Andy Ozment: Vulnerability Discovery & Software Security
- Fascinating juxtaposition of cybersecurity and economics
Gianluca Stringhiny: Protecting Online Services from Malicious Activity
- Outstanding examples of legit machine learning; still reading
Andrew Magnusson: Practical Vulnerability Management: A Strategic Approach to Managing Cyber Risk
- Beautifully written and informative
Gregory C. Rasner: CYBERSECURITY & THIRD PARTY RISK: THIRD PARTY THREAT HUNTING
- An eye-opening call to action and how-to
Steve Krantz: Cyber Security for Seniors: A Nerd's Eye View
- Turns an overwhelming burden into manageable steps
Bruce Schnier: Secrets & Lies: Digital Security in a Networked World
- A classic
Ross Anderson: Security Engineering: A Guide To Building Dependable Distributed Systems
- The best book in the world of its kind; still reading
Brad Smith and Carol Ann Browne: Tools and Weapons: The Promise and The Peril of The Digital Age
- Captivating tour of digital revolution through the lenses of history and geopolitics
Edward Ashford Lee: The Coevolution: The Entwined Futures of Humans and Machines
- Am I a mostly unwitting agent of human/digital system evolution?
Jarrod Barto: S.O.A.R To New Heights: Incident Response of The Future
- Nothing can elevate an information security program like a high-performing security automation group. Barto covers some, but not all, of what it takes to great such a group lead them to optimal success. See my book for the rest of the story.
Robert C Martin: Clean Code: A Handbook of Agile Software Craftsmanship
- Indispensable; still reading
Kaner et al: Testing Computer Software
- A rigorous (though perhaps unintended) defense of test automation
Roy Osherove: The Art of Unit Testing: with examples in C#
- Made me better
Scott Rosenburg: Dreaming in Code: Two Dozen Programmers, Three Years, 4,732 Bugs, and One Quest for Transcendent Software
- A cautionary tale
Eric S. Raymond: The Cathedral & the Bazaar: Musings on Linux and Open Source by an Accidental Revolutionary
- Blessed transparency
Joshua D. Carter: The New Programmer's Survival Manual
- Happily comprehensive; changed my paradigm
Dr. Ken Knapton: Unveiling Tech Debt: A Business Leaders Guide To Measuring and Managing Enterprise Tech Debt Leverage
- A monumentally important book addressing the theme that is most likely to divide business people and technologists
Nicole Forsgren, PhD et al: Accelerate: The Science of Lean Software and DevOps: Building and Scaling High Performing Technology Organizations
- A rigorously researched substantiation and explanation of the ideals and practices that allow software creators to achieve the transformative outcomes that they seek
Gene Kim, et al: The Phoenix Project: A Novel about IT, DevOps, and Helping Your Business Win
- Spectacular
Gene Kim: The Unicorn Project: A Novel about Developers, Digital Disruption, and Thriving in the Age of Data
- A moving sequel
Eliyahu M. Goldratt and Jeff Cox: The Goal: A Process of Ongoing Improvement
- Not a software book but
- Introduced the Theory of Constraints
- Influenced generations of leaders and the three books noted above
Cathy O'Neil: Weapons of Math Destruction: How Big Data Increases Inequality And Threatens Democracy
- It sickens me to know how pervasive software and big data making life worse and not better for so many
DeMarco and Lister: Peopleware: Productive Projects and Teams
- THE classic; completed third read in December 2022...
Patterson et al: Crucial Conversations: Tools for talking when the stakes are high
- Read it four times; will read it again
Robert V. Keteyian: Do You Know What I Mean: Discovering Your Personal Communication Style
- A great book written by a great man; second read was even more impactful
Will Larson: Staff Engineer: Leadership beyond the management track
- The writing, reasoning, and references in this book are top tier
Will Larson: An Elegant Puzzle - Systems of Engineering Management
- Thoughtful and compelling - I want to read every book in Larson's list of recommended books and papers
Michael P. Nichols, PhD: The Lost Art of Listening: How Learning to Listen Can Improve Relationships
- Finished the first read and immediately started over on a second pass
Ed Catmull: Creativity, Inc. Overcoming the Unseen Forces That Stand in the Way of True Inspiration
- Leaders and workers see their shared objectives and circumstances SO differently...
Jerry Z. Muller: The Tyranny of Metrics
- Poorly conceived metrics are a classic anti-patterns for leadership - they demotivate, distract, and disenfranchise those who do the work
Dixon et al: The Effortless Experience: Conquering The New Battleground For Customer Loyalty
- Rigorously researched explanation of what we all know about good customer service
Mehta et al: Customer Success: How Innovative Companies are Reducing Churn and Growing Recurring Revenue
- Shed new light on my career in software startups
Robert M. Pirsig: Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance
- What is the nature of (software) quality?
Walter Isaacson: Steve Jobs
- Build simple, useful, beautiful products, but not at the expense of the people around you
Bill Kenney: Conquer Your Rebrand: Build a B2B brand that customers love and competitors envy
- A must-read for everyone building a team, a product, or both
- Read it five times; will read it again
Gary Chapman: The Five Love Languages: Secrets to Love that Lasts
- My love language is Words of Affirmation
Herbert Benson, M.D.: The Relaxation Response
- A gift that I'm learning to give myself more often
Chip and Dan Heath: SWITCH: How To Change Things When Change is Hard
- Truly inspiring stories; read it twice now
Shad Helmstetter: What to Say When You Talk to Your Self
- I rejected it on first reading, but thankfully I've never been able to shake it
Eric Tyson: Personal Finance For Dummies
- Very helpful
John Higham: 360 Degrees Longitude: One Family's Journey Around the World
- A funny and thought provoking explanation of the power travel to bring about growth, healing, insight
Harvey Karp, M.D.: The Happiest Baby on the Block
- This book saved my life after the arrival of our first child.
Dr. Hetty van de Rijt and Dr. Frans X. Plooij: The Wonder Weeks
- Insightful explanation of predictable milestones in infants' cognitive development, and the behavior changes attendant to those milestones
Lisa Guernsey: Into the Minds of Babes: How Screen Time Affects Children from Birth to Age Five
- The author is just as guilt-ridden as I am about using screen time as a pacifier and/or babysitter
Dr. Louis Borgenicht and Joe Borgenicht: The Baby Owner's Manual
- I've given it as a gift as well
Dr. Brenton D. Yorgason: Capturing Your Dreams: Six Disciplines that will Transform Your Life and Leadership
- I'm impressed by the author's life
Lucinda Bassett: Midwest Center's Attacking Anxiety & Depression
- Opened my eyes to the power of positive thinking and self-directed cognitive behavioral therapy
Gretchen Rubin: Better Than Before: Mastering the Habits of our Everyday Lives
- Been quoting it for years - so glad to have now (Apr 2025) read it cover to cover
Paul R Scheele: PhotoReading
- So many great books, so little time
Joyce Wycoff: Mindmapping: Your Personal Guide to Exploring Creativity and Problem-Solving
- Get creative with learning
D. Trinidad Hunt: Learning To Learn: Maximizing Your Performance Potential
- "We are all natural learners" - so true!
Cal Newport: Deep Work: Rules For Focused Success In A Distracted World
- I want to be like Cal when I grow up
Jackie Robinson: I Never Had It Made: An Autobiography of Jackie Robinson
- I stand in awe and appreciation
Terry Ryan: The Prize Winner of Defiance, Ohio: How My Mother Raised 10 Kids on 25 Words or Less
- I can carry on, doing more with less, and be like Evelyn Ryan
Joshua Wolf Shenk: Lincoln's Melancholy: How Depression Challenged a President and Fueled His Greatness
- Never give up
Daniel James Brown: The Boys in the Boat: Nine Americans and Their Epic Quest for Gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics
- Gripping though I knew the outcome
Louis Fischer: Gandhi: His Life and Message for the World
- Tremendous
- INDIA
Simon Winchester: The Professor and the Madman: A Tale of Murder, Insanity, and the Making of the Oxford English Dictionary
- Unforgettable
Samuel Clemens: The Autobiography of Mark Twain, Edited by Charles Neider
- Humor and hubris can take you far
Dick Van Dyke: My Lucky Life In and Out of Show Business
- Even principled persons succumb in social environments that bring them down
Nate Schweber: This America of Ours: Bernard and Avis DeVoto and the Forgotten Fight to Save the Wild
- The DeVotos lifted each other and everyone else
Jia Jiang: Rejection Proof: How to Beat Fear and Become Invincible
- As entertaining as it is informative
Maxwell King: The Good Neighbor: The Life and Work of Fred Rogers
- "All I can say is, it's worth the struggle to discover who you really are."
Richard Hough: Captain James Cook: A Biography
- I was telling people about this for months
Ronald W. Clark: The Survival of Charles Darwin: A Biography of a Man and an Idea
- A great primer in case I decide to dip into bioinformatics
Billy Casper with James Parkinson and Lee Benson: The Big Three and Me
- A uniquely inspiring story from the world of sports
Rand H. Packer: A Lion and a Lamb
- An incomparable addition to the marriage between religion and sports
APJ Abdul Kalam: Wings of Fire, An Autobiography, with Arun Tiwari
- A thrilling story of an individual and his impact on nation-building in India through science and engineering
- INDIA
Christopher McDougall: Born To Run: A Hidden Tribe, Superathletes, and the Greatest Race the World Has Never Seen
- Engrossing: read it cover to cover in 4 sittings under 12 hours - definitely going to buy some huaraches
Paramhansa Yogananda: Autobiography of a Yogi
- A singular contribution to the biographical genre
- INDIA
_____________: Biography of Thomas Jefferson...
- At the age of 18 (1996) I visited Jefferson's home in Monticello, Virginia, a historical site. I bought a paperback biography in the gift shop and began to read it on the flight home finishing shortly thereafter.
- None of the biographies now available at https://monticelloshop.org/collections/thomas-jefferson-collection look familiar.
Margot Lee Shetterly: Hidden Figures: The American Dream and the Untold Story of the Black Women Mathematicians who Helped Win the Space Race
- Thrilled to have these new engineering, mathematician role models
Mahatma Gandhi: An Autobiography: The Story of My Experiments With Truth
- The greatest agent of social change who ever lived
Marc J. Seifer: Wizard: The Life and Times of Nikola Tesla: Biography of a Genius
- Even the greatest minds can do more when their owners invest strongly in physical, mental, and emotional health
Emily Bracale: In the Lyme-Light: Portraits of Illness and Healing
- Beautiful visually and in prose, one of the most important autobiographies I've read - a triumph of life and teaching
Michelle Obama: Becoming
- It is a big challenge to participate meaningfully in our democracy as a citizen and voter, and increasingly crucial that we do so. Having read of the ordeal that the Obamas went through to participate at the highest level, I am inspired to do better.
Tim Wu: The Master Switch: The Rise and Fall of Information Empires
- Long live the free and open Internet
Ken Alder: The Measure of All Things: The Seven-Year Odyssey and Hidden Error Tat Transformed The World
- Reinforced my sense of integrity
Leonard Shlain: Art & Physics: Parallel Visions in Space, Time, and Light
- Astonishing
Stephane Groueff: Manhattan Project: The Untold Story of the Making of the Atomic Bomb
- Astonishing / horrifying
John G. Kemeny: Man and the Computer
- Remarkably prescient predictions of the rise of computing and software
Peter L. Bernstein: Against the Gods: The Remarkable Story of Risk
- Mathematics calls to me
Jared Diamond: Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies
- We can do better
Alexander Waugh: Time: Its Origin, Its Enigma, Its History
- Ever wonder how the day's of the week got their names?
Rebecca Skloot: The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks
- Shocking
Stephen Hawking: A Brief History of Time: From The Big Bang to Black Holes
- Exciting
Stephen Hawking: Black Holes and Baby Universes and other Essays
- ...and Stephen Hawking's Universe on PBS was very good as well.
Siddhartha Mukherjee: The Gene: An Intimate History
- "Three profoundly destabilizing scientific ideas ricochet through the twentieth century... the atom, the byte, the gene."
Susan Strome and Dustin Updike: Specifying and protecting germ cell fate (Nature Reviews, July 2015, Vol 16)
- Dustin, a friend of mine, did the illustrations himself. The prose and artwork are superb.
Buzz Aldrin with Leonard David: Mission to Mars: My Vision for Space Exploration
- Energizing
Alice Axtell: Interactions Between Plant Water-Stress and Neonicotinoid Insecticides on Spider Mite Infestations in Corn
- First dissertation I'd read; so impressed by the effort required
Michael Ellis: Super-Resolution Image Reconstruction Applied to Medical Ultrasound
- This could revolutionize medical imaging
- Still disturbing to thinknas L. Friedman: From Beirut To Jerusalem
- Intriguing account of a world-shaping conflict
Ian Bremmer: The End of the Free Market: Who Wins the War Between States and Corporations?
- Capitalism in world affairs
Peter Conti-Brown: The Power and Independence of the Federal Reserve
- Understand the present through interdisciplinary examination of the past - joyfully read it cover to cover twice
Michael Pollan: The Omnivore’s Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals
- Can't stop thinking about it
Steven D. Levitt & Stephen J. Dubner: Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything
- Interdisciplinary approaches are powerful
Greg Mortenson: Three Cups of Tea: One Man's Mission to Promote Peace... One School at a Time
- A good read even for a sham
Margaret Thatcher: The Path To Power
- So much more substantial than its counterpart
Richard Preston: The Hot Zone: A Terrifying True Story
- Not helpful for germophobes
Matthew B. Crawford: Shop Class as Soulcraft: AN INQUIRY INTO THE VALUE OF WORK
- Overcome corporate and social antipatterns with manual re-engagement and devotion to craft
- Making the case that a purposeful corporate culture can be good for employees and for the bottom line
Nora Ephron: I Feel Bad About My Neck: And Other Thoughts On Being A Woman
- Delightfully funny stories unfolded by a master of storytelling and humor
Dr. Marty Grothe: Viva la Repartee: Clever Comebacks & Witty Retorts from History's Great Wits & Wordsmiths
- Humor and history, a happy duo
Cary Elwes: As You Wish: Inconceivable Tales From The Making of The Princess Bride
- The story behind the story is wonderful as well
Bernard Cornwell: Waterloo: The History of Four Days, Three Armies, and Three Battles
- A treatise on the horror of leading others without caring for their wellbeing
Annette Haws: Waiting For The Light To Change
- A remarkable book by a remarkable person and author
David Abrams: The Spell of the Sensuous
- Stunning explanation of the ancient cause of modern man's psychic detachment from nature
Rick Rubin: The Creative Act: A Way of Being
- Looking for a coach/muse to reawaken your creative ambitions and follow-through?
Sanjeev Sanyal: Land of The Seven Rivers: A Brief History of India's Geography
- Light and engaging; makes a potent impression of the greatness of India's civilization
- INDIA
Chinua Achebe: Things Fall Apart
- Still influences my thinking, consciously and unconsciously, more than 20 years later
Sudha Murty: Wise and Otherwise: A Salute To Life
- The most moving elucidation of Indian culture that I've read to date
- INDIA
- Still disturbing to think on twenty years later
Henry David Thoreau: Walden or, Life in the Woods and On The Duty of Civil Disobedience