The story of business involves massive successes, epic failures, intrigue, disruption, politics, and more. I’ve handpicked 12 titles below that encompass all of those via academic studies, histories, and biographies.
Money: A Story of Humanity
Money: A Story of Humanity
by David McWilliams
McWilliams, an academic, banker, and journalist, combines in-depth knowledge of history, economics, and psychology to explore how money has shaped human history and modern society. As the founder of Kilkenomics, an economics and comedy festival, the author excels at demystifying our relationship with money. The Financial Times calls this book “ambitious, insightful, and readable.”
Main Street Millionaire: How to Make Extraordinary Wealth Buying Ordinary Businesses
Main Street Millionaire
by Codie Sanchez
A leading investor and small business expert explains how to find opportunity and profit in unglamorous but reliable businesses, including how to identify and close business deals even if you’re not wealthy, how to grow and manage multiple small businesses after acquisition, and what kinds of companies aspiring investors should not acquire.
The Hidden Globe: How Wealth Hacks the World
The Hidden Globe
by Atossa Araxia Abrahamian
The author explores the origins and consequences of free trade zones, tax havens, and other financial loopholes that, she claims, facilitate inequality and injustice by enabling the wealthy and privileged to operate with impunity.
Be Ready When the Luck Happens: A Memoir
Be Ready When the Luck Happens
by Ina Garten
In her long-awaited memoir, the award-winning culinary icon, bestselling cookbook author, internet personality, and television host shares how she navigated challenges and career twists to achieve her many remarkable accomplishments and fame.
Revenge of the Tipping Point
Revenge of the Tipping Point
by Malcolm Gladwell
The surprising ideas in Gladwell’s groundbreaking debut were enormously influential twenty-five years ago. Now, he revisits and reframes those lessons to offer a new perspective on the dark side of spreading social phenomena.
Nexus: A Brief History of Information Networks from the Stone Age to AI
Nexus
by Yuval Noah Harari
Renowned historian Harari takes the long — very long — view of how the flow of information has shaped humans and society from the Stone Age to the present. He examines how different cultures and political systems throughout history have used information to achieve their goals.
Going Infinite: The Rise and Fall of a New Tycoon
Going Infinite
by Michael Lewis
The author of “The Big Short” and “Moneyball” tells the story of Sam Bankman-Fried, who rose rapidly to be the world’s youngest billionaire, only to fall just as rapidly as the epicenter of the 2022 cryptocurrency collapse. Reviewers hailed it as both “wildly entertaining” and tragic.
Fintech Wars: Tech Titans, Complex Crypto, and the Future of Money
Fintech Wars
by James da Costa
The author is a fintech insider and founder of a digital bank. He draws on his connections with LinkedIn founder Reid Hoffman, Capital One founder Nigel Morris, and Martha Lane Fox of Lastminute.com to illuminate the strategies and innovations that fuel companies such as PayPal and Nubank.
The Fund: Ray Dalio, Bridgewater Associates and The Unraveling of a Wall Street Legend
The Fund
by Rob Copeland
Informed by hundreds of interviews with people close to his subject, Copeland details Dalio’s career from founding the world’s largest hedge fund, Bridgewater Associates, to stepping down as its leader nearly fifty years later. Critics are calling it a nonfiction thriller that’s both shocking and entertaining.
Money & Promises: Seven Deals That Changed the World
Money & Promises
by Paolo Zannoni
Zannoni, an experienced banker and business executive, uses examples from Italy, Spain, England, the United States, and Russia to illustrate the origins of the modern banking industry and examine the complex relationship between public and private debt.
Gambling Man: The Wild Ride of Japan’s Masayoshi Son
Gambling Man
by Lionel Barber
A definitive biography of Korean-Japanese tech-finance wizard Mayasoshi Son and his firm, Softbank, which financed hundreds of tech startups, funded Alibaba, and made and lost fortunes many times over, yet stays largely out of the spotlight.
Female Founders’ Playbook
Female Founders’ Playbook
by Anne Boden
After a successful career in the banking industry, Boden founded Starling Bank in 2014 and led it from startup to industry leader. Her book gathers the true stories, experiences, and insights of women entrepreneurs and venture capitalists, covering innovative ideas, building a winning team, and finding investors.
