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An intricate and detailed account of building railways in India -- includes a ton of information on the hundreds of private British companies that built the railway, which later came under the management of the government of British India. Lots of interesting titbits and piles of information for the discerning and meticulous railway nerd. Point to note, it stops short of the Indian independence, so there's very little information about the present day system.

This book should have win awards everywhere. There are many great tomes on management but none of them specifically deal with the software engineering and related teams. Incredibly well written, detailed and thoughtful in its approach. It touches on many topics you’re interested in (as a technical manager/leader)... and then goes on to talk about many other things you never realised you were/are going to struggle with. This should be mandatory reading for all senior engineers and engineering managers.

Consider this book as an easy introduction to the value of DevOps in the “software eats everything” world we live in — a valuable read for those who are at organisations that use technology on a regular basis (pretty much everyone?) but don’t consider themselves as a primarily “technology company”. (Even though I understand the DevOps movement and principles, I did not know of its strong relationship to manufacturing processes. After reading this book, that makes so much more sense!)