Bill Gates recommends these 5 books for summer reading

William Henry Gates III is an American business magnate, software developer, investor, author, and philanthropist. He is a co-founder of Microsoft, along with his late childhood friend Paul Allen.^[2][3] During his career at Microsoft, Gates held the positions of chairman, chief executive officer (CEO), president and chief software architect, while also being the largest individual shareholder until May 2014.^[4] He was a major entrepreneur of the microcomputer revolution of the 1970s and 1980s. Bill Gates released his summer 2022 reading picks Monday in a post on his GatesNotes blog. This summer’s lineup spans books that cover the impacts of climate change, power associated with gender, and the causes of polarization in the U.S. For fun, there is an adventure novel set in the U.S. in the 1950s.

Books cover gender equality, political polarization, climate change, and the hard truth topis, gender equality, . While some of the books are lengthy, Gates assures potential readers that each author “was able to take a meaty subject and make it compelling without sacrificing any complexity.”

I loved all five of these books and hope you find something here you’ll enjoy too. And feel free to share some of your favorite recent reads in the comments section below.

The Power

By Naomi Alderman

The Power is a 2016 science fiction novel by the British writer Naomi Alderman. Its central premise is women developing the ability to release electrical jolts from their fingers, thus leading them to become the dominant sex. In June 2017, The Power won the Baileys Women’s Prize for Fiction

Recommended by Gates’ eldest daughter, this 2016 sci-fi novel by Brit Naomi Alderman made the billionaire “think about gender equality in new ways.” The book explores gender roles, sexuality, and power imbalance between the sexes, giving Gates “a stronger and more visceral sense of the abuse and injustice many women experience today,” as he writes in his blog.

I’m glad that I followed my older daughter’s recommendation and read this novel. It cleverly uses a single idea—what if all the women in the world suddenly gained the power to produce deadly electric shocks from their bodies?—to explore gender roles and gender equality. Reading The Power, I gained a stronger and more visceral sense of the abuse and injustice many women experience today. And I expanded my appreciation for the people who work on these issues in the U.S. and around the world.

“Reading ‘The Power,’ I gained a stronger and more visceral sense of the abuse and injustice many women experience today,” Gates writes. “And I expanded my appreciation for the people who work on these issues in the U.S. and around the world.”

Why We’re Polarized

By Ezra Klein

Why We’re Polarized is a 2020 non-fiction book by American journalist Ezra Klein, in which the author analyzes political polarization in the United States. Focusing in particular on the growing polarization between the major political parties in the United States (the Democratic Party and the Republican Party), the author argues that a combination of good intentions gone wrong, such as dealing with an arguably more unjust political consensus maintained at the expense of minorities, and inherent glitches in the institutional design of the country’s federal government have caused widespread social problems.

While Vox cofounder Ezra Klein’s 2020 work primarily focuses on political polarization in the United States, it’s also a “fascinating look at human psychology,” according to Gates. While the bibliophile says he did not finish the book with an optimistic view of political polarization, it “helped me understand the phenomena much better.” However, “if you want to understand what’s going on with politics in the United States, this is the book to pick up,” Gates writes.

The Lincoln Highway: A Novel

By Amor Towles

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER More than ONE MILLION copies soldA TODAY Show Read with Jenna Book Club PickA New York Times Notable Book, and Chosen by Oprah Daily, Time, NPR, The Washington Post and Barack Obama as a Best Book of the Year“Wise and wildly entertaining . . . permeated with light, wit, youth.” Amor Towles is the author of the New York Times bestsellers Rules of Civility and A Gentleman in Moscow. The two novels have collectively sold more than four million copies and have been translated into more than thirty languages. Towles lives in Manhattan with his wife and two children.

American novelist Amor Towles previously appeared on Gates’ reading list in 2019 with his bestseller, A Gentleman in Moscow. This time around, his follow-up novel tells the story of two young brothers who leave Nebraska in 1954 on a cross-country journey in search of a better life. “Towles takes inspiration from famous heroes’ journeys and seems to be saying that our personal journeys are never as linear or predictable as we might hope,” Gates writes.

The Ministry for the Future

By Kim Stanley Robinson

The Ministry for the Future is a climate fiction (“cli-fi”) novel by American science fiction writer Kim Stanley Robinson published in 2020. Set in the near future, the novel follows a subsidiary body, established under the Paris Agreement, whose mission is to advocate for the world’s future generations of citizens as if their rights are as valid as the present generation’s. While they pursue various ambitious projects, the effects of climate change are determined to be the most consequential. The plot primarily follows Mary Murphy, the head of the titular Ministry for the Future, and Frank May, an American aid worker traumatized by experiencing a deadly heat wave in India. Many chapters are devoted to other (mostly anonymous) characters’ accounts of future events, as well as their ideas about ecology, economics, and other subjects.

“It’s as harrowing a scene as any I’ve read in a science fiction book—because the events depicted in it could very well take place in the real world,” Gates writes. “It’s so complex that it’s hard to summarize, but Robinson presents a stimulating and engaging story, spanning decades and continents, packed with fascinating ideas and people,” Gates wrote.

How the World Really Works

By Vaclav Smil

Vaclav Smil is known to be one of Gates’ favorite authors. The professor emeritus of environmental science at the University of Manitoba’s book explores the scientific basis of human life and how to sustain our well-being through turbulent times. While Gates admits that works from Smil tend to read more like textbooks, this latest is a “tour de force” and “never dull.”

“If you want a brief but thorough education in numeric thinking about many of the fundamental forces that shape human life, this is the book to read,” Gates said of this book.  How the World Really Works aims to summarize Smil’s studies of the world’s networks of agriculture, energy and production, as well as their connections to the function of society and impact on the environment.