Book Value

Leaders from the worlds of business, academia, entertainment and politics share what’s on their bedside table.

Reid Hoffman

Billionaire cofounder of LinkedIn; partner at VC firm Greylock Partners

Like a Mule Bringing Ice Cream to the Sun By Sarah Ladipo Manyika

As Morayo Da Silva nears age 75, she plans

to get a tattoo to celebrate. Yet the DMV seems intent on taking her driver’s license away. When she injures her hip, her independence is further compromised. Still, the retired English

professor is sure she still has many possible futures. Displacement is a recurring theme in the deliberate and eloquent Like a Mule (Legend Press and Cassava Republic Press, 2016). Morayo’s relationships appear

tenuous, and she’s adjusting to an aging body that correlates less and less with who she knows herself to be.

Another character is newly homeless. A third is navigating his wife’s worsening dementia. But if displacement looms large, the desire

to connect is there to counterbalance it. That’s why I find this novel so compelling: We’re so much more than we first appear— but it’s only through interacting with others that we truly make ourselves known.