to John D. Rockefeller, Andrew Mellon, Henry Clay Frick, and William Randolph Hearst. In a series of articles originally published in The New Yorker, playwright S.N. Behrman evokes the larger-than-life Duveen and reveals the wheeling and dealing, subterfuge, and spirited drama behind the sale of nearly — but not quite —priceless Rembrandts, Vermeers, Turners, and Bellinis.

Culture

Behind the Beautiful Forevers: Life, Death and Hope in a Mumbai Slum – Katherine Boo
Katherine Boo spent three years with the residents of Annawadi, a slum near Mumbai airport, documenting the dreams, disappointments and inspired improvisations of the families who call it home.

Psychology

Strangers Drowning: Voyages to the Brink of Moral Extremity – Larissa MacFarquhar
What does it mean to devote yourself wholly to helping others? In Strangers Drowning, Larissa MacFarquhar seeks out people living lives of extreme ethical commitment, and tells their intimate stories: their stubborn integrity and their compromises; their bravery and their recklessness; their wrenching dilemmas.

Mindset – Carol Dweck
Dweck explains why it’s not just our abilities and talent that bring us success-but whether we approach them with a fixed or growth mindset. She makes clear why praising intelligence and ability doesn’t foster self-esteem and lead to accomplishment, but may actually jeopardize success.

Fiction

West – Carys Davies
When Cy Bellman, American settler and widowed father of Bess, reads in the newspaper that huge ancient bones have been discovered in a Kentucky swamp, he leaves his small Pennsylvania farm and young daughter to find out if the rumours are true: that the giant monsters are still alive, and roam the uncharted wilderness beyond the Mississippi River.

 

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