Some of the spring’s most provocative business titles address changes caused by the pandemic and by technologies such as blockchain.

Top 10

Beyond Self-Interest: Why the Markets Reward Those Who Reject It

Krzysztof Pelc. Oxford Univ., Apr. 1 ($29.95, ISBN 978-0-19-762093-9)

Entrepreneurs who reject trends and follow their own beliefs and interests can win big, according to Pelc.

Cloudmoney

Brett Scott. Harper Business, June 8 ($29.99, ISBN 978-0-06-293631-8)

Scott discusses the future of blockchain technology and the battles that will arise as physical currency becomes a thing of the past.

The Devil Never Sleeps: Managing Disasters in an Age of Catastrophes

Juliette Kayyem. PublicAffairs, Mar. 29 ($29, ISBN 978-1-5417-0009-3)

Kayyem offers a seven-step approach to tackling potential financial disasters and outlines common leadership deficiencies.

The First, the Few, the Only: How Women of Color Can Redefine Power in Corporate America

Deepa Purushothaman. Harper Business, Mar. 1 ($28.99, ISBN 978-0-06-308471-1)

Purushothaman examines how women of color can demand their rightful place in the workforce and be respected and valued.

Moonshot: Inside Pfizer’s Nine-Month Race to Make the Impossible Possible

Albert Bourla. Harper Business, Mar. 8 ($29.99, ISBN 978-0-06-321079-0)

Pfizer chairman and CEO Bourla offers an in-depth look at the nine-month effort to develop the company’s Covid-19 vaccine.

The New Normal in IT: How the Global Pandemic Changed Information Technology Forever

Gregory S. Smith. Wiley, Mar. 9 ($28.95, ISBN 978-1-119-83976-7)

Longtime IT executive Smith surveys the vast changes to information technology that have resulted from the Covid-19 pandemic.

Of Blood and Sweat: Black Lives and the Making of White Power and Wealth

Clyde W. Ford. Amistad, Apr. 5 ($27.99, ISBN 978-0-06-303851-6)

Think Black author Ford investigates Black labor’s importance throughout American history and how it sustained the wealth of the rich.

Owning the Sun: A People’s History of Monopoly Medicine from Aspirin to Covid-19 Vaccines

Alexander Zaitchik. Counterpoint, Mar. 1 ($26, ISBN 978-1-64009-506-9)

The rise of Big Pharma and its dash to develop a vaccine for Covid-19 is documented by journalist Zaitchik.

Pandemic, Inc.: Chasing the Capitalists and Thieves Who Got Rich While We Got Sick

J. David McSwane. One Signal, Feb. 1 ($28, ISBN 978-1-9821-7774-4)

Investigative reporter McSwane details the corporate rush to capitalize on the unprecedented changes that occurred during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Pandora’s Toolbox: The Hopes and Hazards of Climate Intervention

Wake Smith. Cambridge Univ., Feb. 28 ($24.95, ISBN 978-1-316-51843-4)

Focusing on the climate struggle, Smith reports on new technologies that could have positive effects on the planet.

Business & Economics Listings

Adams Media

A Beginner’s Guide to High-Risk, High-Reward Investing: From Short Selling to SPACs, an Essential Guide to the Next Big Investment by Robert Ross (May 3, $16.99 trade paper, ISBN 978-1-5072-1823-5) examines trends and buzzwords, including short selling, cryptocurrency, and “meme stocks,” to provide strategies for emerging high-risk, high-reward investments.

Balance

Mastering Community: The Surprising Ways Coming Together Moves Us from Surviving to Thriving by Christine Porath (Mar. 8, $29, ISBN 978-1-5387-3686-9) explores technology’s effects on modern workplace practices, such as hot-desking, remote work, and employee “happiness” levels.

Bloomsbury Business

The New Political Capitalism: How Businesses and Societies Can Thrive in a Deeply Politicised World by Joe Zammit-Lucia (May 10, $28, ISBN 978-1-4729-9021-1) discusses how politics and business are embedded in capitalism and how no business practice is ever apolitical.

The Suite Spot: Reaching, Leading and Delivering the C-Suite by John Jeffcock (Mar. 15, $35, ISBN 978-1-4729-8705-1) offers tools and anecdotes from industry executives that provide intellectual challenges to help leaders develop new ideas and make changes in business practices.

Braintrust Ink

The Leadership Pause: Sharpen Your Attention, Deepen Your Presence, and Navigate the Future by Chris L. Johnson (June 7, $22.95, ISBN 978-1-956072-04-4) offers strategies to help managers and supervisors avoid pitfalls and burnout, and to refresh their efforts as leaders.

Nicolas Brealey

Making a Living: A Guide to Creative Entrepreneurship by Sophie Rochester (May 3, $19.95 trade paper, ISBN 978-1-5293-9393-4) focuses on the new wave of at-home business operations using PayPal, Shopify, Facebook, and Instagram, and offers a guide to turn creative “side hustles” into a major career move.

Career Press

How to Grow Your Business Like a Weed: A Complete Strategy for Unstoppable Growth by Stu Heinecke (May 1, $28.95, ISBN 978-1-63265-199-0). Wall Street Journal cartoonist Heinecke presents a business model built on resilience using his fascination for weeds as a central metaphor for business growth.

Crown

Crash Landing: The Inside Story of How the World’s Biggest Companies Survived an Economy on the Brink by Liz Hoffman (Apr. 5, $29, ISBN 978-0-593-23901-8) surveys the pandemic’s effects on the economy, with stories of economic devastation from the perspectives of CEOs including American Airlines’ Doug Parker and Ford’s Jim Hackett.

Currency

The Earned Life: Lose Regret, Choose Fulfillment by Marshall Goldsmith and Mark Reiter (May 3, $28, ISBN 978-0-593-23727-4) examines the concept of an “earned life,” using case studies to identify the pitfalls of ambition and to zero in on a healthier perspective on career goals.

Two and Twenty: How the Masters of Private Equity Always Win by Sachin Khajuria (May 24, $28, ISBN 978-0-593-23959-9). A former partner at Apollo Global Management gives an insider’s look at how equity firms have come to manage more than $7 trillion in private capital.

Doubleday

Cabin Fever: The Harrowing Journey of a Cruise Ship at the Dawn of a Pandemic by Michael Smith and Jonathan Franklin (June 21, $30, ISBN 978-0-385-54740-6) chronicles the events that took place on the Holland America cruise ship Zaandam as it set sail in March 2020 and how the Covid-19 virus spread onboard.

Price Wars: How the Commodities Markets Made Our Chaotic World by Rupert Russell (Feb. 1, $28.95, ISBN 978-0-385-54585-3) travels across the world in search of the factors that influenced the surge in prices of commodities including food, oil, and real estate.

Dundurn

Dancing with Robots: The 29 Strategies for Success in the Age of AI and Automation by Bill Bishop (Mar. 22, $21.99 trade paper, ISBN 978-1-4597-4902-3) examines the technology of robotics and AI, and offers 29 rules for survival and success in industries in which automation is critical.

Economist Books

Branding That Means Business by Matt Johnson and Tessa Misiaszek (June 7, $29, ISBN 978-1-5417-0167-0) defines what it takes to make a brand instantly recognizable, and how to take advantage of a brand’s identity without losing what made it famous in the first place.

Fast Company

Decoding Talent: How AI and Big Data Can Solve Your Company’s People Puzzle by Eric Sydell, Mike Hudy, and Michael Ashley (Feb. 8, $24.95, ISBN 978-1-63908-009-0) outlines the job hiring process and investigates its inefficiencies. The authors show how artificial intelligence can aid in fixing human resource pitfalls.

Thriving: The Breakthrough Movement to Regenerate Nature, Society, and the Economy by Wayne Visser (Feb. 1, $27.95, ISBN 978-1-63908-007-6) outlines a method for businesses to use creativity and innovation to develop a more environmentally friendly way to work.

Greenleaf

Leading Lightly: Lower Your Stress, Think with Clarity, and Lead with Ease by Jody Michael (Mar. 22, $23.95, ISBN 978-1-62634-899-8) uses Michael’s 20 years of research as a psychotherapist to offer strategies for mental fitness and increased adaptability in the workplace.

Harper Business

The End of the World Is Just the Beginning by Peter Zeihan (May 3, $35, ISBN 978-0-06-323047-7) examines such world trade issues as supply chain shortages and modern pirates. Zeihan argues that while economies built on cheap labor may thrive, global problems will follow.

HarperCollins Leadership

Cultures of Belonging: Building Inclusive Organizations That Last by Alida Miranda-Wolff (Feb. 15, $19.99 trade paper, ISBN 978-1-4002-2925-3) guides readers to better communication within companies through a diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging philosophy.

Harvard Business Review

Competing in the New World of Work: How Radical Adaptability Separates the Best from the Rest by Keith Ferrazzi (Feb. 1, $30, ISBN 978-1-64782-195-1) visualizes the future of organizations (digital, distributed, inclusive, resilient, and empathic) and the ways leadership practices will evolve to accommodate new organizational structures.

Love + Work: How to Find What You Love, Love What You Do, and Do It for the Rest of Your Life by Marcus Buckingham (Apr. 5, $28, ISBN 978-1-64782-123-4) claims that “love” is no longer visible in the workplace and investigates how managers and employees can bring love back to help battle the epidemic of stress, anxiety, and burnout.

Icon

Buyer Beware: How to Buy Better, Consume Less, and Start Creating Real Environmental Change by Sian Conway-Wood (June 21, $22.95, ISBN 978-1-78578-811-6) encourages consumers to help create a more sustainable future by learning to spot corporate marketing spin and by stopping unmitigated consumption.

IT Revolution

Sooner Safer Happier: Antipatterns and Patterns for Business Agility by Jonathan Smart (Mar. 5, $26 trade paper, ISBN 978-1-950508-41-9) shows business leaders how using agile and lean ways of working can lead to improved production and better services for their customers.

Kogan Page

Digital Darwinism: Surviving the New Age of Business Disruption by Tom Goodwin (Feb. 22, $19.95 trade paper, ISBN 978-1-3986-0192-5). This new edition updates its perspective on how to adapt to the frantic pace of change and transformation in modern business.

Media Lab

Unstuck: Reframe Your Thinking to Free Yourself from the Patterns and People That Hold You Back by Lia Garvin (Mar. 8, $16.99 trade paper, ISBN 978-1-948174-88-6). An executive coach who has held leadership roles at Microsoft, Apple, and Google suggests ways for women to re-envision their approaches to work and life so as to achieve more, stress less, and overcome obstacles.

MELVILLE HOUSE

Digitizing the Dollar: The Future of Public Money in the Age of Cryptocurrency by Rohan Grey (Apr. 19, $29.99, ISBN 978-1-61219-931-3) explores the history and theory of money to explain how digital currency differs from coin, credit, and cash, and what its potential impact might be on the world’s political, economic, and legal institutions.

MIT

Buy Now: How Amazon Branded Convenience and Normalized Monopoly by Emily West (Feb. 8, $30 trade paper, ISBN 978-0-262-54330-9) explains how Amazon became so successful, namely by forging relationships with consumers and building an infrastructure capable of embedding itself seamlessly into consumers’ lifestyles.

Morrow

The Anxious Investor: Building Wealth in Uncertain Times by Scott Nations (Apr. 5, $28.99, ISBN 978-0-06-306760-8). CNBC analyst Nations dispenses advice to everyday investors on how to build wealth in a volatile economy.

Nolo

The Essential Guide to Workplace Investigations: A Step-by-Step Guide to Handling Employee Complaints and Problems by Lisa Guerin (July 26, $44.99 trade paper, ISBN 978-1-4133-2961-2) offers strategies for HR professionals on how to deal with issues including discrimination, harassment, and violence.

Penguin Press

Hollywood Ending: Harvey Weinstein and the Culture of Complicity by Ken Auletta (July 12, $30, ISBN 978-1-9848-7837-3) puts a spotlight on Harvey Weinstein’s transformation from businessman to entertainment titan, the power that came with his position, and how his abuse of that power effectively crumbled an empire.

Portfolio

Build the Damn Thing: How to Start a Successful Business If You’re Not a Rich White Guy by Kathryn Finney (June 14, $28, ISBN 978-0-593-32926-9) coaches on ways to build a start-up with advice on finding and fostering investor partnerships.

Fossil Future: Why Global Human Flourishing Requires More Oil, Coal, and Natural Gas—Not Less by Alex Epstein (Feb. 22, $28, ISBN 978-0-593-42041-6) argues that predictions that climate change will worsen unless the world weans itself from fossil fuels are based on faulty assumptions and that the benefits of fossil fuels will outweigh their drawbacks for generations to come.

PublicAffairs

The Crux: How Leaders Become Strategists by Richard P. Rumelt (May 3, $30, ISBN 978-1-5417-0124-3) offers new ways for leaders to think about strategy beyond creating financial targets and aspirational goals. Rumelt uses case studies, including how Elon Musk’s Space X program developed, to show how to find a core strategy.

Rowman & Littlefield

Wine Wars II: The Global Battle for the Soul of Wine by Mike Veseth (July 1, $19.95 trade paper, ISBN 978-1-5381-6383-2) details the globalization of the wine-making business and the ongoing struggle over what various industry players consider the “soul” of wine-making to be.

Scribner

Satisfaction Guaranteed: How Zingerman’s Built a Corner Deli into a Global Food Community by Micheline Maynard (Feb. 22, $27, ISBN 978-1-9821-6461-4) chronicles the founding and expansion of the $70 million Zingerman’s food empire from its Michigan roots to its status as a company with global reach.

Shambhala

The Art of Money Workbook: A Three-Step Plan to Transform Your Relationship with Money by Bari Tessler (May 31, $16.95 trade paper, ISBN 978-1-61180-844-5) offers plans and exercises to help rethink one’s view of money and how it factors into one’s relationships.

Simon & Schuster

The Founders: The Story of PayPal and the Entrepreneurs Who Shaped Silicon Valley by Jimmy Soni (Feb. 1, $30, ISBN 978-1-5011-9726-0) recounts the origin, growth, and rise of PayPal, and how its founders used their stake in the company to grow empires of their own.

Women Talk Money: Breaking the Taboo, edited by Rebecca Walker (Mar. 15, $26, ISBN 978-1-5011-5432-4), collects essays that explore what women talk about when they talk about money, and the impact money, and the lack of it, has on women’s lives.

St. Martin’s

See, Solve, Scale: How Anyone Can Turn an Unsolved Problem into a Breakthrough Success by Danny Warshay (Mar. 22, $28.99, ISBN 978-1-250-27231-7). Warshay’s “entrepreneurial process,” a method based on a Brown University course he created, uses a three-step program to help entrepreneurs get their start-ups going.

University of California

Can Legal Weed Win? The Blunt Realities of Cannabis Economics by Robin Goldstein and Daniel Sumner (May, $24.95, ISBN 978-0-520-38326-5) investigates how cannabis legalization has stumbled recently, and reports on important developments in the long pursuit of legalizing weed.

Wiley

Disability Friendly: How to Move from Clueless to Inclusive by John D. Kemp (Feb. 15, $28, ISBN 978-1-119-83009-2) lays out ways to be mindful of the needs of employees with disabilities and provides guidance on how organizations can foster a workplace culture of inclusion.

The New Retirement: The Ultimate Guide to the Rest of Your Life by Jan Cullinane and David D. Holland (June 8, $24.95 trade paper, ISBN 978-1-119-83815-9) offers case studies along with questionnaires and worksheets for planning retirement, and considers how such issues as politics, climate change, and the ability to work remotely are affecting retirement.

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