Books like Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup

01

The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine

Michael Lewis · Economics

The Big Short is Michael Lewis's account of the 2008 financial crisis as seen through the eyes of a handful of contrarians who saw the collapse coming, bet against the American housing market, and were right.

A kindred business read.

02

Empire of Pain: The Secret History of the Sackler Dynasty

Patrick Radden Keefe · History

Empire of Pain is Patrick Radden Keefe's account of the Sackler family — the dynasty behind Purdue Pharma and the opioid crisis — told across three generations.

A kindred business read.

03

Shoe Dog: A Memoir by the Creator of Nike

Phil Knight · Memoir

Shoe Dog is Phil Knight's account of the first two decades of Nike, from the $50 loan he borrowed from his father in 1964 to fund his first shipment of Japanese running shoes to the company's IPO in 1980.

A kindred business read.

04

Zero to One: Notes on Startups, or How to Build the Future

Peter Thiel · Business

Zero to One began as notes from a Stanford course Thiel taught on startups in 2012, assembled into a book with co-author Blake Masters.

A kindred business read.

05

Brotopia

Emily Chang · Business

Brotopia is Emily Chang's investigation into how Silicon Valley became dominated by men and why it has stayed that way despite decades of stated commitment to diversity.

Both dig into silicon valley culture.

06

The Monk and the Riddle

Randy Komisar · Business

Randy Komisar spent years as a virtual CEO and partner at Kleiner Perkins helping founders build companies, and The Monk and the Riddle draws on that experience to make a case about what startup culture gets badly wrong.

Both dig into silicon valley culture.

07

November 9

Colleen Hoover · Contemporary fiction

Fallon and Ben meet in a diner on November 9th, the day Fallon is leaving Los Angeles to move across the country.

Both dig into deception.

08

Operation Mincemeat: How a Dead Man and a Bizarre Plan Fooled the Nazis and Assured an Allied Victory

Ben Macintyre · History

In 1943, British intelligence planted a dead man on a Spanish beach carrying fabricated documents designed to convince the Germans that the Allied invasion of southern Europe would target Greece and Sardinia rather than Sicily.

Both dig into deception.

09

The Confidence Game: Why We Fall for It Every Time

Maria Konnikova · Psychology

Maria Konnikova has a PhD in psychology and writes about it for a wide audience.

Both dig into deception.

10

The Devil in the White City

Erik Larson · History

The Devil in the White City tells two stories that unfolded simultaneously in Chicago in 1893.

Both dig into deception.

11

Verity

Colleen Hoover · Thriller

Lowen Ashby is a struggling author hired to ghostwrite the remaining books in bestselling thriller writer Verity Crawford's series, while Verity recovers from a traumatic brain injury.

Both dig into deception.

12

100 Baggers: Stocks That Return 100-to-1 and How to Find Them

Christopher Mayer · Business

Christopher Mayer built this book on research conducted earlier by Thomas Phelps, whose 1972 book 100 to 1 in the Stock Market studied stocks that returned one hundred times their purchase price.

A kindred business read.