The Bookshelf

Rick Rubin is one of the greatest music producers of all time. His book, The Creative Act: A Way of Being, is about the creative process and is based on his experiences with era-defining musicians. He encourages the reader to be open to clues and inspiration from any source and to develop a practice to harness the rhythms and movements around us. Rubin also draws on spiritual ideas, such as to “play, explore, and test without an attachment to results,” to nourish creativity.

“The making of art is not a competitive act,” he writes. As MBA students, many of us were defined by the herd, or our part in it. Rubin encourages the reader to be comfortable standing outside the herd and to develop one’s own voice, instead of sounding like others. “As soon as convention is established, the most interesting work would likely be the one that doesn’t follow it.” It’s great advice that is transferable to life on campus and a career beyond HBS.

—Kartik Varma (MBA 2002)

In Unreasonable Hospitality: The Remarkable Power of Giving People More Than They Expect, Will Guidara describes a mindset around customer service and employee engagement that is applicable to all industries. It’s couched in the story of the rise of the restaurant Eleven Madison Park.

—Ted Seides (MBA 1999)

In Kelly Link’s latest collection of short stories, White Cat, Black Dog, the Pulitzer Prize finalist masterfully rewrites folk tales. I called my friends to read to them the opening paragraphs of “The White Cat’s Divorce,” where Link describes with spot-on satire the delicious frustration of an aging tech billionaire who can barely hide his envy of his sons’ youth. Link is a literary genius whose magical realism entertains and asks us to look inward about where we’ve settled.

For nonfiction, I read No Bad Parts: Healing Trauma and Restoring Wholeness with the Internal Family Systems Model, by Richard Schwartz, after hearing from a gifted psychologist that Schwartz’s approach was one of the few she thought worked, and worked well. Schwartz provides a disciplined approach for examining the parts of us that interfere with our well-being—for instance, the part of me that eats much more than I need to eat when I feel stressed. I took Schwartz’s work even more seriously when I heard the results of the Brigham and Women’s Hospital rheumatoid arthritis study that found his approach was a “feasible and acceptable” way to improve one’s immune system. I use this disciplined inquiry system with myself and my students at Duke when we wish to return to a more ideal human state, characterized by Schwartz as one with the eight C’s: calmness, clarity, compassion, curiosity, confidence, courage, creativity, and connectedness.

—Allegra Jordan (MBA 1995)

After my mom passed away unexpectedly last year, I found myself searching for materials about grief, mourning, and even death. Somewhere along this journey, I discovered The In-Between: Unforgettable Encounters During Life’s Final Moments, by Hadley Vlahos, a hospice nurse. The book offers a poignant glimpse into her encounters with individuals nearing the end of their lives and the families accompanying them. Vlahos’s experiences are compelling and highlight how those in a position to opt for hospice care can find solace during their last moments.

—Christine Cuoco (MBA 2004)

Americanah: A Novel, by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie: I unabashedly loved this book. From beginning to end, we are immersed in the world Adichie created, spanning the United States, the United Kingdom, and Nigeria. It’s a love story, but one that’s unique and unlike anything out there.

—Alex Kruglov (MBA 2006)

In Brain Energy: A Revolutionary Breakthrough in Understanding Mental Health—and Improving Treatment for Anxiety, Depression, OCD, PTSD, and More, Chris Palmer transforms mental health treatment, just as Silent Spring changed the use of DDT. Harvard psychiatrist Palmer’s thesis that “mental disorders are metabolic disorders of the brain” provides new therapeutic pathways based on a rigorous synthesis of existing literature. Low-cost, low-risk lifestyle interventions include sleep, movement, nutrition, purpose, and relationships while avoiding harmful substances and stress.

—Cecile Seth (MBA 1994)

Excerpt

Open Secret

In his new book Invisible Trillions: How Financial Secrecy Is Imperiling Capitalism and Democracy—and the Way to Renew Our Broken System, Raymond Baker (MBA 1960) examines how the rise of financial secrecy has come to dominate capitalist systems, creating great wealth as well as great harms in the last half century. Baker is founding president of Global Financial Integrity, a research and advocacy organization working to curb illicit financial flows. His book, excerpted below, is not an angry screed against capitalism. He continues to believe that the democratic-capitalist system is still the best invention within the political economy; instead, he urges a restoration of integrity. Otherwise, “the two basic components of the democratic-capitalist system are at risk of splitting apart,” he writes.

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