Top three books that I read in 2019
Game Changer: AlphaZero's Groundbreaking Chess Strategies and the Promise of AI by Matthew Sadler, Natasha Regan
Explains why AlphaZero is a stronger chess AI than stockfish, and how it wins. I recommend reading this book on chessable, not a regular printed out book or e-book, unless you have very strong chessboard visualization skills. My online chess rating increased 400 elo points while I read it.
Drift Into Failure: From Hunting Broken Components to Understanding Complex Systems by Sidney Dekker
We read this in my work book club starting in 2018 but finished it in 2019! I had read already Complexity: The Emerging Science at the Edge of Order and Chaos by M. Mitchell Waldrop after it was recommended by the trading expert Zoran Perkov in the book Flash Boys. I was amazing by the explanatory power of complexity and saw it everywhere from then on, and this book was a welcome addition to the material in Waldrop's book. The book covers, for example, how to do a post-mortem on a airplane crash, and use lessons to prevent future crashes, and most importantly, how to overcome bias in the process.
Alexander Hamilton by Ron Chernow
Yes, this is the one the musical is based on, and it deserves every bit of praise it has received. If you're inclined to read anything about the American Revolutionary Era or New York City history, read this and you won't be disappointed. Chernow is simply a cut above other biographers.