The AI-Savvy Leader by David De Cremer

THE AI-SAVVY LEADER by David De Cremer is an excellent book on a complicated subject – so well-organized and not afraid to name the elephant in the room: too many leaders do not understand AI and are abdicating their responsibility for managing its adoption. De Cremer is dean of the D'Amore-McKim School of Business at Northeastern University and the founder and director of the Centre on AI Technology for Humankind (AiTH) at the National University of Singapore (NUS) Business School. He subtitles his text “Nine Ways to Take Back Control and Make AI Work” and after explaining what AI is (computational systems with a self-learning ability), proceeds to devote chapters to topics like inclusion and balance. For example, he recommends that leaders “build a flat communication culture” thereby ensuring quicker communication flow and promoting feedback and information exchange. He uses bold typeface and boxed material to stress key points as in chapter 5 (Vision) where he says that holistic communication and showing empathy “gives employees confidence that AI adoption is not an end in itself but a means to an end with full recognition of the interests of the workforce.” He describes the importance of getting buy-in from all stakeholders (employees, customers and society). In addition, he devotes an entire chapter to emotional intelligence’s soft skills (“curiosity, empathy, communication, and critical and proactive thinking”). Yes, learning about AI is important, but De Cremer notes again and again that emphasizing employees’ value and “portraying AI as a useful and supportive coworker” is essential to “turn AI into the tool that creates the value that you as a leader want to create.” Notes and an Index represent between five and ten percent of this text published by Harvard Business Review Press.

Safe by Mark Daley

SAFE by Mark Daley is subtitled “A Memoir of Fatherhood, Foster Care, and the Risks We Take for Family.” I had asked for this preview because I have had students who feel passionately about the foster care system and any related research. It truly is eye-opening to learn more about the traumas involved and to recognize the support that these children (like the students involved with Learning Bridge) need. Mark Daley, the author, is a communications professional with experience in the political sphere and has now turned his attention to activism as a founder of TheFosterParent.com. His book was a bit surprising because it is so personal, very emotional and moving. After four months of marriage, Daley and his husband decided to foster children, with the hopes of eventually adopting. The first few chapters of his book deal with their relationship, marriage, and decision to try fostering. Then, the focus turns to the realities of childcare, especially for infants, and much learning that being a new parent entails. Subsequent sections look at visitation rights, the birth family situation, custody battles, and adoption protocols. In this memoir, Daley employs a conversational tone to share the story that he and Jason experienced, but he also incorporates relevant statistics (e.g., in California about 55 percent of foster children are eventually reunified with their birth parents). Told with emotion and primarily from an adult perspective, SAFE is a heartfelt introduction to the foster care system in California and points to its inadequacies as well as to the importance of a support network for all involved. To the End of June, published roughly a decade ago, is another excellent text on this subject. More recent titles include the coming-of-age memoir Troubled by Rob Henderson and Anne Moody’s analysis which also covers international adoptions titled The Children Money Can Buy. There are also multiple books written for young children to help prompt discussion and hugs. I hope SAFE gets the wide readership it deserves. 

The Museum of Failures by Thrity Umrigar

I have been wanting to read a book by Thrity Umrigar (First Darling of the Morning, The World We Found, Reese Book Club pick Honor and more) for quite some time and her latest, THE MUSEUM OF FAILURES, is excellent. It revolves around a young man, Remy Wadia, who has returned to India in the hopes of adopting a Parsi baby with his American wife, Kathy. He also has not seen his mother, Shirin, for three years and is shocked to learn she is in hospital and near death. This story is full of emotion and Remy, especially, has to deal with grief, anger, loneliness, fear, and confusion. Umrigar writes that Remy “had often thought of Bombay as the museum of failures, an exhibit hall filled with thwarted dreams and broken promises.” The novel explores his growth as he is devastated by past secrets and re-evaluates important relationships.  

THE MUSEUM OF FAILURES is a LibraryReads selection for September 2023 and highly recommended. 

A Living Remedy by Nicole Chung

A LIVING REMEDY by Nicole Chung (All You Can Ever Know) is a heartfelt memoir that readers will not want to miss. Chung essentially eulogizes both of her parents while exploring her relationship with them and her feelings about their illnesses and death. Yes, this is heavy reading at places, but it is beautifully written. Although especially relevant to mixed race adoptees and children of immigrant parents, Chung succeeds in portraying universal experiences in a way which will not be easily forgotten. She is unflinching in writing about the impact of Covid resulting in her “attention and energies divided between the family I was raising and the one that raised me.” And there is consolation, too, when reflecting on her mother: “I know that some part of her isn’t gone, because I feel her love and experience her care like a living thing. I hear her voice speaking to me. And though my father felt so far from me after he died, he no longer feels so distant, lost beyond my reach – it’s as if she has given a part of him back to me now that they are wherever they are …” A LIVING REMEDY received a starred review from Booklist. Highly recommended.