John Kerry, U.S. secretary of state
Hotel Florida: Truth, Love, and Death in the Spanish Civil War by Amanda Vaill is just a great read. A messy, complicated period, a story about shades of grey, idealism, guts and grit in the middle of a war. I can’t read enough about Hemingway, and there were some lesser known journalists of the era that come across just as intriguing.
Citizens of London: The Americans Who Stood with Britain in Its Darkest, Finest Hour by Lynne Olson. Amazing characters set against a colorful, compelling period in London that I thought had been combed over already, but it comes alive in a new way through Murrow, Harriman, Winant, and Churchill.
Age of Ambition: Chasing Fortune, Truth, and Faith in the New China by Evan Osnos. I got this book as a gift from my deputy chief of staff who was college roommates with the author. Small world. The book’s a great reminder of China’s recent journey.
Orr: My Story by Bobby Orr. A gift I received for my 70th birthday. Orr is my Boston Bruins idol and reading this one, I’m just struck by what a class act he is off the ice. Humble, self-effacing, generous, he’s class personified. And in my mind he’ll always be soaring through the air in that famous image.
Scribe: My Life in Sports by Bob Ryan. You were never done reading the Boston Globe until you’d read what Bob Ryan had to say, whether it was about Larry Bird or the Red Sox. He was ubiquitous. Just a great columnist. Here, he finally writes a memoir of sorts, and even in semi-retirement, he still has more stories to tell.
Sarah Bloom Raskin, deputy secretary of the Department of the Treasury
The Woman Behind the New Deal: The Life and Legacy of Frances Perkins, by Kirstin Downey. This book landed mysteriously one day on a chair in my office at the Federal Reserve Board, without attribution, while I was awaiting Senate confirmation for the Treasury. I started in on it, curious to see the comparisons of our economic recovery to the post-Depression recovery. By the end of the first chapter I found myself transfixed by the first female cabinet secretary, who in 1936 was maneuvering her way through a new administration. She brought reforms and insights from her experience observing and improving working conditions.
Wilbur Ross, chairman and CEO of WL Ross & Co.
One book I read although I totally disagreed with it is Thomas Piketty’s Capital in the Twenty-First Century. He’s off the deep end, but it’s a worthwhile read because it’s at the pulse of people’s thinking on inequality.
I enjoyed Central Banking after the Great Recession, Lessons Learned and Challenges Ahead, which was published by the Brookings Institution, where I’m a trustee.
I’m waiting on former Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke’s book, which should be quite fascinating.
Alan Greenspan, former Federal Reserve chairman
“The Innovators” by Walter Isaacson and “Washington: A Life” by Ron Chernow.
Jeffrey Gundlach, co-founder and CEO of DoubleLine Capital LP
What Art Is by Arthur C. Danto