Sophia of Silicon Valley
Fiction
William Morrow
April 10, 2018
Hardcover
368
Free from publisher
Sharp, dramatic, and full of insider dish, SOPHIA OF SILICON VALLEY is one woman’s story of a career storming the corridors of geek power and living in the shadow of its outrageous cast of maestros. During the heady years of the tech boom, incorrigibly frank Sophia Young lucks into a job that puts her directly in the path of Scott Kraft, the eccentric CEO of Treehouse, a studio whose animated films are transforming movies forever. Overnight, Sophia becomes an unlikely nerd whisperer. Whether her success is due to dumb luck, savage assertiveness, insightful finesse (learned by dealing with her irrational Chinese immigrant mother), or a combination of all three, in her rarified position she finds she can truly shine. As Scott Kraft’s right-hand woman, whip-smart Sophia is in the eye of the storm, sometimes floundering, sometimes nearly losing relationships and her health, but ultimately learning what it means to take charge of her own future the way the men around her do. But when engineer/inventor Andre Stark hires her to run his company’s investor relations, Sophia discovers that the big paycheck and high-status career she’s created for herself may not be worth living in the toxic environment of a boys-club gone bad.
My review:
I was graciously sent this book for review. Although I'm not sure that it's something I would have picked up on my own, the premise sounded interesting, and not so far out of my comfort zone to not give it a whirl. There were a lot of things to like about this one. I loved that the protagonist has a chronic illness (not dealt with a lot in fictionalized go-getters). The repartee between her and her Asian mother was reminiscent of the mother/daughter interactions in Crazy Rich Asians, and were very entertaining. The portrayal of the boys network, alive and well and truly obnoxious in this technology setting, had me rooting for Sophia to put them in their place. I thought the author (who the character of Sophia is loosely based on) did a very good job exploring the issue of having a relationship outside of a high pressure, time consuming job. Where the book bogged down a bit for me was in all the descriptions of the tech industry, including sales pitches, stock options, IPO's and the like. Had I been in this field, I'm sure I would have a totally different perspective, but it did temper my overall enjoyment. I really liked Sophia, and this kept me interested to find out if she "made it out of the tech jungle alive"!
A good read, with a well written protagonist. Showing that the more things change (or not) in the boys network, the more they stay the same for the few women climbing to power. This one will be especially of interest to those with knowledge of the Silicon Valley tech world.
