Today's Recommended Read: 'The Ride of a Lifetime' by Robert Iger

"The Ride of a Lifetime," pitched as a blueprint for leadership with the subtitle "Lessons I Learned from 15 Years as CEO of the Walt Disney Company," now serves as a curious pre-pandemic time capsule of the world's largest entertainment company at the height of its powers.

Less than six months after its publication, Robert Iger would cede his job ahead of schedule to Bob Chapek, the former head of Disney's theme park division. A month later, The New York Times reported Iger had resumed many of his CEO duties as the house Walt built weathered a world without roller coasters, cruise ships and movie theaters.

"Ride of a Lifetime" has a happy ending apropos of its subject. Iger and his company are on top of the world, thanks to a series of acquisitions that turned a strong brand into a superheroic one. Disney bought Pixar from Steve Jobs, whose friendship Iger clearly valued. It bought George Lucas' "Star Wars" empire and then, as Iger details, ignored the creator's notes on where to take the franchise. The acquisition of Marvel gave Disney the most lucrative cinematic universe of them all - and here, Iger perhaps takes a bit too much credit for the phenomenon of "Black Panther."

He does make for an engaging narrator, especially in a prologue that addresses a tumultuous week in 2016: While in Shanghai to open the new Disneyland park, Iger calls a father whose young son was killed by an alligator on Walt Disney World property.

"Ride of a Lifetime" takes you behind the curtain of an industry that has already been forever changed. In a few years, an updated version with a new chapter or two is sure to be even more fascinating.