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Posted Nov. 25, 2009 4:52 a.m. by dylan
In General Business - 800 CEO Read Blog
The strategy + business annual books list is always one of the finest and most anticipated of the year. They get really smart and talented people who know how to pick 'em, and have them write (always highly intelligent and insightful) essays on their category—and, of course, the books in it. I've listed the picks below, but it really is worth heading over to strategy + business for the essays. (The links to the individual essays are in the headings below.)
Clive Crook picks the best books on The Meltdown:
- In Fed We Trust: Ben Bernanke’s War on the Great Panic by David Wessel, Crown Business
- Financial Shock: Global Panic and Government Bailouts—How We Got Here and What Must Be Done to Fix It by Mark Zandi, FT Press*mdash;2nd edition
- Getting Off Track: How Government Actions and Interventions Caused, Prolonged, and Worsened the Financial Crisis by John B. Taylor, Hoover Institution Press
- Fool’s Gold: How the Bold Dream of a Small Tribe at J.P. Morgan Was Corrupted by Wall Street Greed and Unleashed a Catastrophe by Gillian Tett, Free Press
- House of Cards: A Tale of Hubris and Wretched Excess on Wall Street by William D. Cohan,
- A Failure of Capitalism: The Crisis of ’08 and the Descent into Depression by Richard A. Posner, Harvard University Press
- Managed by the Markets: How Finance Re-Shaped America by Gerald F. Davis, Oxford University Press
Charles Handy picks the Leadership books:
- The Puritan Gift: Reclaiming the American Dream amidst Global Financial Chaos by Kenneth Hopper & William Hopper, I. B. Tauris & Company—revised edition
- Transparency: How Leaders Create a Culture of Candor by Warren Bennis, Daniel Goleman & James O’Toole with Patricia Ward Biederman, Jossey-Bass
- Helping: How to Offer, Give, and Receive Help by Edgar H. Schein, Berrett-Koehler
- Walk the Walk: The #1 Rule for Real Leaders by Alan Deutschman, Portfolio
- Charisma and Compassion: Cheng Yen and the Buddhist Tzu Chi Movement by C. Julia Huang, Harvard University Press
Phil Rosenzweig picks the books on Strategy:
- The Invisible Edge: Taking Your Strategy to the Next Level Using Intellectual Property by Mark Blaxill and Ralph Eckardt, Portfolio
- Dynamic Capabilities and Strategic Management: Organizing for Innovation and Growth by David J. Teece, Oxford University Press
- Innovation Corrupted: The Origins and Legacy of Enron’s Collapse by Malcolm S. Salter, Harvard University Press
Ayesha Khanna and Parag Khanna take on Globalization:
- The New Silk Road: How a Rising Arab World Is Turning Away from the West and Rediscovering China by Ben Simpfendorfer, Palgrave Macmillan
- Imagining India: The Idea of a Renewed Nation by Nandan Nilekani, Penguin Press
- India’s Global Powerhouses: How They Are Taking On the World by Nirmalya Kumar, with Pradipta K. Mohapatra and Suj Chandrasekhar, Harvard Business Press
- The Fat Tail: The Power of Political Knowledge for Strategic Investing by Ian Bremmer & Preston Keat, Oxford University Press
- Riches Among the Ruins: Adventures in the Dark Corners of the Global Economy by Robert P. Smith with Peter Zheutlin, AMACOM
Judith F. Samuelson picks the Management books:
- The Upside of the Downturn: Ten Management Strategies to Prevail in the Recession and Thrive in the Aftermath by Geoff Colvin, Portfolio
- Managing by Henry Mintzberg, Berrett-Koehler
- Enough: True Measures of Money, Business, and Life by John C. Bogle, Wiley
- The Next 100 Years: A Forecast for the 21st Century by George Friedman, Doubleday
Catharine P. Taylor finds the best books on Marketing:
- Twitterville: How Businesses Can Thrive in the New Global Neighborhoods by Shel Israel, Portfolio
- Free: The Future of a Radical Price by Chris Anderson, Hyperion
- The Brand Bubble: The Looming Crisis in Brand Value and How to Avoid It by John Gerzema and Ed Lebar, Jossey-Bass
Steven Levy looks at the best books on Technology:
- Stealing MySpace: The Battle to Control the Most Popular Website in America by Julia Angwin, Random House
- Remix: Making Art and Commerce Thrive in the Hybrid Economy by Lawrence Lessig, Penguin
- Say Everything: How Blogging Began, What It’s Becoming, and Why It Matters by Scott Rosenberg, Crown
James O'Toole picks the best Biographies:
- John Stuart Mill: Victorian Firebrand by Richard Reeves, Overlook
- The First Tycoon: The Epic Life of Cornelius Vanderbilt by T.J. Stiles, Knopf
- The Snowball: Warren Buffett and the Business of Life by Alice Schroeder, Bantam
As Theodore Kinni writes in the introduction to this year's essays:
This year’s best business books help us understand current conditions and chart a secure course forward. With luck, next year’s best books will offer similar insight into a recovery of historic proportions.
You can read the full feature here.
We've been following this list since 2003. The previous years' lists are below.
2003 | 2004 | 2005 | 2006 | 2007 | 2008
Season of the Lists
Posted Oct. 29, 2009 5:28 a.m. by dylan
In General Business - 800 CEO Read Blog
It must be the season of the lists, yeah, because Publishers Weekly has announced their top 10 books of 2009. One business title made their list—Matthew B. Crawford's Shop Class as Soulcraft: An Inquiry Into the Value of Work, released by penguin Press.
The others are:
- The Age of Wonder: How the Romantic Generation Discovered the Beauty and Terror of Science by Richard Holmes, Pantheon Books
- Await Your Reply: A Novel by Dan Chaon, Ballantine Books
- Big Machine: A Novel by Victor LaValle, Spiegel & Grau
- Cheever: A Life by Blake Bailey Knopf Publishing Group
- A Fiery Peace in a Cold War: Bernard Schriever and the Ultimate Weapon by Neil Sheehan Random House
- In Other Rooms, Other Wonders by Daniyal Mueenuddin W.W. Norton & Company
- Jeff in Venice, Death in Varanasi by Geoff Dyer, Pantheon Books
- Lost City of Z: A Tale of Deadly Obsession in the Amazon by David Grann, Doubleday Books
- Stitches: A Memoirby David Small, W.W. Norton & Company
The Financial Times and Goldman Sachs Business Book of the Year Award will be announced today at a gala dinner in London. The shortlist, announced in September, is:
- Lords of Finance: The Bankers Who Broke the World by Liaquat Ahamed, Penguin Press
- Good Value: Reflections on Money, Morality and an Uncertain World by Stephen Green, Atlantic Monthly Press
- Imagining India: The Idea of a Renewed Nation by Nandan Nilekani, Penguin Press
- The Match King: Ivar Kreuger, the Financial Genius Behind a Century of Wall Street Scandals by Frank Partnoy, PublicAffairs
- Animal Spirits: How Human Psychology Drives the Economy, and Why It Matters for Global Capitalism by George A Akerlof & Robert J Shiller, Princeton University Press
- In Fed We Trust: Ben Bernanke's War on the Great Panic by David Wessel, Crown Business
You can find the longlist here if you're interested. We'll let you know the winner when it's been announced.
My personal favorite list so far this year, though, is AbeBooks Top 10 Ghostwritten Books. It has some gems, such as Tennis As I Play It, ghosted by Sinclair Lewis, and the bizarre story of Hedy Lamarr suing her own publisher for the inaccuracies in her own "autobiography," Ecstasy and Me: My Life as a Woman, ghostwritten by pulp novelist Leo Guild.
Financial Times and Goldman Sachs Business Book of the Year - The Longlist
Posted Aug. 12, 2009 10:40 a.m. by dylan
In General Business - 800 CEO Read Blog
The longlist for the 2009 Financial Times and Goldman Sachs Business Book of the Year Award has been announced. The press release states that "The award is designed to highlight the book that provides the most compelling and enjoyable insight into modern business issues, including management, finance, and economics."
The books on the longlist are:
- Animal Spirits: How Human Psychology Drives the Economy, and Why It Matters for Global Capitalism by George A Akerlof, Robert J Shiller
- Clever: Leading Your Smartest, Most Creative People by Rob Goffee, Gareth Jones
- Free: The Future of a Radical Price by Chris Anderson
- Good Value: Reflections on Money, Morality and an Uncertain World by Stephen Green
- House of Cards: A Tale of Hubris and Wretched Excess on Wall Street By William D Cohan (Cohan won the award two years ago for his first book, The Last Tycoons.)
- How the Mighty Fall: And Why Some Companies Never Give in by Jim Collins
- Imagining India: The Idea of a Renewed Nation by Nandan Nilekani
- In Fed We Trust: Ben Bernanke's War on the Great Panic by David Wessel
- Lords of Finance: The Bankers Who Broke the World by Liaquat Ahamed
- The Match King: Ivar Kreuger, the Financial Genius Behind a Century of Wall Street Scandals by Frank Partnoy
- The Myth of the Rational Market: A History of Risk, Reward, and Delusion on Wall Street by Justin Fox
- Supercorp: How Vanguard Companies Create Innovation, Profits, Growth, and Social Good by Rosabeth Moss Kanter
- This Time Is Different: Eight Centuries of Financial Folly by Carmen M Reinhart, Kenneth Rogoff
- Why Your World Is about to Get a Whole Lot Smaller: Oil and the End of Globalization by Jeff Rubin
The shortlist will be announced in September, and the overall winner will be announced at gala dinner in London at the end of October. We will, of course, keep you informed of further developments.
Imagining India & The Blue Sweater
Posted March 27, 2009 8:34 a.m. by dylan
In Uncategorized - 800 CEO Read Blog
Jacqueline Novogratz has one of the best stories behind the title of a book I've ever heard (but, I'll let her tell it below). Novogratz is the founder and CEO of Acumen Fund and author of the recently released book, The Blue Sweater: Bridging the Gap Between Rich and Poor in an Interconnected World. It was our good friend, Seth Godin, who first suggested Jacqueline Novogratz to us, and like everything Seth recommends and supports, this book is pure gold. Seth wrote a blurb for the back of the book, stating:
Jacquline's book and her work represent an entirely new way to look at things, a vivid opportunity for change, and most of all an obligation too spread the word about the way the world has evolved. We need to wake up and listen to what she has to say. Hurry!
Other notable fans of the book are Fareed Zakaria, who you may know from television or as the author of The Post-American World, and former US senator Bill Bradley. If you've enjoyed Muhammad Yunus's books (Banker to the Poor and Creating a World Without Poverty), you'll love this one.
On top of the story of The Blue Sweater that provided the title of this book, Jacqueline has many other inspiring, surprising and wonderful stories to tell. You can hear a few in her recent interview with Charlie Rose.
If you're interested in learning more, you can read the prologue to her book at the book's website, or buy the book from, well, us of course.
And, if you're interested in other big-picture, world-altering-viewpoint books, I'd suggest Nandan Nilekani's Imagining India. I just received my copy and haven't been able to delve into it very deeply, but it looks fascinating, also comes recommended by Fareed Zakaria (It was his Book of the Week on last Sunday's GPS) and the author has made it on Charlie Rose as well--and with Tom Friedman to boot, who got the idea for The World is Flat largely from Nilekani.
