California Zeitgeist
Explore the California Zeitgeist through curated books on ambition, tech, film, and identity—from Bruce Wagner’s Beverly Hills noir to Douglas Coupland’s Microserfs.
Book
Easy Riders Raging Bulls
by Peter Biskind
Examines the impact upon Hollywood of the generation of filmmakers from the 1960s to the 1980s.
Book
The New New Thing
by Michael M. Lewis
As American capitalism undergoes a seismic shift, Michael Lewis, author of the bestselling Liar's Poker, sets out on a Silicon Valley safari to find the true representative of the coming economic age. All roads lead to Jim Clark, the man who rewrote the rules of American capitalism as the founder of (so far) three multi-billion dollar companies--Silicon Graphics, Netscape, and Healtheon. Lewis's shrewd, often brilliantly funny, narrative provides ahead-of-the-curve observations about the Internet explosion and how the success of Silicon Valley companies is forcing a reassessment of traditional Wall-Street business models. Weaving Clark's story together with that of this new business phenomenon, Lewis has drawn us a map of markets and free enterprise in the twenty-first century and blown the lid off the changing economy.
Book
The Confessions of Max Tivoli
by Andrew Sean Greer
Born as an old man, Max Tivoli lives his life aging backwards, falling in love and living an odd, sometimes terrifying life in San Francisco at the turn of the nineteenth century.
Book
Microserfs
by Douglas Coupland
Young people working for Microsoft decide to make a bid for freedom by founding their own software company. The novel--narrated as an online journal by danielu@microsoft.com--describes the ups and downs of raising money for a new business. By the author of Generation X.
