Book Review: The Grid by Gretchen Bakke
Dated Yet Reasonable-Ish Primer. This is one of those books about a hyper technical subject that was written by a not-technical-at-all author... and it shows. One where the fact that *Bill Gates* once proclaimed it among his top 5 reads the year it was originally released (a decade ago as I write this review, and indeed I read the book on my late September 2026 walks specifically due to it being the decade anniversary of the original publication of the Audible edition of the book)... really speaks to the idea that Mr. Gates needs to read more, and read more quality.
That noted, *as a general primer*, this book actually works *reasonably* well. For those looking to the general state of the US electric grid system (as of when this book was originally written back then) and the history that got us to that point, this really will educate you quite a bit on likely a lot of factors both technical and not that you likely weren't aware of that all combine to make the system as complex and fragile as it is. Yes, you're going to need to do a lot more reading from other books (that I haven't found yet, please recommend me some wherever you see this review) with a lot more technical and even historical precision to really understand the actual nuts and bolts here enough to competently advocate for any particular issue here - even your preferred energy source. But still, for a truly general, "Grid 101" level introduction... this really does work reasonably well. Just please don't think you're any kind of expert on the topic after reading this book. :)
Overall good *enough* for a casual reader just seeking a bit clearer personal knowledge set to have a better general understanding of the topic, and written well enough to be accessible to exactly that type of reader, this is one of those science-oriented books that will be reasonably accessible to a wide audience and should likely do well to educate at the continent wide, millimeter deep level.
Recommended.
This review of The Grid by Gretchen Bakke was originally written on October 3, 2026.
