Silicon Valley Reads

Both fiction and nonfiction books that depict the history and controversies of Silicon Valley and new business.
Updated September 19, 2022
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Bad blood secrets and lies in a Silicon Valley startup
Carreyrou, John
NATIONAL BESTSELLER * The gripping story of Elizabeth Holmes and Theranos--one of the biggest corporate frauds in history--a tale of ambition and hubris set amid the bold promises of Silicon Valley, rigorously reported by the prize-winning journalist. With a new Afterword.
Airbnb story how three ordinary guys disrupted an industry made billions and created plenty
Gallagher, Leigh (Journalist)
An investigative behind-the-scenes story of the creation and growth of the highly disruptive start-up Airbnb. In under a decade, Airbnb became the largest provider of accommodations in the world. At first just the wacky idea of cofounders Brian Chesky, Joe Gebbia, and...
Circle
Eggers, Dave
A bestselling dystopian novel that tackles surveillance, privacy and the frightening intrusions of technology in our lives--a "compulsively readable parable for the 21st century" (Vanity Fair).  When Mae Holland is hired to work for the Circle, the world's most...
Chaos monkeys obscene fortune and random failure in Silicon Valley
Garci?a Marti?nez, Antonio.
INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER  An NPR Best Book of the Year * A Business Insider Top 20 Business Book of the Year * An Inc. Best Book of the Year for Entrepreneurs and Small Business Owners "Incisive.... The most fun business book I have read...
The everything store : Jeff Bezos and the age of Amazon
Stone, Brad.
The authoritative account of the rise of Amazon and its intensely driven founder, Jeff Bezos, praised by the Seattle Times as "the definitive account of how a tech icon came to life."  Amazon.com started off delivering books...
Elon Musk Tesla SpaceX and the quest for a fantastic future
Vance, Ashlee
A New York Times Bestseller In the spirit of Steve Jobs and Moneyball, Elon Musk is both an illuminating and authorized look at the extraordinary life of one of Silicon Valley's most exciting, unpredictable, and ambitious entrepreneurs--a real-life Tony Stark--and a fascinating exploration...
Extreme teams why Pixar Netflix AirBnB and other cutting edge companies succeed where most fail
Shaw, Robert Bruce
Every manager desires to have great teams around them collaborating together and running with the mission. Unfortunately, most of these teams have been built around decades-old ideas and practices made popular by companies that either no longer exist or haven't been relevant in years. But a new...
Family trust
Wang, Kathy
"A globe-trotting, whirlwind, tragi-comic family saga that wrings tears from absurdity and laughter from loss.  A joy to read from start to finish."    -- Andrew Sean Greer, author of Less, winner of the 2018 Pulitzer Prize The Nest...
Lab rats how silicon valley made work miserable for the rest of us
Lyons, Dan.
New York Times bestselling author Dan Lyons exposes how the "new oligarchs" of Silicon Valley have turned technology into a tool for oppressing workers in this "passionate" (Kirkus) and "darkly funny" (Publishers Weekly) examination of workplace culture. At a...
The innovators : how a group of inventors, hackers, geniuses, and geeks created the digital revolution
Isaacson, Walter.
Following his blockbuster biography of Steve Jobs, The Innovators is Walter Isaacson's revealing story of the people who created the computer and the Internet. It is destined to be the standard history of the digital revolution and an indispensable guide to how innovation really happens.
Geography of genius a search for the world's most creative places from ancient Athens to Silic
Weiner, Eric, 1963-
"An intellectual odyssey, a traveler's diary, and a comic novel all rolled into one. Smart, original, and utterly delightful." --Daniel Gilbert, Harvard professor and bestselling author of Stumbling on Happiness "A charming mix of history and wisdom cloaked as a rollicking...
LIVE WORK WORK WORK DIE A JOURNEY INTO THE SAVAGE HEART OF SILICON VALLEY
PEIN, COREY.
At the height of the startup boom, journalist Corey Pein set out for Silicon Valley with little more than a smartphone and his wits. His goal: to learn how such an overhyped industry could possibly sustain itself as long as it has. Determined to cut through the clichés of big tech--the relentless...
Move fast and break things how Facebook Google and Amazon cornered culture and undermined democr
Taplin, Jonathan T.
The book that started the Techlash. A stinging polemic that traces the destructive monopolization of the Internet by Google, Facebook and Amazon, and that proposes a new future for musicians, journalists, authors and filmmakers in the digital age. Move Fast and Break...
The square and the tower : networks and power, from the Freemasons to Facebook
Ferguson, Niall
The instant New York Times bestseller. A brilliant recasting of the turning points in world history, including the one we're living through, as a collision between old power hierarchies and new social networks. "Captivating and compelling." --The ...
Startup
Shafrir, Doree
From veteran online journalist and BuzzFeed writer Doree Shafrir comes a hilarious debut novel that proves there are some dilemmas that no app can solve. Mack McAllister has a $600 million dollar idea. His mindfulness app, TakeOff, is already the hottest thing in tech...
Uncanny valley a memoir
Wiener, Anna, 1987-
A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER. ONE OF THE NEW YORK TIMES'S 10 BEST BOOKS OF 2020. Named one of the Best Books of 2020 by The Washington Post, The Atlantic, NPR, the Los Angeles Times, ELLE, Esquire, Parade, Teen Vogue...
New new thing a Silicon Valley story
Lewis, Michael
Despite the variety of his achievements, Clark thinks of himself mainly as the creator of Hyperion, which happens to be a sailboat . . . not just an ordinary yacht, but the world's largest single-mast vessel, a machine more complex than a 747. Clark claims he will be able to sail it via computer...
Transmission
Kunzru, Hari
In a networked world, anything can change in an instant, and sometimes everything does…Transmission, Hari Kunzru’s new novel of love and lunacy, immigration and immunity, introduces a daydreaming Indian computer geek whose luxurious fantasies about life in America are shaken when he accepts a...
Brotopia breaking up the boys club of Silicon Valley
Chang, Emily
Instant National Bestseller Excellent. --San Francisco Chronicle Brotopia is more than a business book. Silicon Valley holds extraordinary power over our present lives as well as whatever utopia (or nightmare) might come next. --New York Times Silicon Valley is a modern utopia where anyone...
Valley of genius the uncensored history of Silicon Valley as told by the hackers founders and f
Fisher, Adam (Journalist)
"This is the most important book on Silicon Valley I've read in two decades. It will take us all back to our roots in the counterculture, and will remind us of the true nature of the innovation process, before we tried to tame it with slogans and buzzwords." -- Po Bronson, #1 New York Times...
Accidental billionaires the founding of Facebook a tale of sex money genius and betrayal
Mezrich, Ben, 1969-
The high-energy tale of how two socially awkward Ivy Leaguers, trying to increase their chances with the opposite sex, ended up creating Facebook. Eduardo Saverin and Mark Zuckerberg were Harvard undergraduates and best friends–outsiders at a school filled with polished...

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