We hope you love the books people recommend! Just so you know, The CEO Library may collect a share of sales or other compensation from the links on this page.
This book has 4 recommendations
Irina Nica (Senior Marketing Manager/HubSpot)
I also pay attention to any book recommendations my friends post on Facebook. I started reading Trevor Noah’s Born a Crime after I saw Radu Marcusu, CEO of Upswing, recommending it. He swore by it that is was funny -- and it was! Until the last chapter. I remember listening to the audiobook on a train and crying my eyes out. So yeah. That happened.Radu Marcusu (CEO/Upswing)
My favorite non-business book, by far, is Trevor Noah’s Born a crime. If you are familiar with the “The Daily Show”, than you probably know who Noah is. He is a vivid character indeed but his book is even better. To really enjoy the experience you should listen to the book. His narration is authentic, he even interprets quotes from his characters in a very theatrical way, while bubbling over with excitement and good humor. I, however, have to admit, really enjoyed the way he managed to accurately insert pieces of psychological and social observation - quite an useful exercise for anybody who has to work on a daily basis with people.Lucas Morales (Founder & CEO/Zeall.us)
Depending on your interest and goals, if you are like me and always looking for the trends in the big picture then I highly recommend being an active contrarian reader. Read what no one else is reading. Your goal is to think outside the box. To look at the world and ask “why hasn’t this been solved?” And that gives you a roadmap as to what opportunities may exist for your entrepreneurial efforts. So to that, here’s a snapshot, in no particular order, of what might help you push your intellectual boundaries:
- Born a Crime: Stories from a South African Childhood by Trevor Noah
- 23 Things They Don't Tell You About Capitalism by Ha-Joon Chang
- Postcapitalism: A Guide to Our Future by Paul Mason
- Capital in the Twenty-First Century by Thomas Piketty
- Who Gets What--And Why: The New Economics of Matchmaking and Market Design by Alvin E. Roth
- The Political Economy of Participatory Economics by Michael Albert and Robin Hahnel
- The Zero Marginal Cost Society: The Internet of Things, the Collaborative Commons, and the Eclipse of Capitalism by Jeremy Rifkin
- Why America Misunderstands the World by Paul R. Pillar
- A Theory of Justice by John Rawls
- Prisoners of Geography by Tim Marshall
Bill Gates (Founder/Microsoft)
As a longtime fan of The Daily Show, I loved reading this memoir about how its host honed his outsider approach to comedy over a lifetime of never quite fitting in. Born to a black South African mother and a white Swiss father in apartheid South Africa, he entered the world as a biracial child in a country where mixed race relationships were forbidden. Much of Noah’s story of growing up in South Africa is tragic. Yet, as anyone who watches his nightly monologues knows, his moving stories will often leave you laughing.Amazon description
Trevor Noah’s unlikely path from apartheid South Africa to the desk of The Daily Show began with a criminal act: his birth. Trevor was born to a white Swiss father and a black Xhosa mother at a time when such a union was punishable by five years in prison. Living proof of his parents’ indiscretion, Trevor was kept mostly indoors for the earliest years of his life, bound by the extreme and often absurd measures his mother took to hide him from a government that could, at any moment, steal him away. Finally liberated by the end of South Africa’s tyrannical white rule, Trevor and his mother set forth on a grand adventure, living openly and freely and embracing the opportunities won by a centuries-long struggle.
Born a Crime is the story of a mischievous young boy who grows into a restless young man as he struggles to find himself in a world where he was never supposed to exist. It is also the story of that young man’s relationship with his fearless, rebellious, and fervently religious mother—his teammate, a woman determined to save her son from the cycle of poverty, violence, and abuse that would ultimately threaten her own life.
The stories collected here are by turns hilarious, dramatic, and deeply affecting. Whether subsisting on caterpillars for dinner during hard times, being thrown from a moving car during an attempted kidnapping, or just trying to survive the life-and-death pitfalls of dating in high school, Trevor illuminates his curious world with an incisive wit and unflinching honesty. His stories weave together to form a moving and searingly funny portrait of a boy making his way through a damaged world in a dangerous time, armed only with a keen sense of humor and a mother’s unconventional, unconditional love.
Get this book on Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Book Depository | iBooks
See more books recommended by
Irina Nica, Radu Marcusu, Lucas Morales, Bill Gates
See more books written by
Sources
- Interview with Irina Nica
- Radu Marcusu, CEO at Upswing, Dedicates up to 5 Nights per Week to Reading
- Lucas Morales, Founder & CEO of Zeall.us, Gave Entrepreneurship Its First Shot at the Age of 14
- 5 good summer reads