The Diamond Age

Set in a 22nd-century world remade by nanotechnology, where tribes called phyles have largely replaced nation-states, Neal Stephenson's novel turns on a stolen book. John Percival Hackworth, a Neo-Victorian nanotechnologist near Shanghai, makes an illicit copy of A Young Lady's Illustrated Primer, an interactive device meant to raise a girl who can think for herself. When Harv and his gang waylay Hackworth, the copy reaches Harv's sister Nell, a neglected girl from the poor, tribeless thetes. Once she opens it, she becomes the heroine of a fairy tale and must search for twelve keys. The novel took both the Hugo and the Locus Award in 1996.

Kelly Starrett, who has daughters, took from it the question of how to raise girls who belong to the system yet can beat it and build a better one. 500 Startups partner Marvin Liao included it in his list of recommended books.