1. Fall: The Mystery of Robert Maxwell
John Preston
This “superb, pacey account” charts the late Robert Maxwell’s “ascent from shtetl boyhood” to self-made publishing billionaire and “eventual cartoon madman”, says The Daily Telegraph. Truly “jaw-dropping”.
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2. Empire of Pain
Patrick Radden Keefe
A gripping and “meticulously researched” account of how Purdue Pharma, owned by the Sackler family, marketed the addictive painkiller OxyContin – fuelling the US opioid crisis, says The Times. “Read it and rage.”
3. A Shot to Save the World
Gregory Zuckerman
An “appropriately breathless” account of the race to find a Covid vaccine, says Andrew Hill in the FT. Zuckerman shows how “catastrophe” transformed the fortunes of “tiny, visionary ventures”.
4. Three Days at Camp David
Jeffrey E. Garten
In this “outstanding book”, says Martin Wolf in the FT, Garten describes the secret 1971 meeting at which President Nixon decided to sever the link between the dollar and gold – beginning “a new monetary order”.
5. Toxic
Clive Lewis
A business psychologist’s guide on how to deal with “toxic” colleagues, says The Times: the unkind, the hostile, the “downright abusive”. “Required reading for company bosses.”
6. The Future of Money
Eswar S. Prasad
“An invaluable overview” of how digital technologies are transforming currencies and finance, says Martin Wolf in the FT. As Prasad summarises: “A glorious future beckons, perhaps.”
7. 12 Bytes
Jeanette Winterson
The novelist’s “anarchically playful” essays cover the history of computing, AI and the cloud, says The Daily Telegraph. She imagines a future in which “sexbots are hacked by feminist programmers”.
8. Pugnare: Economic Success and Failure
George Maher
The rise and fall of the Roman Empire – from a financial perspective. When inflation kicked in, stability collapsed, says Merryn Somerset Webb in the FT. “The banking system appears to have completely failed in AD260. And that was that.”
9. The Aristocracy of Talent
Adrian Wooldridge
This “sparkling” if disturbing study shows how much less meritocratic our society has become since the late 20th century, says The Daily Telegraph. An elegant defence of talent.
10. The Cult of We
Eliot Brown and Maureen Farrell
This “modern tale of the emperor’s new clothes” charts how Adam Neumann convinced everyone “that his property start-up was worth $47bn”, says The Times. “Drugs, tequila, private jets and a worrying messiah complex.”
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