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Here’s What Bill Gates Thinks You Should Read This Summer

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Bill Gates may be in the middle of some conscious uncoupling and fallout over his ties to Jeffrey Epstein, but the billionaire Microsoft cofounder and philanthropist has still found the time to read. 

On Monday, Gates released his annual summer reading list in a post on his GatesNotes blog. “I find myself reaching for books about the complicated relationship between humanity and nature,” he wrote, theorizing that his choices were influenced by the Covid-19 pandemic and his work on preventing climate change. “Whatever the reason, most of the books on my summer reading list this year touch on what happens when people come into conflict with the world around them.”

In contrast with his 2020 reading list, which was all nonfiction, Gates includes one novel this time around, hoping “at least one [of these books] will spark your interest this summer.”

Lights Out: Pride, Delusion, and the Fall of General Electric GE by Thomas Gryta. This deep dive into General Electric’s “downfall,” as Gates describes it, offers an “unflinching look” at the “mistakes and missteps” made by the once-storied company’s leadership. “Lights Out finally gave me many of the answers I was seeking” as to how “a company as big and successful as GE could fail,” Gates writes. He recommends it as a learning opportunity for anyone in a leadership role.

Under a White Sky: The Nature of the Future by Elizabeth Kolbert. Gates describes this nonfiction read by Kolbert, a longtime staff writer at The New Yorker, as the “most direct” example of “human versus nature,” which details a variety of methods—including a type of genetic engineering and geoengineering (large-scale efforts to manipulate climate systems to prevent climate change)—in which people directly interfere with the outdoors. “Like all of her books, it’s an enjoyable read,” he says.

A Promised Land by Barack Obama. The first of two memoirs from the 44th president is  “unusually honest” about the White House experience, Gates writes, including “how isolating it is to be the person who ultimately calls the shots.” A Promised Land covers Obama’s tenure up through the 2011 mission that killed Osama bin Laden, which Gates calls a “fascinating look” at how the president steered both the country and his family through tough times. 

The Overstory by Richard Powers. The only novel to make Gates’ summer reading list (“one of the most unusual” he’s read in years, he says) tells the story of nine people’s lives and their connections with trees. “Even though the book takes a pretty extreme view” of the need to protect forests, Gates writes, he says he “was moved by each character’s passion for their cause and finished the book eager to learn more.”

An Elegant Defense: The Extraordinary New Science of the Immune System: A Tale of Four Lives by Matt Richtel. This pre-pandemic examination of the human immune system is “ a valuable read that will help you understand what it takes to stop Covid-19,” Gates writes. Richtel, a writer at the New York Times NYT , spotlights four people forced to manage their immune systems through different means, a device Gates says keeps the subject “accessible” yet “super interesting.” 


Previous book lists from Bill and Melinda French Gates:

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