2015 Holiday Reading List
A Full Life: Reflections at Ninety by Jimmy Carter. From his childhood in rural Georgia to a lifetime spent in the international spotlight, former U.S. President Jimmy Carter has embodied the American dream. Here he tells his life story with his characteristic frankness, presenting a wonderfully illustrative tale. President Carter is thoroughly captivating in this most recent work, guiding the reader on a tour of one of the most fascinating lives in American history.
Who Gets What - And Why by Alvin E Roth. Who better than a Nobel Prize winner to offer entrepreneurs a better understanding of market design? In Who Gets What─ and Why Economic Sciences Laureate Alvin Roth, who has designed “matching markets” to help medical students find residencies and kidney donors find patients, takes a look at world markets that aren’t necessarily shaped by money, and how the players within these markets can discover the most beneficial outcomes.
Life Is Good: The Book by Bert Jacobs, John Jacobs. Since founding their company in 1994, brothers Bert and John Jacobs have grown the Life is Good brand from a street phenomenon into an international company worth more than $100 million. In a story sure to resonate with Next Gens and entrepreneurs, the brothers relay how optimism drove their success and illustrate the “superpowers” that everyone unknowingly possesses. Life is Good: The Book is the new how-to novel for success in business — and life.
America's Bank: The Epic Struggle to Create the Federal Reserve by Roger Lowenstein. The struggle to create the Federal Reserve System in 1913 now seems a harbinger of the continued debate around present-day banking regulations. In America’s Bank, renowned financial journalist Lowenstein illuminates a period of great transformation and brings to life the key figures that helped lay the foundation for the U.S. financial industry. Readers are sure to be mesmerized by the book’s gripping depiction of the founding of the Fed.
Hamilton: An American Musical CD by Various. The history of JPMorgan Chase is forever tied to Alexander Hamilton, who lost his famous duel in 1804 to Aaron Burr, founder of the Manhattan Water Company, the firm’s earliest predecessor. Today Hamilton’s life is honored in song and story. The soundtrack of Broadway’s hottest show captures the incomparable life of a Founding Father with unforgettable tunes that mix hip-hop and history with energy and elegy.
I Am Because You Are: How the Spirit of Ubuntu Inspired an Unlikely Friendship and Transformed a Community by Jacob Lief, Andrea Thompson. As a college student visiting South Africa, Jacob Lief discovered the true meaning of humanity and went on to found the Ubuntu Education Fund. I Am Because You Are is both a rough translation of the word “Ubuntu” and a manifestation of the idea itself. In this enthralling book, Lief details his friendship with a local teacher, and how their devotion to education helped shape their vision for the Fund, which offers an innovative model for lifting needy children out of poverty.
Maya Lin: Topologies by Maya Lin. Celebrated as the architect of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, , 2014 Gish Prize winner Maya Lin is a true public artist, creating fascinating works designed to highlight the landscape. Topologies showcases 50 projects from a brilliant career spanning three decades. From oceans in the mountains to rivers indoors, Lin redefines “environmentally conscious” and blurs the distinction between art and architecture.