With the American economy slowly growing in 2013, many of the most intriguing business books for the fall focus on some of the country’s best-known companies rather than offering advice on how to jump-start the national economy, as many books in recent seasons have done since the start of the Great Recession.

No company has enjoyed greater success over the past decade than Amazon, which continued to rack up large sales gains even during the economic downturn. How the online retailer has grown under the guidance of founder Jeff Bezos is the subject of The Everything Store: Jeff Bezos and the Age of Amazon. One of the few companies to garner more attention than Amazon (while not coming close to generating Amazon’s revenue) is Twitter, and Nick Bilton’s still untitled Twitter book on the social media powerhouse promises a behind the scenes look at a company that its publisher says “accidently changed the world.”

A company that did set out to change the world—in a more conservative direction—is the subject of two high-profile titles this year. Murdoch’s World: The Last of the Old Media Empires examines how Rupert Murdoch built News Corp. into a media giant, how he has adapted to the changing media environment (by splitting the company in two, for one thing), and survived the U.K. scandal over phone hacking that almost brought the entire empire down. A part of the News Corp. empire that loves a scandal and controversy is Fox News, and that business and its legendary founder is the subject of The Loudest Voices in the Room: The Inside Story of How Roger Ailes and Fox News Remade American Politics.

Fannie Mae was the subject of plenty of media coverage for its role in creating the housing bubble that led to the recession, and the former CFO of the government-backed mortgage agency, Timothy Howard, looks at the war between financial giants and government regulators in The Mortgage Wars: Inside Fannie Mae, Big-Money Politics, and the Collapse of the American Dream. A company that had much to do with creating, and advising, the country’s most powerful businesses is the consulting company McKinsey & Co., and its influence is examined in The Firm: The Story of McKinsey and Its Secret Influence on American Businesses. As the cofounder of the fashion company Jimmy Choo, Tamara Mellon had lots of influence over the shoes women wear now. How she rose from an editor at British Vogue to help start a billion-dollar fashion empire before departing in 2011 is at the heart of her business memoir, In My Shoes.

With the Chinese economy still easily outperforming the U.S., the relationship between the two largest economic powers grows more complicated every day, and two new books, both set for late January, will look to make sense of the rivalry. The more high-profile title is by the former U.S. treasury secretary and one-time Goldman Sachs CEO, Henry Paulson, who uses his ties to China’s leaders to discuss the evolution of China’s state-controlled capitalism in Dealing with China: An Insider Unmasks the New Economic Superpower. A critical analysis of the Chinese-American relationship is the subject of Unbalanced: The Codependency of America and China.

Given the success of Sheryl Sandberg’s Lean In, it is a bit surprising to find relatively few new books on women and the workplace. One book that promises to examine all the issues confronting working women is Mogul, Mom & Maid: The Balancing Act of the Modern Woman.

PW’s Top 10: Business & Economics

The Everything Store: Jeff Bezos and the Age of Amazon. Brad Stone. Little, Brown, Oct. 15.

Untitled Twitter book. Nick Bilton. Portfolio, Nov. 5.

Murdoch’s World: The Last of the Old Media Empires. David Folkenflik. PublicAffairs, Oct. 22.

The Loudest Voices in the Room: The Inside Story of How Roger Ailes and Fox News Remade American Politics. Gabriel Sherman. Random House, Jan. 14.

The Mortgage Wars: Inside Fannie Mae, Big-Money Politics, and the Collapse of the American Dream. Timothy Howard. McGraw-Hill, Nov. 29.

The Firm: The Story of McKinsey and Its Secret Influence on American Businesses. Duff McDonald. Simon & Schuster, Sept. 10.

In My Shoes. Tamara Mellon and William Patrick. Portfolio, Oct. 1.

Dealing with China: An Insider Unmasks the New Economic Superpower. Michael Carroll and Henry M. Paulson. Hachette Business Plus, Jan. 28.

Unbalanced: The Codependency of America and China. Stephen Roach. Yale Univ. Press, Jan. 28.

Mogul, Mom & Maid: The Balancing Act of the Modern Woman. Liz O’Donnell. Bibliomotion, Nov. 5.

Business & Economics Listings

Agate B2

(dist. by PGW)

Virgin Rebel: Richard Branson In His Own Words by Danielle McLimore (Aug. 13, paper, $10.95, ISBN 978-1932841787) collects thought-provoking direct quotes from Richard Branson on topics related to business, entrepreneurship, the Virgin Group, philanthropy, and life, sharing the unique perspective of one of our era’s most successful business leaders in an appealing gift-friendly format.

AMACOM

Leadership 2030: The Six Megatrends You Need to Understand to Lead Your Company Into the Future by Georg Vielmetter and Yvonne Sell (Jan. 1, hardcover, $27.95, ISBN 978-0814432754). Drawn from research conducted with Z-Punkt and further analyzed by Hay Group, this book uncovers six megatrends that will influence organizations’ markets, cultures, systems, and processes, and supplies a plan highlighting the skills, capabilities, and attitudes leaders need.

Idea to Invention: What You Need to Know to Cash In on Your Inspiration by Patricia Nolan-Brown (Jan. 1, paper, $17.95, ISBN 978-0814432938). Useful consumer products are everywhere, and many were invented by ordinary people. Written by an “ordinary person” turned inventor and entrepreneur, this book covers idea generation, the patent process, licensing, manufacturing, social media, and more.

True Alignment: Linking Company Culture with Customer Needs for Extraordinary Results by Edgar Papke (Dec. 1, hardcover, $29.95, ISBN 978-0814433362). Alignment is the single most critical business challenge for any organization and its leaders.

Basic Books

The Upside of Down: Why the Rise of the Rest Is Good for the West by Charles Kenny (Jan. 7, hardcover, $26.99, ISBN 978-0465064731). A World Bank economist turns conventional reasoning on its head and argues that no longer being #1 is actually in America’s best interest.

Berrett-Koehler Publishers

(dist. by IPS)

Humble Inquiry: The Gentle Art of Asking Instead of Telling by Edgar H. Schein (Sept. 2, paper, $16.95, ISBN 978-1609949815). From one of the true giants in organizational development, career development, and organizational psychology comes a simple and effective technique for building more positive relationships—particularly between people of different status.

Bibliomotion

Life After Law: Finding Work You Love with the J.D. You Have by Liz Brown (Sept. 24, paper, $22.95, ISBN 978-1937134648) shows lawyers how to reframe their legal experience and education to their competitive advantage to find work they truly love, with specific and realistic advice on alternative careers for lawyers.

Success in Africa: CEO Insights from a Continent on the Rise by Jonathan Berman (Sept. 10, hardcover, $26.95, ISBN 978-1937134464). Africa is the new frontier, with six of the 10 fastest growing markets in the world, and Berman’s book reveals how 20 top business leaders, including Equity Bank’s CEO James Mwangi and GE’s CEO Jeff Immelt, approach vast opportunities on the continent.

Mogul, Mom, & Maid: The Balancing Act of the Modern Woman by Liz O’Donnell (Nov. 5, hardcover, $24.95, ISBN 978-1937134730). Many women today are breadwinners caught in a perfect storm of male-dominated culture at work, traditional social norms at home, and outdated schedules in the schools. Here is a look at how real working women are balancing the pressures of home life and career.

John Blake

The Rise and Fall of the Murdoch Empire by John Lisners (Oct. 1, paper, $14.95, ISBN 978-1782194279) reveal the fascinating story of Murdoch’s amazing rise and fall, in the complete story of the changing fortunes of the man who altered the face of the world’s media.

Business Plus

Without Their Permission: How the 21st Century Will Be Made, Not Managed by Alexis Ohanian (Oct. 1, hardcover, $27, ISBN 978-1455520022). The effervescent co-founder of Reddit.com provides a revolutionary book for aspiring entrepreneurs who are eager to embrace the future of the World Wide Web for fun, profit, and the good of humankind. 25,000-copy announced first printing.

Dealing with China: An Insider Unmasks the New Economic Superpower by Michael Carroll and Henry M. Paulson (Jan. 28, hardcover, $32, ISBN 978-1455504213). Hank Paulson, the former US treasury secretary and CEO of Goldman Sachs, takes the reader behind closed doors to witness the creation and evolution of China’s state-controlled capitalism. 100,000-copy announced first printing.

Career Press

Confessions of a Credit Junkie: Everything You Need to Know About How to Avoid the Mistakes I Made by Beverly Harzog, foreword by Liz Weston (Nov. 25, paper, $15.99, ISBN 978-1601632944). Adam Levin, chairman and cofounder of Credit.com, writes, “Beverly Harzog is a credit warrior. She has gone into the arena, faced the lions, and emerged as one of the foremost experts in the field.”

Center Street

Sometimes You Win—Sometimes You Learn: Life’s Greatest Lessons Are Gained from Our Losses by John C. Maxwell, foreword by John Wooden (Oct. 8, hardcover, $26, ISBN 978-1599953694) teaches readers how to turn every loss into a learning experience. 150,000-copy announced first printing.

Chelsea Green

Market Farming Success: The Business of Growing and Selling Local Food, 2nd Edition by Lynn Byczynski (Oct. 15, paper, $34.95, ISBN 978-1603583862) offers an insider’s guide to market farming for those in the business of growing and selling food, flowers, herbs, or plants, with tips on avoiding common obstacles.

CN Times Books

(dist. by IPS)

The Wealth of China: Explaining China’s Economic Success by Qiang Gao and Yi Yu (Nov. 1, hardcover, $24, ISBN 978-1627740050). Complex ideas about China’s stunning economic success are simplified.

Council Oak Books

(dist. by PGW)

The Insanity of Advertising: Memoirs of a Mad Man by Fred S. Goldberg (Oct. 8, hardcover, $26.95, ISBN 978-1571783219) delivers a surprising insider’s look at the unbelievable and sometimes astonishing happenings in the ad business from an executive who saw it all.

Crown Business

Remote: Office Not Required by Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson (Oct. 29, hardcover, $23, ISBN 978-0804137508). Each week there are 2.7 million Web searches for “work from home.” In this new book from the bestselling 37Signals founders, Fried and Hansson point to the new, and surging, trend of employees working from home (and anywhere else), explaining the challenges and unexpected benefits.

The Chaos Imperative: How Chance and Disruption Increase Innovation, Effectiveness, and Success by Ori Brafman and Judah Pollack (Aug. 13, hardcover, $24, ISBN 978-0307886675) reveals how organizations can drive growth and profits by allowing contained chaos and disruption the space to flourish, generating new ideas that trigger innovation.

Dutton

Average Is Over: Powering America Beyond the Age of the Great Stagnation by Tyler Cowen (Sept. 12, hardcover, $26.95, ISBN 978-0525953739). Widely acclaimed as one of the world’s most influential economists, Cowen returns with his groundbreaking follow-up to the New York Times bestseller The Great Stagnation.

Farrar, Straus and Giroux/Sarah Crichton Books

Dogfight: How Apple and Google Went to War and Started a Revolution by Fred Vogelstein (Oct. 15, hardcover, $28, ISBN 978-0374109202). Behind the bitter rivalry between Apple and Google—and how it’s reshaping the way we think about technology.

HarperBusiness

Getting to It: Accomplishing the Important, Handling the Urgent, and Removing the Unnecessary by Jones Loflin and Todd Musig (Sept. 24, hardcover, $25.99, ISBN 978-0062282422). From the authors of Juggling Elephants comes a practical guide to sorting through the many priorities in life, showing how to carefully and consistently evaluate what the IT (Important Thing) should be, and how to get IT done. 30,000-copy announced first printing.

Harvard Business Review Press

(dist. by Perseus)

Forget a Mentor, Find a Sponsor: The New Way to Fast-Track Your Career by Sylvia Ann Hewlett (Sept. 10, paper, $20, ISBN 978-1422187166). Hewlett—economist, prolific author, and originator of such prominent ideas as off-ramping and on-ramping—shows why sponsorship is the new route to success.

Stats and Curiosities: From Harvard Business Review by editors at Harvard Business Review (Oct. 15, hardcover, $18, ISBN 978-1422196311). Fascinating stats, useful tips, and entertaining topics culled from the Harvard Business Review’s popular newsletter, The Daily Stat, offer compelling insights that amuse and inform. 25,000-copy announced first printing.

Hay House/SmileyBooks

If You Can See It, You Can Be It: 12 Street-Smart Principles for Success by Jeff Henderson (Sept. 2, hardcover, $26.95, ISBN 978-1401940607). Chef Jeff Henderson, New York Times bestselling author of Cooked, presents 12 inspiring and pragmatic “recipes” to use to discover your hidden business aptitudes, make life-changing decisions, and secure bulletproof personal and professional success. 20,000-copy announced first printing.

Little, Brown

The Everything Store: Jeff Bezos and the Age of Amazon by Brad Stone (Oct. 15, hardcover, $28, ISBN 978-0316219266). The definitive story of Amazon.com, one of the most successful companies in the world, and of its driven, brilliant founder, Jeff Bezos. 100,000-copy announced first printing.

McGraw-Hill Professional

Tiger Woman on Wall Street: Winning Strategies from Shanghai to New York and Back by Junheng Li (Nov. 8, hardcover, $27, ISBN 978-0071818421). The Chinese-American head of JL Warren shares her expertise to help investors profit in a tricky global economy dominated by these two superpowers.

The Mortgage Wars: Inside Fannie Mae, Big-Money Politics, and the Collapse of the American Dream by Timothy Howard (Nov. 29, hardcover, $30, ISBN 978-0071821094). The former Fannie Mae CFO’s inside look at the war between the financial giants and government regulators.

Leading the Starbucks Way: 5 Principles for Connecting with Your Customers, Your Products and Your People by Joseph Michelli (Sept. 6, hardcover, $25, ISBN 978-0071801256). The author who revealed Starbuck’s winning customer-experience practices to the world shares the company’s leadership philosophies for ensuring long-term brand sustainability.

MIT Press

Made in the USA: The Rise and Retreat of American Manufacturing by Vaclav Smil (Aug. 23, hardcover, $27.95, ISBN 978-0262019385) powerfully rebuts the notion that manufacturing is a relic of predigital history and that the loss of American manufacturing is a desirable evolutionary step toward a pure service economy. Smil argues that no advanced economy can prosper without a strong, innovative manufacturing sector and the jobs it creates.

Oxford Univ. Press

Exodus: How Migration Is Changing Our World by Paul Collier (Oct. 1, hardcover, $27.95, ISBN 978-0195398656) lays out the effects of encouraging or restricting migration in the interests of both sending and receiving societies.

Wrong: Nine Economic Policy Disasters and What We Can Learn from Them by Richard S. Grossman (Nov. 1, hardcover, $27.95, ISBN 978-0199322190) offers a penetrating look at the nine worst economic blunders of the last two centuries around the world.

By All Means Necessary: How China’s Resource Quest Is Changing the World by Elizabeth Economy and Michael Levi (Jan. 1, hardcover, $27.95, ISBN 978-0199921782). A comprehensive account of the Chinese economy’s explosive growth over the past 25 years.

The Penguin Press

The Map and the Territory: Risk, Human Nature, and the Future of Forecasting by Alan Greenspan (Oct. 22, hardcover, $36, ISBN 978-1594204814). A master class in the alchemy of economic decision making.

Princeton Univ. Press

Fortune Tellers: The Story of America’s First Economic Forecasters by Walter Friedman (Nov. 7, hardcover, $29.95, ISBN 978-0691159119). A gripping history of the pioneers who sought to use science to predict the fluctuations of the market.

The Great Escape: Health, Wealth, and the Origins of Inequality by Angus Deaton (Aug. 21, hardcover, $29.95, ISBN 978-0691153544). The story of health and wealth in an unequal world, and the fate of those who have been left behind.

Portfolio

The Curve: How Smart Companies Use Freeloaders to Find Superfans by Nicholas Lovell (Oct. 3, hardcover, $27.95, ISBN 978-1591846635). How to make money when customers expect to get your products for free.

In My Shoes: A Memoir by Tamara Mellon and William Patrick (Oct. 1, hardcover, $29.95, ISBN 978-1591846161). A candid business narrative and memoir from the founder of Jimmy Choo.

How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big: Kind of the Story of My Life by Scott Adams (Oct. 22, hardcover, $27.95, ISBN 978-1591846918). Dilbert creator Adams offers his most personal book ever, a funny memoir of his many failures and what they eventually taught him about success.

Bargain Fever: How Discounts Are Changing the Way We Buy by Mark Ellwood (Oct. 17, hardcover, $26.95, ISBN 978-1591845805). A spirited investigation into the phenomenon of bargain hunting, now bigger than ever.

Untitled by Nick Bilton (Nov. 5, hardcover, $28.95, ISBN 978-1591846017). The dramatic, behind-the-scenes story of how Twitter, built on betrayal and battles for power, accidentally changed the world.

The Effortless Experience: Conquering the New Battleground for Customer Loyalty by Matthew Dixon, Nick Toman, and Rick DeLisi (Sept. 12, hardcover, $29.95, ISBN 978-1591845812). From the author of the acclaimed Wall Street Journal bestseller The Challenger Sale.

The Frackers: The Inside Story of the New Wildcatters and Their Energy Revolution by Gregory Zuckerman (Nov. 19, hardcover, $29.95, ISBN 978-1591846451). The riveting, untold story of the men who are transforming global energy.

PublicAffairs

Left Brain, Right Stuff: Wisdom, Courage, and the Key to Great Decisions by Phil Rosenzweig (Jan. 7, hardcover, $28.99, ISBN 978-1610393072). A former Fortune 100 executive explains how the most successful decision-makers evaluate how much risk to take in real-world situations where the rules of the game are not posted, where one has the opportunity to shape the outcome, and when one needs to outperform competitors.

Murdoch’s World: The Last of the Old Media Empires by David Folkenflik (Oct. 22, hardcover, $27.99, ISBN 978-1610390897). NPR’s media correspondent tells the tumultuous story of the most influential private media company in the world, News International, chronicling how Rupert Murdoch built the company and its culture, and how he survived the scandal that nearly brought it down.

Random House

The Loudest Voice in the Room: The Inside Story of How Roger Ailes and Fox News Remade American Politics by Gabriel Sherman (Jan. 14, hardcover, $27, ISBN 978-0812992854). The astonishing inside story of Fox News, the most powerful media and political business in the world, from one of the hottest young investigative journalists today.

Random House/Deepak Chopra

The Generosity Network: New Transformational Tools for Successful Fund-Raising by Jennifer McCrea, Jeffrey C. Walker, with Karl Weber (Sept. 24, hardcover, $26, ISBN 978-0770437794). For fund-raisers, development professionals, and community organizers, here is the essential guide to the art of fund-raising and activating resources of every kind behind any worthy cause, nonprofit, or foundation.

Simon & Schuster

Gold: A History, a Hunt, a Fever by Matthew Hart (Dec. 3, hardcover, $26, ISBN 978-1451650020). From the lost empires of the Sahara to today’s frenzied global gold rush, a blazing exploration of the human love affair with gold by the award-winning author of Diamond.

The Firm: The Story of McKinsey and Its Secret Influence on American Business by Duff McDonald (Sept. 10, hardcover, $30, ISBN 978-1439190975). A behind-the-scenes, revelatory history of McKinsey & Co., America’s most influential and controversial business consulting firm, told by a leading financial journalist.

Skyhorse Publishing

(dist. by W.W. Norton)

A Million Little Bricks: The Unofficial Illustrated History of the LEGO Phenomenon by Sarah Herman (Sept. 3, paper, $16.95, ISBN 978-1626361188). It’s the Toy of the Year, Toy of the Century, Greatest Toy of All Time.

St. Martin’s

Talk Like TED: The 9 Public Speaking Secrets of the World’s Top Minds by Carmine Gallo (Jan. 28, hardcover, $25.99, ISBN 978-1250041128). By revealing the top secrets of the most successful TED Talks ever given, the bestselling author and communications guru gives readers the ultimate guide to public speaking.

The One-Day Contract by Rick Pitino (Oct. 1, hardcover, $25.99, ISBN 978-1250041067). A motivational and dynamic guide to achieving one’s goals at work and in life, by the 2013 NCAA champion college basketball coach and #1 New York Times bestselling author.

Twelve

The Crash of 2015 by Thom Hartmann (Oct. 1, hardcover, $26, ISBN 978-0446584838) refers to the social and economic disruption that will be occur with a spike or collapse in oil prices, a failed euro, and an even more dramatic divergence between economic expectations and realities. A timely warning from an influential progressive voice. 40,000-copy announced first printing.

Univ. of Chicago Press

Manufacturing Morals: The Values of Silence in Business School Education by Michel Ante (Aug. 28, hardcover, $25, ISBN 978-0226092478) takes readers inside Harvard Business School.

Wiley

Predictive Business Analytics: Forward Looking Measures to Improve Business Performance by Lawrence Maisel and Gary Cokins (Oct. 14, hardcover, $49.95, ISBN 978-1118175569) addresses the emergence of predictive business analytics, how it can help redefine the way an organization operates, and outlines many of the misconceptions that impede the adoption of this new management tool.

Yale Univ. Press

Talent Wants to Be Free: Why We Should Learn to Love Leaks, Raids, and Free Riding by Orly Lobel (Sept. 24, hardcover, $35, ISBN 978-0300166279) offers a compelling argument for a new set of attitudes toward human capital that will sharpen our competitive edge and fuel the creative sparks in any environment.

The Climate Casino: Risk, Uncertainty, and Economics for a Warming World by William D. Nordhaus (Oct. 22, hardcover, $30, ISBN 978-0300189773). The world’s leading economic thinker on climate change analyzes the economics and politics of the central environmental issue of today and points the way to real solutions.

The Bet: Paul Ehrlich, Julian Simon, and Our Gamble over Earth’s Future by Paul Sabin (Aug. 27, hardcover, $28.50, ISBN 978-0300176483). Are we headed for a world of scarce resources and environmental catastrophe, or will innovation and markets yield greater prosperity?

Unbalanced: The Codependency of America and China by Stephen Roach (Jan. 28, hardcover, $32.50, ISBN 978-0300187175) presents an original and insightful analysis of the most important economic relationship in the world.