The U.S. economy is enjoying steady growth and low unemployment, but a slew of fall business books examine flaws in the system and provide advice on how all Americans can take part in the prosperity.
Top 10
AI Superpowers: China, Silicon Valley, and the New World Order
Kai-Fu Lee. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, Sept. 25
Building upon his long-standing U.S.-Sino technology career and his New York Times op-ed column from June 2017, Lee predicts that Chinese and American artificial intelligence efforts will affect traditional blue-collar industries and white-collar professions alike.
Can American Capitalism Survive?
Why Greed Is Not Good, Opportunity Is Not Equal, and Fairness Won’t Make Us Poor
Steven Pearlstein. St. Martin’s, Sept. 25
A Pulitzer Prize–winning economic journalist lays out a path that he claims will bring capitalism back to the people and ensure prosperity for generations.
The Challenge Culture: Why the Most Successful Organizations Run on Pushback
Nigel Travis. PublicAffairs, Sept. 18
The CEO of Dunkin’ Brands shows how positive pushback—the discipline of “questioning everything without trashing anyone”—provides a results-oriented way to lead an organization to prosperity.
The Curse of Bigness: Antitrust in the New Gilded Age
Tim Wu. Columbia Global Reports, Nov. 13
Columbia law professor Wu calls for the U.S. to recover the lost tenets of trustbusters as part of a broader revival of American progressive ideas in a new age of extreme economic inequality.
The Forgotten Americans: An Economic Agenda for a Divided Nation
Isabel Sawhill. Yale, Sept. 25
By focusing on mainstream values, government could help more Americans take part in the country’s economic growth.
The Inequality Paradox: How Capitalism Can Work for Everyone
Douglas McWilliams. Overlook, Oct. 9
McWilliams argues that inequality is largely driven not by a conspiracy of the rich but by technology and globalization, leading to rising inequality even as worldwide poverty drops.
Kickback: Exposing the Global Corporate Bribery Network
David Montero. Viking, Sept. 18
A sweeping investigation into global corporate bribery reveals how back-door financial transactions undermine democracy and the free market system.
Lab Rats: How Silicon Valley Made Work Miserable for the Rest of Us
Dan Lyons. Hachette, Oct. 23
In the follow-up to Disrupted, Lyons examines how the internet—and ideas championed by Silicon Valley power brokers—changed workplace culture, damaged peoples’ brains, and left many poor and insecure.
The Post-truth Business: How to Rebuild Brand Authenticity in a Distrusting World
Sean Pillot de Chenecey. Kogan Page, Oct. 28
The author illuminates how companies can rebuild brand authenticity in a post-truth world.
Temp: How American Work, American Business, and the American Dream Became Temporary
Louis Hyman. Viking, Aug. 21
Hyman traces how the shift of the corporation from being a provider of goods and services to being an entity whose sole purpose is to maximize profit has led to widespread instability for America’s workforce.
Business & Economics Listings
Adams Media
In This Together: How Successful Women Support Each Other in Work and Life by Nancy D. O’Reilly (Dec. 4, hardcover, $21.99, ISBN 978-1-5072-0884-7) features advice and stories from 40 successful women across a variety of industries encouraging women to support each other in the workplace and in life.
Allworth
Sell Online Like a Creative Genius: A Guide for Artists, Entrepreneurs, Inventors, and Kindred Spirits by Brainard Carey (Jan. 1, trade paper, $12.99, ISBN 978-1-62153-649-9). Educator and artist Carey draws from his extensive experience and interviews with others to show artists and creative people how to sell their work online independently and efficiently.
Atria
Bad with Money: F*cking Up and Finding Your Way in the Rigged World of Personal Finance by Gaby Dunn (Dec. 18, trade paper, $16, ISBN 978-1-5011-7633-3). The host of the titular podcast weaves her own stories with the perspectives of researchers, artists, students, her parents, a financial psychologist, and even her exes to reveal how money makes people feel confused and terrified, and how one can take control of one’s financial future.
Berrett-Koehler
Erasing Institutional Bias: How to Create Systemic Change for Organizational Inclusion by Tiffany Jana and Ashley Diaz Mejias (Oct. 23, trade paper, $24.95, ISBN 978-1-5230-9757-9). International diversity consultant Jana and coauthor Meijas offer concrete ways for ordinary individuals to work against institutional bias no matter what their position is in an organization.
Bloomsbury
The Book of Beautiful Questions: The Powerful Questions That Will Help You Decide, Create, Connect, and Lead by Warren Berger (Oct. 30, hardcover, $27, ISBN 978-1-63286-956-2). The author of A More Beautiful Question focuses on asking the right questions, at the right time, in order to make the best choices.
The Ethical Leader: Why Doing the Right Thing Can Be the Key to Competitive Advantage by Morgen Witzel (Dec. 18, hardcover, $35, ISBN 978-1-4729-5659-0) argues that ethics should be the platform from which to build a strong and enduring business, and provides tools and insights for making it happen.
Nicholas Brealey
The Expertise Economy: How the Smartest Companies Use Learning to Engage, Compete, and Succeed by Kelly Palmer and David Blake (Sept. 18, hardcover, $29.95, ISBN 978-1-4736-7700-5). Executives with the education technology company Degreed, Palmer and Blake provide the latest scientific research on how people really learn, with concrete examples of successful workplace learning from companies in Silicon Valley and elsewhere.
Career
Millennial Money Makeover: Escape Debt, Save for Your Future, and Live the Rich Life Now by Conor Richardson (Jan. 1, trade paper, $15.95, ISBN 978-1-63265-145-7) provides a comprehensive approach to paying off debt, building an automated savings system, buying life’s early-stage big purchases, and living a “millionaire lifestyle.”
Center Street
No Limits: Blow the Cap Off Your Capacity by John C. Maxwell (Sept. 4, trade paper, $16.99, ISBN 978-1-4555-4825-5). Bestselling author Maxwell identifies 17 core capacities and examines each to provide clear and actionable advice on how individuals can increase their potential in each one.
Stay Hungry & Kick Burnout in the Butt by Steven Berglas (Sept. 18, hardcover, $27, ISBN 978-1-4789-2149-3). An authority on career guidance explores what causes people to suffer psychological burnout and how to prevent it.
Chicago Review
This I Know: Marketing Lessons from Under the Influence by Terry O’Reilly (Sept. 4, trade paper, $18.99, ISBN 978-1-64160-014-9). The host of the popular radio show Under the Influence explains how small businesses can harness the tricks of the trade that the biggest corporations use to create their own marketing buzz.
Columbia Global Reports
The Curse of Bigness: Antitrust in the New Gilded Age by Tim Wu (Nov. 13, trade paper, $15.99, ISBN 978-0-9997454-6-5). Columbia law professor Wu calls for the U.S. to recover the lost tenets of trustbusters as part of a broader revival of American progressive ideas in a new age of extreme economic inequality.
Currency
The Job: The Future of Work in the Modern Era by Ellen Ruppel Shell (Oct. 23, hardcover, $30, ISBN 978-0-451-49725-3) looks at the forces reshaping the nature of work in America and questions the notion that retraining workers is the key to job security and career success.
Make Time: How to Focus on What Matters Every Day by Jake Knapp and John Zeratsky (Sept. 25, hardcover, $27, ISBN 978-0-525-57242-8). The bestselling authors of Sprint offer a four-step system for improving focus, finding greater joy in work, and getting more out of every day.
Da Capo Lifelong
Back to Human: How Great Leaders Create Connection in the Age of Isolation by Dan Schawbel (Nov. 13, hardcover, $27, ISBN 978-0-7382-3503-5) argues that a more socially connected workforce can create greater fulfillment, productivity, and engagement while preventing burnout and turnover.
Dundurn
Government Digital: The Quest to Regain Public Trust by Alex Benay (Oct. 9, trade paper, $22.99, ISBN 978-1-4597-4206-2). Benlay writes that governments the world over are consistently outpaced by digital change, and offers a blueprint on how to change that.
Dutton
Insane Mode: How Elon Musk’s Tesla Sparked an Electric Revolution to End the Age of Oil by Hamish McKenzie (Nov. 27, hardcover, $28, ISBN 978-1-101-98595-3). Journalist McKenzie examines Musk’s car company, which has gone up against not only Detroit car manufacturers but also big oil and the Koch brothers.
Ecco
Autonomy: The Quest to Build the Driverless Car—And How It Will Reshape Our World by Lawrence D. Burns and Christopher Shulgan (Aug. 28, hardcover, $27.99, ISBN 978-0-06-266112-). A former GM executive and current adviser to the Google self-driving car project offers a history of the race to make the driverless car a reality.
The Experiment
The Global Economy as You’ve Never Seen It: 99 Ingenious Infographics That Put It All Together by Jan Schwochow and Thomas Ramge (Oct. 16, hardcover, $35, ISBN 978-1-61519-517-6) deconstructs the world economy in 99 full-color infographics.
Griffin
Success Habits by Napoleon Hill
(Dec. 31, trade paper, $17.99, ISBN 978-1-250-30807-8). The author of the bestseller Think and Grow Rich outlines his principles of success—a set of key tenets and beliefs that provide a basis for life-changing success.
Hachette
Billion Dollar Whale: The Man Who Fooled Wall Street, Hollywood, and the World by Tom Wright and Bradley Hope (Sept. 18, hardcover, $28, ISBN 978-0-316-43650-2). The Pulitzer-finalist Wall Street Journal reporters detail how Jho Low, a Wharton grad and a young social climber, pulled off one of the biggest financial heists in history.
Lab Rats: How Silicon Valley Made Work Miserable for the Rest of Us by Dan Lyons (Oct. 23, hardcover, $28, ISBN 978-0-316-56186-0). In the follow up to Disrupted, Lyons examines how the internet—and ideas championed by Silicon Valley power brokers—changed workplace culture, damaged peoples’ brains, and left many poor and insecure.
HarperBusiness
The Prosperity Paradox by Clayton M. Christensen and Efosa Ojomo (Jan. 15, hardcover, $29.99, ISBN 978-0-06-285182-6) points to flaws in current economic development models intended to lift regions out of poverty and offers a new framework based on entrepreneurship and bottom-up innovation.
Haymarket
It All Falls Down: Marxist Perspectives on Crash & Crisis, edited by Guglielmo Carchedi and Michael Roberts (Oct. 1, trade paper, $22.95, ISBN 978-1-60846-181-3), brings together Marxist scholars from around the world to offer an empirically grounded defense of Marx’s law of profitability and its central role in explaining capitalist crises.
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
AI Superpowers: China, Silicon Valley, and the New World Order by Kai-Fu Lee (Sept. 25, hardcover, $28, ISBN 978-1-328-54639-5). Building upon his long-standing U.S.-Sino technology career and much-heralded June 2017 New York Times op-ed column, Lee predicts that Chinese and American artificial intelligence efforts will have a stunning impact not only on traditional blue-collar industries but also on white-collar professions.
The Pan-industrial Revolution: How New Manufacturing Titans Will Transform the World by Richard D’Aveni (Oct. 16, hardcover, $28, ISBN 978-1-328-95590-6) argues that the advent of massive, industrial-sized 3-D printing is already happening, and that it will have a far-reaching impact that most corporate and governmental leaders have yet to anticipate or understand.
Kogan Page
Humanity Works: Merging Technologies and People for the Workforce of the Future by Alexandra Levit (Oct. 28, trade paper, $19.95, ISBN 978-0-7494-8345-6). Workplace consultant and futurist Levit provides a guide on how companies can make the most of the human traits of creativity, judgment, problem solving, and interpersonal sensitivity.
The Post-truth Business: How to Rebuild Brand Authenticity in a Distrusting World by Sean Pillot de Chenecey (Oct. 28, trade paper, $19.95, ISBN 978-0-7494-8281-7) illuminates a way forward for companies wishing to rebuild their brands in a post-truth world.
Working in the Gig Economy: How to Thrive and Succeed When You Choose to Work for Yourself by Thomas Oppong (Oct. 28, trade paper, $19.95, ISBN 978-0-7494-8355-5) offers advice for readers who work for themselves, including how to stay productive, manage their professional network, build a personal brand, keep the work coming, and get paid on time.
Lyons
The Next Millionaire Next Door: The Secrets of America’s Wealthy in the 21st Century by Thomas J. Stanley and Sarah Stanley Fallaw (Oct. 1, hardcover, $24.95, ISBN 978-1-4930-3535-9). Twenty years after the original publication of The Millionaire Next Door, its authors highlight how specific decisions, behaviors, and characteristics align with the discipline of wealth building, covering such areas as consumption, budgeting, careers, investing, and financial management in general.
Norton
Machine, Platform, Crowd: Harnessing Our Digital Future by Andrew McAfee and Erik Brynjolfsson (Sept. 11, trade paper, $18.95, ISBN 978-0-393-35606-9). The authors of The Second Machine Ageoutline the opportunities and challenges inherent in the science fiction–worthy technologies of recent years, like self-driving cars and 3-D printers.
Overlook
The Inequality Paradox: How Capitalism Can Work for Everyone by Douglas McWilliams (Oct. 9, hardcover, $29.95, ISBN 978-1-4683-1498-4) argues that inequality is largely driven not by a conspiracy of the rich but by technology and globalization, which have led to the paradox of rising inequality even as worldwide poverty drops.
Portfolio
Aftermath: Seven Secrets of Wealth Preservation in the Coming Chaos by James Rickards (Oct. 30, hardcover, $29, ISBN 978-0-7352-1695-2). The financial expert and investment adviser shows how and why financial markets are being artificially inflated—and what investors can do to protect their assets.
The Bullet Journal Method: Track the Past, Order the Present, Design the Future by Ryder Carroll (Oct. 23, hardcover, $26, ISBN 978-0-525-53333-7). The founder of the Bullet Journal organizational system provides exercises to help people become more calm and focused, insights on how to prioritize well, and a case for the power of analog tools in a digital world.
The Fixer: Saving Startups from Death by Politics by Bradley Tusk (Sept. 18, hardcover, $27, ISBN 978-0-525-53649-9). A political adviser to several startups reveals what really happens at the intersection of politics, tech, and business, and provides tangible advice for how any new venture can play the political game.
The Infinite Game by Simon Sinek (Oct. 16, hardcover, $28, ISBN 978-0-7352-1350-0). Sinek argues that business leaders who thrive view business as a game that never ends and are therefore able to outmaneuver, out-innovate, and outlast their competitors.
Out of the Maze: A Story About the Power of Belief by P. Spencer Johnson (Sept. 4, hardcover, $22, ISBN 978-0-525-53729-8) is the posthumous sequel to the bestseller Who Moved My Cheese? and shows how readers can adapt their beliefs and achieve better results in any field.
Who Is Michael Ovitz? by Michael Ovitz (Sept. 11, hardcover, $30, ISBN 978-1-59184-554-6). Ovitz, cofounder of Creative Artists Agency, discusses his dealmaking history, as well as how he worked his way up from the William Morris mailroom to become one of the most powerful people in Hollywood.
Princeton univ.
Cents and Sensibility: What Economics Can Learn from the Humanities by Gary Saul Morson and Morton Schapiro (Sept. 4, trade paper, $19.95, ISBN 978-0-691-18322-0). Morson, a literary critic, and Schapiro, an economist, make the case that the humanities, especially the study of literature, offer economists ways to make their models more realistic, their predictions more accurate, and their policies more effective and just.
Prometheus
Taking Stock: How I Made Millions Insider Trading and Helped Take Down a Major Wall Street Hedge Fund by Roomy Khan and Frederick Stroppel (Aug. 14, hardcover, $24, ISBN 978-1-63388-399-4). Khan discussed her role in an epic insider-trading scandal on 60 Minutes in 2013; here she provides a detailed account of her activities and offers insights into the nature of insider trading and Wall Street’s culture of excess.
Publicaffairs
The Challenge Culture: Why the Most Successful Organizations Run on Pushback by Nigel Travis (Sept. 18, hardcover, $28, ISBN 978-1-5417-6214-5). The CEO of Dunkin’ Brands shows how positive pushback—the discipline of “questioning everything without trashing anyone”—provides a results-oriented way to lead an organization to prosperity.
Riverhead
Farsighted: How We Make the Decisions That Matter the Most by Steven Johnson (Sept. 4, hardcover, $28, ISBN 978-1-59448-821-4) explores the factors people need to consider when making the consequential decisions that affect lives for years, or centuries, to come.
Simon & Schuster
Make Some Noise: The Unconventional Road to Dominance by Ken Schmidt (Nov. 6, hardcover, $27, ISBN 978-1-5011-5561-1) The former director of communications at Harley-Davidson reveals his approach to creating customer loyalty.
St. Martin’s
Can American Capitalism Survive? Why Greed Is Not Good, Opportunity Is Not Equal, and Fairness Won’t Make Us Poor by Steven Pearlstein (Sept. 25, hardcover, $27.99, ISBN 978-1-250-18598-3). A Pulitzer Prize–winning economic journalist argues that our 30-year experiment in unfettered markets has undermined core values that make capitalism and democracy work, and presents a way to bring capitalism back to the people and ensure prosperity for generations.
TarcherPerigee
Quiet Girls Can Run the World: Owning Your Power When You’re Not the “Alpha” in the Room by Rebecca Holman (Sept. 4, trade paper, $17, ISBN 978-0-14-313353-7) empowers women who may not be the loudest and most assertive people to lead on their own terms.
Viking
Crashed: How a Decade of Financial Crises Changed the World by Adam Tooze (Aug. 7, hardcover, $35, ISBN 978-0-670-02493-3). An economic historian offers a reinterpretation of the 2008 economic crisis and asks what the prospects are for a liberal, stable, and coherent world order.
Kickback: Exposing the Global Corporate Bribery Network by David Montero (Sept. 18, hardcover, $28, ISBN 978-0-670-01647-1) is a sweeping global investigation into corporate bribery and how back-door financial transactions undermine democracy and the free market system by lining the pockets of dictators and criminals.
Temp: How American Work, American Business, and the American Dream Became Temporary by Louis Hyman (Aug. 21, hardcover, $28, ISBN 978-0-7352-2407-0) traces how the shift of the corporation from a provider of goods and services to one whose sole purpose is to maximize profit has led to widespread instability for America’s workforce.
Yale Univ.
The Forgotten Americans: An Economic Agenda for a Divided Nation by Isabel Sawhill (Sept. 25, hardcover, $28, ISBN 978-0-300-23036-9). A scholar on economics and social policy argues for policies based on mainstream values, and provides a path to a society in which personal responsibility is honored, and inclusive capitalism and more broadly shared growth are the norm.
Unfinished Business: The Unexplored Causes of the Financial Crisis and the Lessons Yet to Be Learned by Tamim Bayoumi (Sept. 4, trade paper, $17, ISBN 978-0-300-23869-3) traces how under-regulated trading between European and U.S. banks led to the 2008 financial crisis—with a prescription for preventing another meltdown.
