2019 H2 Reading List

As the year comes to a close I continue to be spending way too much on my Kindle and maintaining a dangerously high BIP (books in progress) but I have to keep up with my mid-year reading rate.

In July, I made the decision to mix things up professionally (get back into an office, become an IC again, return to the Enterprise) so some of the selections reflect that change. Looking forward to lots of reading over the holiday break as the decade comes to a close.

Business, Tech, and Leadership

The Burden of Command by John Edwards — I haven’t finished this yet, but some folks will be surprised that a Law Enforcement leader can provide solid examples of “servant leadership” but this book does just that.

T Rowe Price: The Man, The Company, and The Investment Philosophy by Cornelius C. Bond — it was interesting to get an inkling of the management and investing principles at play before I took my new role in September.

An Introduction to Enterprise Architecture: Third Edition by Scott Bernard. Just like the title says, an introduction to the strange world of the EA. I don’t deal with this nonsense much in my day job. I’m just an engineer.

The Product Mindset: Succeed in the Digital Economy by Changing the Way your Organization Thinks by David DeWolf and Jessica Hall — this was a must read given how much I worked with Three Pillar Global.

The Unicorn Project: A Novel about Developers, Digital Disruption, and Thriving in the Age of Data by Gene Kim — if you haven’t heard of this well…

Outcomes over Output: Why customer behavior is the key metric for business success by Joshua Seiden — if you have any expose to the Agile/Lean community you’ve probably heard this this phrase a lot. Need to finish.

Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup by John Carreyrou — a highly entertaining expose about all thing that can can go wrong in a startup with an inexperienced CEO and how so many elder statesman were fleeced.

Fearless Change: Patterns for Introducing New Ideas by Mary Lynn Mann and Linda Rising — just started this in the last week. Sort of a disappointment but I’ll keep reading.

How to Manage Cybersecurity Risk: A Security Leader’s Roadmap with Open FAIR by Christopher Carlson — also just bought this but it is off to a good start and the process for a new security leader taking the helm at a struggling org is (shocker) not that much different from an Ops leader doing the same.

History & Foreign Policy

Against the Tide: Rickover’s Leadership Principles and the Rise of the Nuclear Navy by Dave Oliver — one of the best books of the year thanks to Scott Nasello for the recommendation.

Fire and Fortitude: The US Army in the Pacific War, 1941–1943 by John McManus. I read pretty much everything by McManus. It had new and juicy details about the incompetence of Douglas MacArthur that inspired much hate from right wing critics on Amazon but hey, YOLO.

Taking Command: General J Lawton Collins from Guadalcanal to Utah Beach and Victory in Europe by H Paul Jeffers. “Lightning Joe” is no stranger to any student of WW2 history but I didn’t realize he had served in Guadalcanal. Another example of stellar leadership

The 11th Airborne Brick by Marvin Miller. A short, oddly written book about the the US airborne division you’ve never heard of.

George Marshall: Defender of the Republic by David L. Roll — I’m no stranger to Marshall but this connects the dots. Still not done yet, but will absolutely finish and this may lead me to reading about the early Cold War.