Notations From the Grid (Week-End Edition): As Summer Looms...

As we begin the Summer, our team decided to share this courtesy of Alan Murray of FOrtune as he reminds us about great books for the Summer As we say Summer here we come!! If you are looking for a book to take to the beach this summer, CEO Dailyreaders have lots of suggestions. When we asked the question: “What’s the best book you’ve read in the past year,” both to Fortune 500 CEOs and to CEO Daily readers in general, we got more than 100 suggestions. Below are the five books that showed up on both lists. • Bad Blood, by John Carreyrou. The story of Theranos is this year’s runaway favorite. If you haven’t read it yet, your choice is easy. • Principles, by Ray Dalio, wins second place. This is not your normal light beach read, filling nearly 600 pages. But it offers the billionaire’s fascinating and unique approach to business and investing. And it doubles as an effective weight to hold down your beach towel. • Grant, by Ron Chernow. A gripping biography that will challenge everything you thought you knew about leadership. • Sapiens, by Yuval Harari. This thoughtful book that provides a provocative framework for thinking about our world. • And finally, Shoe Dog, by Phil Knight. This one has been resting by my bed side for a decade, and until last week, I let it rest But prodded by CEO Dailyreaders, I finally turned to it, and finished yesterday. It is a beautifully written founder’s story, and definitely makes my list of the top 10 best business books of all time. Honorable mention: I had the opportunity over the weekend to hear Henry Timms, the new CEO of the Lincoln Center for Performing Arts, talk about his book New Power. I wrote about this when it came out last year, and still think it’s a must-read for any business leader trying to understand how the tools of power have changed in the social media era. It only got one mention in our survey, but deserves more. News below. And reserve time today to read Polina Marinova’s fascinating profile of Andreessen Horowitz managing director Jeff Jordan, which is in the July issue of Fortune magazine, and out online this morning.  We will be going dark through July 4 here in the United States as we wish all in the United States a safe and Happy 4th of July.