New Book Releases for the Week of June 10, 2025
Featuring new book releases from Julia Austin, Samuel Arbesman, Bill McGowan and Juliana SIlva, and Alan Siegel
There are things we might look at from an outside perspective that spark our curiosity and make us wonder, how did that happen? How did that nascent startup grow so quickly? How does the digital world actually work? How is that person such a captivating speaker? And how is this TV show still making us laugh after decades on the air?
Uncover the answers to these questions and more in our latest roundup of newly released books.
The Porchlight staff members choosing books each week include Porchlight's Managing Director, Sally Haldorson, and the marketing team of Gabbi Cisneros, Jasmine Gonzalez, and Dylan Schleicher. As expert booksellers, we browse publisher catalogs and explore new titles from across the book industry to discover what captures our interest, and we're excited to share our findings with readers like you.
Unless otherwise noted, all book descriptions are provided by their respective publishers.
Our Recommended Books This Week
Sally's pick: After the Idea: What It Really Takes to Create and Scale a Startup by Julia Austin, published by Basic Venture
So you want to start a company. Or you were crazy enough to join a startup. You had a great idea, you built a prototype, and maybe you even raised some money. Now what?
Julia Austin is here to answer that big question. She has both experienced and observed that the differentiator between the startups that succeed and those that fail is operational excellence. A lot of entrepreneurs are great at the idea part but do not anticipate the details required to actually run and scale a new venture.
Drawing on Austin’s extensive experience at renowned startups like Akamai, VMware, and DigitalOcean and the hundreds of founders and startups she has educated, coached, and advised, After the Idea is full of time-tested strategies to help founders, investors, and employees navigate the operational challenges of startup ventures, including customer development, scalability, process optimization, team management, and more. This accessible set of techniques is for anyone determined to turn a great idea into a solid success.
Dylan's pick: The Magic of Code: How Digital Language Created and Connects Our World—and Shapes Our Future by Samuel Arbesman, published by PublicAffairs
In the digital world, code is the essential primary building block, the equivalent of the cell or DNA in the biological sphere—and almost as mysterious. Code can create entire worlds, real and virtual; it allows us to connect instantly to people and places around the globe; and it performs tasks that were once only possible in science fiction. It is a superpower, and not just in a technical sense. It is also a gateway to ideas. As vividly illustrated by Samuel Arbesman, it is the ultimate connector, providing new insight and meaning into how everything from language and mythology to biblical texts, biology, and even our patterns of thought connect with the history and nature of computing.
While the building block of code can be used for many wondrous things it can also create deeper wedges in our society and be weaponized to cause damage to our planet or our civilization. Code and computing are too important to be left to the tech community; it is essential that each of us engage with it. And we fail to understand it to our detriment.
By providing us with a framework to think about coding and its effects upon the world and placing the past, current, and future developments in computing into its broader setting we see how software and computers can work for people as opposed to against our needs. With this deeper understanding into the “why” of coding we can be masters of technology rather than its subjects.
Gabbi's pick: Speak, Memorably: The Art of Captivating an Audience by Bill McGowan and Juliana Silva, published by Harper Business
The business world has adopted the wrong definition of successful communication. For many years, being “on message” was considered the prime directive. The overwhelming majority of professionals today exist in a rigidly narrow range of bland rhetoric, throwing around industry buzzwords and empty jargon to create the impression of business savvy. But when everyone sounds messaged (and the same), no one stands out. And now, with more ways than ever to get your message across, it’s never been harder to communicate clearly and have your message stick.
Bill McGowan has devoted more than twenty years to helping people find their distinctive voice. From CEOs to White House staffers to television personalities, he has coached thousands of speakers to make their narrative more memorable and distinctive by breaking free from the challenges preventing them from selling their ideas with conviction, motivating their teams during challenging times, or clearly articulating a company’s mission.
Speak, Memorably offers concrete strategies and tools to help anyone, in any stage of their career, cut through the numbing sameness of cliches and boring business rhetoric and find their authentic voice. Inspiring and entertaining, it is a masterclass in interpersonal communication and an inspiring call to action for professionals to break free from forgettable “brand” speak and instead craft thoughtful and memorable messages.
Jasmine's pick: Stupid TV, Be More Funny: How the Golden Era of The Simpsons Changed Television-and America-Forever by Alan Siegel, published by Grand Central Publishing
The Simpsons is an American institution. But its status as an occasionally sharp yet ultimately safe sitcom that's still going after 33 years on the air undercuts its revolutionary origins. The early years of the animated series didn't just impact Hollywood, they changed popular culture. It was a show that altered the way we talked around the watercooler, in school hallways, and on the campaign trail, by bridging generations with its comedic sensibility and prescient cultural commentary.
In Stupid TV, Be More Funny, writer Alan Siegel reveals how the first decade of the show laid the groundwork for the series' true influence. He explores how the show's rise from 1990 to 1998 intertwined with the supposedly ascendent post-Cold War America, turning Fox into the juggernaut we know today, simultaneously shaking its head at America's culture wars while finding itself in the middle of them. By packing the book with anecdotes from icons like Conan O’Brien and Yeardley Smith, Siegel also provides readers with an unparalleled look inside the making of the show.
Through interviews with the show's legendary staff and whip-smart analysis, Siegel charts how The Simpsons developed its singular sensibility throughout the ‘90s, one that was at once groundbreakingly subversive for a primetime cartoon and shocking wholesome. The result is a definitive history of The Simpsons' most essential decade.
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