I inhaled Loonshots, by physicist-turned-entrepreneur Safi Bahcall. The
book considers the factors that allow good ideas—and especially, good,
crazy ideas—to get off the ground. Bahcall borrows from physics, writing
that most organizations exist in discrete phases. Some are good at the
new; some are better at refining what’s worked already. What I especially
liked was his analysis of those occasions when an organization straddled
the line between the two, managing to create the future while keeping
pace with the here and now.
Stephanie Cohen
Chief strategy officer, Goldman Sachs Group Inc.
Published on March 19, 2019
This is a compelling historical fiction based on a remarkable individual,
Varian Fry, who bravely worked to smuggle artists out of France during
World War II. Orringer evokes a vivid sense of Marseilles, the Vichy
functionaries, and the remarkable people committed to save the lives and
the cultural legacy of notable artists (Marc Chagall, Hannah Arendt, among
them). The clever schemes to organize escape routes across the
Pyrenees and the Atlantic carry the gripping narrative, but the insightful
exploration of the inner lives of the characters lifts this novel to a different
level. Highly recommended as an escape to a different time and place
when principles and lives were on the line every day, and personal choices
really mattered.
By Julie Orringer
Chairman and CEO, Clayton Dubilier & Rice LLC
Published on May 7, 2019