With the official start of summer upon us, we hope you find time to enjoy a good book by the pool or in the comfort of your home. To that end, the summer reading list below is comprised of a variety of books that we read recently and think you’ll enjoy.
SUMMER READING LIST
The Psychology of Money: Timeless Lessons on Wealth, Greed and Happiness, Morgan Housel
Jason Zweig, of the Wall Street Journal, calls The Psychology of Money “one of the best and most original finance books in years” and our Investment Committee agrees! Housel posits that doing well with money isn’t necessarily about what you know; it’s about how you behave. In this gem of a book, he shares 19 stories exploring the strange ways people think about money and teaches us how make sense of this very important – and complicated – topic.
Klara and the Sun, Kazuo Ishiguro
In his latest novel, Nobel laureate Ishiguro tells the story of Klara, an Artificial Friend bought by parents as a mechanical companion for their teenage children. While Klara is a technically a machine – at one point compared to a vacuum cleaner – throughout the story she is portrayed as observing more carefully and feeling more deeply than humans. Much like Ishiguro’s other works, in this masterful and magical novel, Klara makes us confront fundamental questions about life, mortality and what it means to love.
The Company I Keep: My Life in Beauty, Leonard Lauder
This memoir of Leonard Lauder, the chairman emeritus and former CEO of The Estee Lauder Companies, chronicles the remarkable family business story of the Lauder family and the creation of one of the leading cosmetic/beauty companies in the world. Leonard’s mother, Estee Lauder, started the business in the 1930s in her kitchen and sold the beauty products she created there to her friends, neighbors and anyone else who would listen. When Leonard officially joined the company in 1958, the company had a handful of products under a single brand which were sold in prestigious department stores across the U.S. Under Leonard’s leadership, the company grew to over 25 brands. The company was taken public in 1994 and now has a market capitalization of over $108 billion! A fascinating family history, filled with business and leadership lessons.
22 Talk Shifts: Tools To Transform Leadership in Business, in Partnership, and in Life, Krister Ungerboeck
22 Talk Shifts is a how-to guide for compassionate communication in business and family relationships. Ungerboeck focuses our attention on the powerful impact of the specific words we do – or don’t – use, choose, and say. This quick read, authored by a prominent St. Louis family business leader, shows us that little language changes can make a big difference in business, relationships and life.
Countdown 1945: The Extraordinary Story of the Atomic Bomb and the 116 Days That Changed the World, Chris Wallace with Mitch Weiss
Countdown 1945 tells the behind-the-scenes story of the 116 days leading up to August 6, 1945, when President Truman gives the order to drop the bomb on Hiroshima. It explores the motivations and mindsets of the iconic figures who were part of this historical inflection point, including Albert Einstein, lead researcher J. Robert “Oppie” Oppenheimer and the Soviet spies who secretly infiltrate his team, the pilots of the plane selected to drop the bomb, and, of course, the untested president who would change the course of history with his decision. A gripping and emotional read!
