MFDF Board Bookshelf: 2025 Staff Picks
We have really enjoyed adding the Board Bookshelf feature to the MFDF News Feed this year and, for this edition, MFDF’s staff has taken over the keyboard from your usual esteemed Board Bookshelf writer, Senior Counsel Joanne Skerrett (also a published author, by the way).
To create a uniquely MFDF end-of-year booklist, we asked staff members to each pick a book they read in 2025 that they’d recommend to the fund director community. Some of these have direct applications to the role of the independent director, while others are reads that may offer a little bit of something else. We are very much looking forward to discussing them with you in the New Year! Wishing you and your loved ones a cozy and joyful holiday season, happy reading!
Flour Water Salt Yeast: The Fundamentals of Artisan Bread and Pizza by Ken Forkish
Recommended by: Young Hee Kim, Chief of Staff
While not a new book, Ken Forkish’s Flour Water Salt Yeast is the book I found myself returning to repeatedly in 2025. Through the twists and turns of a tumultuous year, Flour Water Salt Yeast helped me to focus and begin my breadmaking journey with a sourdough starter adopted from fellow MFDF team member, Sara Vargo! Through baking and testing recipes from the book, I was able to find an essential space of calm and, even better, to share many, many, many loaves of bread with loved ones who especially needed the nourishment this year.
Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman
Recommended by: Dianne Descoteaux, Senior Counsel
I love this book, which was actually recommended to me by a fund director. I would recommend it to anyone, as the author explains how unconscious cognitive shortcuts and biases can affect judgment and decisions. Everyone takes mental shortcuts without realizing it – but can this result in flawed judgment even without bad faith? For fund directors, this book is particularly valuable as it offers a framework for improving deliberations and decision quality.
The Electric Hotel by Dominic Smith
Recommended by: David Smith, Executive Vice President and General Counsel
This may be an offbeat choice, but it is a recommendation that may offer notes for all of us engrossed in the change that AI will bring. This book focuses on another great period 0f technological change – the invention and introduction of “moving pictures” at the beginning of the 20th century. Spanning the invention of moving pictures, its use in early films and theaters, and ranging to the filming of World War I, this novel tells a fascinating story.
Churchill: Walking with Destiny by Andrew Roberts
Recommended by: Carolyn McPhillips, President
I’m cheating a little bit because I didn’t read Churchill: Walking with Destiny this year. I did read something similar that turned out to be a disappointment, so I thought I would go a bit farther back into my reading history. I am drawn to biographies of people who have accomplished great things to answer a question – are these leaders born for the moment or do they rise to the occasion? This book provides a comprehensive look at Churchill’s life. It will not come as a surprise to anyone who has read a lot on Churchill that the book is long – but don’t let that serve as a deterrent, it does not read like a textbook. Although the author clearly has great admiration for Churchill, he does not ignore Churchill’s flaws or mistakes. And my conclusion to my initial question – the title says it all. He did not have to rise to the occasion to stop the Nazis because he spent his whole life building up to that moment.
Humankind: A Hopeful History by Rutger Bregman
Recommended by: Leslie Beckbridge, Operations and Member Services Manager
I had a particularly difficult time with this ask because there were a small handful of strong contenders. Ultimately, most of the others shared themes with my final selection, Humankind: A Hopeful History, which looks at a huge body of evidence to challenge the oft-repeated idea that humans are inherently selfish. Instead, Bregman posits that humans have evolved to instinctively care about and take care of one another, and suggests that sometimes the structures, institutions and leaders that have ostensibly been put in place to protect against humans’ selfish instincts actually get in the way of our more altruistic natures. I particularly enjoyed the examples of structures, institutions, and leaders that start from an assumption of care and generosity and found myself wishing to get this book in the hands of as many leaders as possible.
Nuclear War: A Scenario by Annie Jacobsen
Recommended by: Sara Vargo, Counsel
Should you get tired of the doom and gloom on your newsfeed, I suggest opening Jacobsen’s book – it is an eye-opening look at a hypothetical nuclear war scenario that may send you running back to your newsfeed. Pulitzer-prize nominated author and journalist, Annie Jacobsen, walks readers through a hypothetical minute-by-minute account of a nuclear first-strike against the United States. Across the 72-minute scenario, Jacobsen examines the historical development of American nuclear doctrine since the 1960s, current offensive and defensive capabilities of the United States military, as well as the diplomatic chain of events that would ensue if a foreign adversary initiated a nuclear attack against the United States. I enjoyed this novel because Jacobsen’s writing is effortless and well-sourced; she interviewed former officials including former Secretary of Defense William Perry, former Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta, nuclear physicist Richard Garwin, and STRATCOM Commander Robert Kehler. After reading Jacobsen’s book, I took comfort in the sourdough referenced by Young above.