Jean Chatzky

The Today show’s Jean Chatzky, a contributing editor at Money, recently published her fourth book, Pay It Down! From Debt to Wealth on $10 a Day. Here she chooses six favorite business books.

Born to Buy: The Commercialized Child and the New Consumer Culture by Juliet B. Schor (Scribner, $25). This new volume by the best-selling author of The Overworked American plays to every parent’s fear. It explains, detail by detail, how society, and parents, turn today’s kids into consumers and how we must regroup if we don’t like the behaviors and attitudes we’re seeing.

The Blessing of a Skinned Knee by Wendy Mogel (Penguin, $14). Think of this as a companion volume to the above. Mogel relies on her Jewish heritage to deal with issues of overindulgence, allowance, and chores. Even the non-Jewish moms in my book group have devoured this one. And I hear Mogel’s at work on her next, tentatively titled The Blessing of a B-. Can’t wait.

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Moneyball by Michael Lewis (Norton, $14). I loved Michael Lewis’ compelling tale of how Oakland A’s GM Billy Beane strategized to purchase a way above average team with a way below average budget. And I’m not even a baseball fan.

The Devil Wears Prada by Lauren Weisberger (Broadway, $14). It’s not a business book, you say? The New York Times Sunday business-section list begs to differ. So, I figure, can I. This thinly veiled story about what it’s like to work for Vogue’s Anna Wintour is great plane reading. I devoured it on one cross-country flight.

Making Work Work by Julie Morgenstern (Fireside, $22). I just got this one and can’t put it down. It’s all about making more out of the time you put in at your office, and includes strategies like no e-mail for the first hour and how to finally get your desk in shape.

The Intelligent Investor

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