By Dylan Parkes | June 27, 2026
Pivotal180’s Summer Reading List for 2026
The weather outside is one of three things:
- incredibly hot, or
- humid and wet, or
- somehow cold and wet.
There are brief moments of repose, but the consensus is that it is better indoors than out. As such, we must find a way to occupy our time. So, rather than watching the World Cup (why is Viking rowing so entertaining?) or baking your 500th loaf of pandemic-era sour dough, let’s turn our attention to reading. Specifically, let’s review what we should be reading to keep apace of the evolving nexus of project finance, energy markets, renewable energy, geopolitics, and technology.
On our minds
Here are a few books that feel timely:
- The Thinking Machine: Jensen Huang,
- NVIDIA, and the World’s Most Coveted Microchip Stephen Witt (2025)
- NVIDIA sits in the middle of the AI, data center, energy boom and as such has become (seemingly overnight) one of the most important companies on the planet. This book is a biography of both the man and the company
- Superpower: One Man’s Quest to Transform American Energy Russell Gold (2019)
- This is a book that outlines the politics of energy infrastructure development. Ultimately, it is about power struggles, the power grid, and what is holding us back. This seems particularly timely in connection with the projected energy demand across the country
- The War Below: Lithium, Copper, and the Global Battle to Power Our Lives Ernest Scheyder (2024)
- ok
- We are all watching revolutions in AI, chip tech, data centers, BESS tech, etc. happen live. The challenge is that the demand for critical minerals that are foundational to each of these booming sectors is wrapped in the cloak of geopolitics and, in some cases, perceived scarcity.
What else we might want to know
There are a few more areas where we might want to expand our minds. The themes remain the same as the books suggested above. The time of publishing means that some of these books are fresh in the zeitgeist, and some are showing lasting power as time ticks on.
Energy & Infrastructure is a core topic for us at Pivotal180. These next two books represent where we all are headed and what obstacles stand in our way.
- The BESS Book: A Cell to Grid Guide to Utility-Scale Battery Energy Storage Systems; Drew Lebowitz (2024)
- The Grid: The Fraying Wires Between Americans and Our Energy Future; Gretchen Bakke (2016)
Geopolitics, as stated above, most of these topics are subject to the capricious whims of global superpowers, those at the helm, and those with no title but substantial power nonetheless.
- Power and Progress: Our Thousand-Year Struggle Over Technology and Prosperity; Daron Acemoglu & Simon Johnson (2023)
- The Price Is Wrong: Why Capitalism Won’t Save the Planet; Brett Christophers (2023)
- The New Map: Energy, Climate, and the Clash of Nations; Daniel Yergin (2020)
- The Quest: Energy, Security, and the Remaking of the Modern World; Daniel Yergin (2011)
Artificial Intelligence, the elephant in the room. In this case, the conversation is how do we live with the elephant rather than ignore it.
Co-Intelligence: Living and Working with AI; Ethan Mollick (2024)
Textbook Education, we are an educational firm and sometimes you just need to take a deep breath and dive into a textbook and then once you are done, come take a course with us and we will make the details of these dense texts digestible and retainable.
- Project Finance in Theory and Practice; Stefano Gatti (3rd ed., 2018)
- Introduction to Project Finance in Renewable Energy Infrastructure; Farid Mohamadi (2021)
- Renewable Energy Finance: Powering the Future; Charles Donovan, ed. (2nd ed., 2020)
For your conversations while celebrating the US semiquincentennial. The US turns 250 years old very soon. It’s important that while enjoying a festive drink and waiting for the fireworks to start you have some interesting literary quips to offer to the crowd. If the textbooks above don’t contain the exact material for a party anecdote, it seems fitting to bring up some American literature. I would suggest (reading and then…) discussing Amor Towles “A Gentleman in Moscow”. Now, it may seem odd to suggest a book set in revolutionary Russia as a good example of New American Literature or appropriate for the July 4th weekend. However, first, the writer is American. Second, and even more pertinent to our work at Pivotal180, he spent most of his formative years as an investment manager and equities researcher. But most importantly, the novel is fantastic. It is playful, whimsical, and surprisingly culturally attuned to the era and the country. It is both timely and timeless. It is a book that remembers the beauty of humanity, holding on to good things from bygone eras as time marches forward, and how to face change with grace. A few lessons that might be fitting to reminisce on during a 250th birthday party.
Lastly, after the fireworks fade and you finish notating your favorite book from above, come learn with us.
Check out the links below to learn more about Pivotal180 and our financial modeling courses and services. Experience the Pivotal180 difference!
