![]() |
Buy it, read it, read it again |
After my recent post on some good new reading, I’ve been asked by a few readers to provide some more book recommendations for readers.
Here’s a list of some of the books that have really made me think about business, society, governance and the environment, in the last 20 or so years, in no particular order:
- Catch 22, by Joseph Heller (a must read: the greatest novel ever written, and a wonderful early satire on unfettered capitalism, outsourcing and the contradictions in the human condition, but you must read it multiple times)
- The Prize, by Daniel Yergin (the best alternative history of the last 200 years via the lens of energy demand)
- The Grapes of Wrath, by John Steinbeck (nothing more needed here!)
- The Jungle, by Upton Sinclair (the book that put health and safety on the early 20th century agenda)
- Anything and everything by George Orwell and Graham Greene (not a book, read them all!)
- Corporations and Morality, by Thomas Donaldson (classic business ethics text from the 1980s, seminal)
- Leading Quietly, by Joseph Badarocco (stories of quiet leadership, utterly compelling)
- Empires of Profit, by Daniel Litvin (a historical tour of bad corporate behaviour, and its results)
- Run to Failure, by Abraham Lustgarten (a forensic journalist demolition of BP’s lack of safety culture)
- Let my People go Surfing, by Yvon Chouinard (Patagonia founder, sustainable business legend)
- The New Few, by Ferdinand Mount (right-ish wing look at how damaging inequality is, superb)
- The Honest Truth about Dishonesty, by Dan Ariely (sociological insights into bad behavior, and solutions)
- What has Nature ever done for us? By Tony Juniper (attempts to quantify the value of nature, one of the best environmentalist books ever written)
- Prosperity without Growth, by Tim Jackson (fascinating alternative look at our options for beyond GDP)
- Just Business, by John Ruggie (the inside track on business and human rights issues and solutions)
- McMafia, by Misha Glenny (Brilliantly researched storytelling about global crime since 1989)
- SuperCapitalism, by Robert Reich (Poor on modern CSR, but the first two thirds is an absorbing look at post-war history)
- The End of the Line, by Charles Clover (the book that put the seafood crisis on the map)
- Collapse, by Jared Diamond (seminal text warning of the dangers of overstepping our boundaries)
- Maverick, by Ricardo Semler (a successful Brazilian entrepreneur with stories of alternative methods)
- Green Alternatives to Globalisation: A Manifesto, by Michael Woodin and Caroline Lucas (a well-written look at alternatives oft disregarded by policy makers, perhaps far too early)
Eagle-eyed readers will note that all these books bar the last co-authored book, are written by men. This worries me. I have only just noticed this. One result of this exercise is that I will be actively seeking out more books in these genres, by female authors.
Look forward to any reader suggestions of your own book favourites.