Some of the biggest business books planned for the fall highlight the impact of technology on society.
Top 10
The Attention Merchants: The Epic Scramble to Get Inside Our Heads
Tim Wu. Knopf, Oct. 18
Wu describes how the goal of “attention merchants” has always been the same: to capture the public’s attention for resale to advertisers. The acceleration of the process in recent years has had a transformative effect on our society and ourselves.
Blowout: The Inside Story of the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill
Daniel Jacobs. Brookings Institution, Aug. 23
The inside story of the worst environmental disaster in U.S. history, Blowout provides a comprehensive account of the legal, economic, and environmental consequences of the April 2010 explosion at a BP oil well in the Gulf of Mexico.
Born on Third Base: A One Percenter Makes the Case for Tackling Inequality, Bringing Wealth Home, and Committing to the Common Good
Chuck Collins. Chelsea Green, Sept. 23
As inequality continues to grab headlines, Collins, born into the 1%, provides national and local solutions that not only challenge inequality but also respond to climate change.
Class Clowns: How the Smartest Investors Lost Billions in Education
Jonathan A. Knee. Columbia Univ., Nov. 8
Dozens of successful businessmen have tried and failed to develop profitable educational businesses. Knee takes readers inside four spectacular financial failures in education that involved Rupert Murdoch, John Paulson, Michael Milken, and Chris Whittle.
The Content Trap: A Strategist’s Guide to Digital Change
Bharat N. Anand. Random House, Sept. 27
Anand presents a way for media companies to survive and thrive amid industry-wide upheaval by finding ways to monetize free content.
Powerhouse: The Untold Story of Hollywood’s Creative Artists Agency
James Andrew Miller. Custom House, Aug. 9
Miller chronicles the important role Creative Artists Agency has played in popular culture over the past 50 years.
The Social Organism: A Radical Understanding of Social Media to Transform Your Business and Life
Oliver Luckett and Michael J. Casey. Hachette, Nov. 15
Tech mogul Luckett and MIT Media Lab’s Casey illuminate how social media functions on a global scale, how human culture is evolving with it, and how we can master digital content for good and for profit.
Streaming, Sharing, Stealing: Big Data and the Future of Entertainment
Michael D. Smith and Rahul Telang. MIT, Aug. 5
Smith and Telang show how the success of companies like Amazon and Apple is changing the rules in other entertainment industries, notably publishing and music. To succeed in the new business world, the entertainment industries must learn to follow the data.
To Pixar and Beyond: My Unlikely Journey with Steve Jobs to Make Entertainment History
Lawrence Levy. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, Nov. 1
Levy describes how a phone call from Apple cofounder Steve Jobs led to working together to transform Pixar into one of Hollywood’s greatest success stories.
We Wanted Workers: Unraveling the Immigration Narrative
George J. Borjas. Norton, Oct. 11
One of America’s leading immigration economists presents a level-headed exploration of the effects of immigration on migrant and nonmigrant workers.
Business & Economics Listings
Adams Media
Social Security 101: From Medicare to Spousal Benefits, an Essential Primer on Government Retirement Aid by Alfred Mill (Oct. 1, hardcover, $15.99, ISBN 978-1-4405-9922-4). From the history of social security to its probable place in the future, this primer has hundreds of tidbits and concepts that provide readers with all the ins and outs of this essential government program.
Agate B2
Own It: Oprah Winfrey in Her Own Words, edited by Anjali Becker and Jeanne Engelmann (Dec. 1, trade paper, $10.95, ISBN 978-1-57284-203-8), collects Winfrey’s most insightful quotations, centered around her media career, life lessons, entrepreneurship, and remarkable personal story.
Amacom
The Gig Economy: The Complete Guide to Getting Better Work, Taking More Time Off, and Financing the Life You Want by Diane Mulcahy (Nov. 8, hardcover, $22, ISBN 978-0-8144-3733-9) is packed with research, exercises, and anecdotes, supplying strategies—from the professional to the personal—to help you deal with the new world of work.
Benbella
The Real Madrid Way: How Values Created the Most Successful Sports Team on the Planet by Steven G. Mandis (Oct. 11, trade paper, $16.95, ISBN 978-1-942952-54-1). A Columbia Business School professor explains how this renowned soccer team was transformed from near bankruptcy to one of the world’s most valuable sports franchises over 15 years.
Work Pause Thrive: How to Pause for Parenthood Without Killing Your Career by Lisen Stromberg (Jan. 31, hardcover, $24.95, ISBN 978-1-942952-73-2). Through first-person interviews, along with cutting-edge research collected from nearly 1,500 women, Stromberg reveals five different blueprints for stepping back from your professional life without sacrificing your ambitions. 15,000-copy announced first printing.
Berrett-Koehler
The Leadership Genius of Julius Caesar: Modern Lessons from the Man Who Built an Empire by Phillip Barlag (Oct. 17, hardcover, $24.95, ISBN 978-1-62656-693-4). uses dramatic and colorful incidents from Caesar’s career to illustrate what Caesar can teach leaders today. Central to Barlag’s argument is how Caesar drew a distinction between force and power.
Bibliomotion
Why Simple Wins: Escape the Complexity Trap and Get to Work That Matters by Lisa Bodell (Oct. 18, hardcover, $26.95, ISBN 978-1-62956-129-5) explains that by eliminating redundancies, communicating with clarity, and making simplification a habit, individuals and companies can begin to recognize which activities are time-sucks and which create lasting value.
Brookings Institution
Blowout: The Inside Story of the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill by Daniel Jacobs (Aug. 23, hardcover, $23, ISBN 978-0-8157-2908-2). In this comprehensive account of the legal, economic, and environmental consequences of the April 2010 blowout at a BP oil well in the Gulf of Mexico, former Justice Department lawyer Jacobs tells the story that neither BP nor the government wants heard: how the company and the government fell short, both in terms of preventing and coping with the accident. 15,000-copy announced first printing.
Loan Sharks: The Birth of Predatory Lending by Charles R. Geisst (Oct. 18, hardcover, $26, ISBN 978-0-815-72900-6) follows the history of predatory lending in the U.S., tracing the origins of modern consumer lending to such older practices as salary buying and hidden interest charges. Geisst shows that many current lending practices employed today by credit card companies and others would have been easily recognizable at the end of the 19th century.
Career
Your Creative Mind: How to Disrupt Your Thinking, Abandon Your Comfort Zone, and Develop Bold New Strategies by Scott Cochrane (Sept. 19, trade paper, $16.99, ISBN 978-1-63265-044-3) shows entrepreneurs how to catapult their company out of a performance plateau and into dynamic growth, expansion, and market leadership by harnessing the secrets of the power of creation.
Chelsea Green
Born on Third Base: A One Percenter Makes the Case for Tackling Inequality, Bringing Wealth Home, and Committing to the Common Good by Chuck Collins (Sept. 23, trade paper, $17.95, ISBN 978-1-60358-683-2). Born into the 1%, Collins gave away his inheritance at 26 and spent the next three decades mobilizing against inequality. His book provides national and local solutions that not only challenge inequality but also respond to climate change, and offers an unexpected, fresh take on one of the world’s most intransigent problems.
Parachuting Cats into Borneo: And Other Lessons from the Change Café by Axel Klimek and Alan AtKisson (Aug. 4, trade paper, $24.95, ISBN 978-1-60358-681-8). Named after a classic tale of unintended consequences, this work offers a toolkit of proven strategies and practices for building capacity and creating transformation at the personal and corporate level.
Columbia Univ.
Class Clowns: How the Smartest Investors Lost Billions in Education by Jonathan A. Knee (Nov. 8, hardcover, $29.95, ISBN 978-0-231-17928-7). Knee, a professor and investment banker, dissects what drives investors’ efforts to improve education and why they consistently fail. He takes readers inside four spectacular financial failures in education that involved Rupert Murdoch, John Paulson, Michael Milken, and Chris Whittle.
Crude Volatility: The History and the Future of Boom-Bust Oil Prices by Robert McNally (Jan. 17, hardcover, $35, ISBN 978-0-231-17814-3). Crafting a journey from the gushing New England oil fields to the fraught and fractious Middle East, McNally provides a crucial perspective that discards distractions and tired myths in the pricing of oil, shows lessons learned from prior mistakes, and provides the historical foundation we need to face, understand, and surmount the difficulties ahead.
If You’re in a Dogfight, Become a Cat! Strategies for Long-Term Growth by Leonard Sherman (Jan. 10, hardcover, $29.95, ISBN 978-0-231-17482-4). A longtime business consultant and faculty member at Columbia Business School explains how companies like Apple have thrived by differentiating their businesses, aligning their goals and practices, and continuously innovating their products.
Crown Business
The Cheat Code: Going Off Script to Get More, Go Faster, and Shortcut Your Way to Success by Brian Wong (Sept. 6, hardcover, $22, ISBN 978-1-101-90496-1). Founder and CEO of the mobile app Klip, Wong draws on his experiences of graduating from college at age 18 and becoming the youngest entrepreneur to receive VC funding at age 19, to offer 68 simple, actionable tricks, or “cheats,” anyone can use to get ahead faster in work and life.
Own It: The Power of Women at Work by Sallie Krawcheck (Jan. 31, hardcover, $27, ISBN 978-1-101-90625-5). One of the highest ranked women ever to work on Wall Street shows women how to elevate themselves and their careers by embracing and investing in the unique traits proven to make women stronger leaders, better team players, and more valuable assets to companies and employers.
Custom House
Powerhouse: The Untold Story of Hollywood’s Creative Artists Agency by James Andrew Miller (Aug. 9, hardcover, $32.50, ISBN 978-0-06-244137-9). Bestselling author Miller chronicles the revolutionary role that Hollywood’s largest talent agency—Creative Artists Agency—has played in popular culture over the past five decades. 250,000-copy announced first printing.
Dundurn
The Wealthy Renter: How to Choose Housing That Will Make You Rich by Alex Avery (Oct. 4, trade paper, $19.99, ISBN 978-1-4597-3646-7) offers a clear, unbiased, straightforward approach to the biggest investment most people will ever make—their housing. Written by a top-ranked financial research analyst, it aims to help readers make wise housing decisions that will improve their lives.
Dutton
Power Your Happy: Work Hard, Play Nice, and Build Your Dream Life by Lisa Sugar (Sept. 20, hardcover, $25, ISBN 978-1-101-98506-9). The founder of the hugely popular website PopSugar, the author aims to show readers how to live colorful, interesting lives where every second counts.
Elevate
The Purpose Economy: How Your Desire for Impact, Personal Growth, and Community Is Changing the World by Aaron Hurst (Oct. 11, trade paper, $18.95, ISBN 978-1-943425-99-0). The founder of the Taproot Foundation and CEO of Imperative argues that the desire to have a personal impact and build community is behind the changes in the apparently unrelated new business trends of the sharing economy, shop local, and the shift away from conventional career paths.
Flatiron
Pogue’s Basics: Money: Essential Tips and Shortcuts (That No One Bothers to Tell You) About Beating the System by David Pogue (Nov. 22, trade paper, $19.99, ISBN 978-1-250-08141-4). Following the success of two previous bestsellers, Pogue offers 200 simple tips and tricks for making managing finances easier.
Grand Central
Whiplash: How to Survive Our Faster Future by Joi Ito and Jeff Howe (Dec. 6, hardcover, $28, ISBN 978-1-4555-4459-2). Ito, director of MIT’s Media Lab, and Wired contributor Howe (who coined the term crowdsourcing) present a set of working principles to help readers adapt and succeed in today’s unpredictable marketplace. 40,000-copy announced first printing.
Greystone
Reinventing Prosperity: Managing Economic Growth to Reduce Unemployment, Inequality, and Climate Change by Graeme Maxton and Jorgen Randers (Sept. 13, hardcover, $24.95, ISBN 978-1-77164-251-4) provides 13 politically acceptable recommendations that can be implemented now to overcome slow economic growth around the world.
Hachette
The Social Organism: A Radical Understanding of Social Media to Transform Your Business and Life by Oliver Luckett and Michael J. Casey (Nov. 15, hardcover, $27, ISBN 978-0-316-35952-8). From tech mogul Luckett and MIT Media Lab’s Casey, this new work illuminates how social media functions on a global scale, how human culture is evolving with it, and how we can master digital content for good and for profit.
Harper Business
Competing Against Luck: The Story of Innovation and Customer Choice by Clayton M. Christensen, Taddy Hall, Karen Dillon, and David S. Duncan (Oct. 4, hardcover, $29.99, ISBN 978-0-06-243561-3). Christensen, an authority on innovation and growth, presents a path-breaking book companies can use to transform innovation from a game of chance to one in which it develops products and services customers not only want to buy but for which they are willing to pay premium prices. 100,000-copy announced first printing.
Harper Wave
Feminist Fight Club: An Office Survival Manual for a Sexist Workplace by Jessica Bennett (Sept. 6, hardcover, $24.99, ISBN 978-0-06-243978-9). A part manual, part manifesto provides real-life career advice and humorous reinforcement for a new generation of professional women. 40,000-copy announced first printing.
Harvard Univ.
Capital Without Borders: Wealth Managers and the One Percent by Brooke Harrington (Sept. 12, hardcover, $29.95, ISBN 978-0-674-74380-9). How do the 1% keep getting richer despite financial crises and the myriad taxes on income, capital gains, and inheritance? Harrington interviewed professionals who specialize in protecting the fortunes of the world’s richest people: wealth managers.
Harvard/Belknap
The Great Convergence: Information Technology and the New Globalization by Richard Baldwin (Nov. 14, hardcover, $29.95, ISBN 978-0-674-66048-9) shows how the new globalization presents rich and developing nations alike with unprecedented policy challenges in their efforts to maintain reliable growth and social cohesion.
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
To Pixar and Beyond: My Unlikely Journey with Steve Jobs to Make Entertainment History by Lawrence Levy (Nov. 1, hardcover, $27, ISBN 978-0-544-73414-2) describes how the author worked with Apple cofounder Steve Jobs and the Pixar team to transform the sleepy graphics art studio into one of Hollywood’s greatest success stories. Set in the worlds of Silicon Valley and Hollywood, the book takes readers inside Pixar, Disney, law firms, and investment banks. 50,000-copy announced first printing.
Humanix
The Breaking Point: Preparing for the Coming Global Economic Shift by James Dale Davidson (Oct. 18, hardcover, $30, ISBN 978-1-63006-060-2). In a follow-up to his bestseller The Great Reckoning, Davidson asserts we are on the cusp of great change—a breaking point—that will have vast implications for investors and wealth managers. 20,000-copy announced first printing.
Knopf
The Attention Merchants: The Epic Scramble to Get Inside Our Heads by Tim Wu (Oct. 18, hardcover, $27.95, ISBN 978-0-385-35201-7). The author of the award-winning The Master Switch examines the rise of “attention harvesting” by companies whose business model is the mass capture of the public’s attention for resale to advertisers and its transformative effect on our society and our selves.
Kogan Page
Too Fast to Think: How Our 24/7 Hyper-connected Work Culture Is Destroying Our Creativity by Chris Lewis (Oct. 28, trade paper, $19.95, ISBN 978-0-7494-7886-5) exposes our current work practices and explores how they are detrimental to innovation. To reclaim creativity, Lewis teaches readers how to retrain their brain into allowing creative ideas to emerge.
Mcgraw-Hill
The New Alpha: Join the Rising Movement of Influencers and Changemakers Who are Redefining Leadership by Danielle Harlan (Sept. 30, hardcover, $26, ISBN 978-1-259-64191-6) provides easy-to-understand, evidence-based strategies for how to be the kind of leader who excels in the near future and for the long run.
Melville House
Among the Bankers: A Journey into the Heart of Finance by Joris Luyendijk (Sept. 27, hardcover, $25.95, ISBN 978-1-61219-591-9). Journalist Luyendijk offer an unprecedented look at the way one of the world’s most important industries—the financial industry—sees itself.
MIT
Free Innovation by Eric von Hippel (Oct. 7, hardcover, $29.95, ISBN 978-0-262-03521-7). The author of Democratizing Innovation integrates new theory and research findings into the framework of a “free innovation paradigm.” Free innovation, as he defines it, involves innovations developed by consumers who are “self-rewarded” for their efforts, and who give their designs away “for free.”
Streaming, Sharing, Stealing: Big Data and the Future of Entertainment by Michael D. Smith and Rahul Telang (Aug. 5, hardcover, $29.95, ISBN 978-0-262-03479-1). Experts on entertainment analytics, Smith and Telang show how the success of companies like Amazon and Apple is changing the rules in other entertainment industries, notably publishing and music. To succeed in the new business world, the entertainment industries must learn to follow the data.
Morrow
One Minute Mentoring: How to Find and Work with a Mentor—And Why You’ll Benefit from Being One by Ken Blanchard and Claire Diaz-Ortiz (Oct. 25, hardcover, $22.99, ISBN 978-0-06-242930-8). Management guru Blanchard and Diaz-Ortiz, an early employee and former executive at Twitter, combine their knowledge to provide a systematic approach to intergenerational mentoring, giving readers insight into the power and influence of mentoring and encouraging them to pursue their own mentoring relationships. 75,000-copy announced first printing.
Morrow/Dey Street
Needles and Haystacks: Smart Thinking in the Age of New Data by Seth Stephens-Davidowitz (Jan. 24, hardcover, $26.99, ISBN 978-0-06-239085-1). A New York Times op-ed contributor and former Google data scientist, Stephens-Davidowitz uses big data to uncover previously hidden attitudes and behaviors. 175,000-copy announced first printing.
North Star Way
Worth It: Your Life, Your Money, Your Terms by Amanda Steinberg (Jan. 31, hardcover, $26, ISBN 978-1-5011-4099-0). From the founder and CEO of DailyWorth—the financial site for women, with more than one million subscribers—comes a fresh book that redefines the relationship between women, self-worth, and money, showing women how to view money as a source of personal power and freedom—and live life on their terms.
Norton
We Wanted Workers: Unraveling the Immigration Narrative by George J. Borjas (Oct. 11, hardcover, $26.95, ISBN 978-0-393-24901-9). One of America’s leading immigration economists presents a level-headed exploration of the effects of immigration on migrant and nonmigrant workers.
Oxford Univ.
Prosperity for All: How to Prevent Financial Crises by Roger E.A. Farmer (Oct. 3, hardcover, $24.95, ISBN 978-0-19-062143-8). In clear, accessible language, a prominent macroeconomic theorist proposes a paradigm shift and policy changes that could successfully raise employment rates, keep inflation at bay, and stimulate growth.
Princeton Univ.
A Culture of Growth: The Origins of the Modern Economy by Joel Mokyr (Aug. 30, hardcover, $35, ISBN 978-0-691-16888-3) combines ideas from economics and cultural evolution to provide startling reasons for why the foundations of the modern economy were laid in the mere two centuries between Columbus and Newton.
The Euro and the Battle of Ideas by Markus K. Brunnermeier, Harold James, and Jean-Pierre Landau (Aug. 30, hardcover, $35, ISBN 978-0-691-17292-7). The authors argue that the core problem with the euro lies in the philosophical differences between the founding countries of the Eurozone, particularly Germany and France. But they also show how these supposedly incompatible differences can be reconciled to ensure Europe’s survival.
PublicAffairs
Swiped: How to Protect Yourself in a World Full of Scammers, Phishers, and Identity Thieves by Adam Levin, with Beau Friedlander (Nov. 29, trade paper, $17.99, ISBN 978-1-61039-720-9). Levin, a longtime consumer advocate and identity fraud expert, guides readers through the new reality of identity theft. His approach is defined by the three M’s: minimizing risk, monitoring your identity, and managing the damage. 10,000-copy announced first printing.
Random House
The Content Trap: A Strategist’s Guide to Digital Change by Bharat N. Anand (Sept. 27, hardcover, $28, ISBN 978-0-8129-9538-1). Combining insightful analysis with an accessible, humorous tone, Harvard Business School professor Anand looks to provide a paradigm-shifting answer to the trillion-dollar question businesspeople across the country are asking: how can companies monetize free content?
SelectBooks
Smart Partners: Building Successful Relationships in Business and Life by Jim Burba and Bob Hayes (Sept. 6, trade paper, $16.95, ISBN 978-1-59079-375-6) outlines the methods and thinking the authors used to achieve financial success while also keeping their personal partnership alive and interesting.
Simon & Schuster
The Valley of the Gods: A Silicon Valley Story by Alexandra Wolfe (Jan. 17, hardcover, $27, ISBN 978-1-4767-7894-5) follows three young people who have moved to Silicon Valley to earn a fortune in a culture far different from the East Coast hierarchy of Ivy Leagues and country clubs.
Skyhorse
The Bitcoin Guidebook: How to Obtain, Invest, and Spend the World’s First Decentralized Cryptocurrency by Ian DeMartino (Aug. 2, trade paper, $16.99, ISBN 978-1-63450-524-6) is for readers who don’t want to be left behind in the next technological revolution. The book explains everything the reader needs to know about how bitcoin and digital currencies work, what they are doing now, and how they will shape our society in the future. 30,000-copy announced first printing.
St. Martin’s
The Wealth of Humans: Work, Power, and Status in the Twenty-first Century by Ryan Avent (Sept. 20, hardcover, $26.99, ISBN 978-1-250-07580-2). Economist editor Avent brings up-to-the-minute research and reporting to bear on the major economic question of our time: can the modern world manage technological changes every bit as disruptive as those that shook the socioeconomic landscape of the 19th century?
Yale Univ.
The Innovation Illusion: How So Little Is Created by So Many Working So Hard by Fredrik Erixon and Bjorn Weigel (Nov. 22, hardcover, $30, ISBN 978-0-300-21740-7). Timely and certain to be controversial, Erixon and Weigel’s work provides a deeply researched study that reveals how companies and policy makers are hindering innovation-led growth.
