Feldman's Faves: July 12, 2021

Good morning BL5 - I hope you enjoyed the break last week. Thanks again to Jaclyn and Max for your stellar performance on Friday. Everyone loved it.

Picking up from my previous set of recommendations, I am continuing my summer reading….

WHILE JUSTICE SLEEPS – By: Stacey Abrams – I am continuing my run of easy reading for one more week….When I saw that Stacey Abrams had written a political thriller, my first thought was, where does she find the time? Abrams is famous for many things, including her time in the State Assembly of Georgia, running for Governor of Georgia and almost winning, working as a tax lawyer (yes, very exciting), being a serial entrepreneur, and most recently, bringing out voters in the 2020 Presidential and Senatorial elections in Georgia. Meanwhile, she apparently happens to have written a number of books under the pen name, Selena Montgomery with great success. While Justice Sleeps is her first work of fiction penned under her own name. It is not Proust, Hemmingway or even John Grisham (but I would say at least as good as Bill Clinton….). This book is a fun breezy read that is perfect for summer. There is a very fast-paced plot centering around a young Supreme Court law clerk named Avery Keene whose boss, Justice Howard Wynn falls into coma and who grants Avery his power of attorney (she had no idea he did this…). Justice Wynn (an ornery fellow) is the swing vote on many issues including one relating to a controversial merger being considered at the Supreme Court involving a US pharma company and an Indian biotech company. This deal forms one of the central story lines of the book. There are many people that do not want Wynn to wake up for many reasons, including his soon to be ex-wife, his political opponents (including the President who wants to appoint a new justice), parties to the merger, and many other shady characters. This story is a lot of fun and is apparently being turned into a movie (just like last week’s book) – so stay tuned for that too. Here is a great review from the NYT - https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/11/books/review/while-justice-sleeps-stacey-abrams.html

Masters of Scale with Reid Hoffman Rapid Response: Why business must be a force for good, w/former American Express CEO Ken Chenault – Some people grow up as “Army brats”; I grew up as an “AMEX brat”. During my childhood both of my parents (at different times) worked at AMEX with Ken Chenault. He was then an emerging leader in corporate America who everyone knew was destined to be a star, which he of course became as the leader of the company for many, many years of great success. This story is well known and there is lots written about Ken. In this PODCAST Ken describes among other things, his most recent initiative in trying to focus on job creation (along with other high profile CEOs and business leaders) – the OneTen project - in the wake of Covid-19 and the George Floyd tragedy. He has amazing ideas and is such an incredibly charismatic figure. It’s always great to get his perspective on any topic. Here is a summary from the PODCAST itself - "Corporations can be a force for good – and they can also be very successful," says Ken Chenault, chair of investment firm General Catalyst and former longtime CEO of American Express. During the past year, Ken has been an outspoken advocate for business leaders to actively engage in societal matters. After George Floyd’s death, he and Merck CEO Ken Frazier launched OneTen, a coalition to create 1 million jobs for Black Americans that now includes major brands from IBM to Nike to Walmart. Chenault has pushed corporate chiefs to use their leverage to protect voting rights, and he's come out with a platform for Responsible Innovation that puts what he calls “social due diligence” alongside financial due diligence. Standing up for what's right, Ken says, fuels long-term success: "The most important thing is the quest for truth, character, and values." : https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/masters-of-scale-with-reid-hoffman/id1227971746?i=1000525846877

Thank you for your ongoing engagement and participation.

And remember to stay safe, stay healthy and to docket daily.

Jon