Book: The Next Day

I was listening to the first episode of the “Welcome to the Party” podcast, when Melinda French Gates was mentioned, and all three sports icons (Abby Wambach, Julie Foudy, and Billie Jean King) took the opportunity to gush about her and her work. So I bought the new book – The Next Day: Transitions, Change, and Moving Forward, and finished it within 24 hours.

It’s a beautiful book. Little vignettes from various key moments in her life, and the lessons she took from them. Surprisingly relatable and down to earth considering the writer, it builds up through formative years and key moments until the most recent decisions that got the most attention – divorcing Bill Gates and leaving the foundation they started together – and makes them seem both less interesting and more inevitable given the person she is – connected to her values and determined to live them out.

A nice read that I very much enjoyed.