Recommended Readings for 2025

 

There once was a kid who’d proceed
To ask why the grown-ups don’t read.
“When they stare at a phone,
That becomes what I’ve known—
So why should I follow their lead?”

A parent said, “Reading? I try—
But the day always seems to fly by.”
Yet the kid in his care
Saw him scroll everywhere,
And learned books were just things adults buy.

A CEO proudly agreed
That leadership grows from a read.
But the staff in his shop
Saw his book habits drop,
And wondered whose lead they should heed.[i]

 

Pardon my doggerel, but this year’s annual recommended books bears the message, don’t just read for yourself; read to set a model for others.  For years, I have argued that reading books is vitally important for one’s own professional development and performance (see  2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019,  2020, 2022, 2023 and 2024).  This year, I want to add that reading books sets a vitally important example to others—and especially to the rising generations.

Recent research suggests a crisis in reading skills and habits.  Reading scores for U.S. K-12 students have fallen for three consecutive years.  Recent research finds that 40% of fourth graders and 33% of eighth graders now perform below a basic level in reading; the reading skills of American high school seniors are the lowest in three decades.[ii]  In all, experts see a “stark decline” in reading performance.[iii]  Over time, young people are reading less for enjoyment: 17% did so in 2020, down from 27% in 2012, and 35% in 1984.[iv]  Among adults, reading for pleasure declined by  40% between 2003 and 2023 according to a recent study.[v]  Though the number of public libraries in the U.S. has remained steady over the past 15 years, library visits  have dropped sharply, as have print books on library shelves[vi]–this is consistent with the digitization of books and the growth of digital retailing but harkens to the decline of libraries as a cultural nexus for readers.  And while the book publishing industry reports growth and recovery after the pandemic, the reality is that growth in revenues in the industry barely kept up with the rate of inflation from 2012 to 2023.[vii]

There is no shortage of explanations for these trends: rising screen time and digital absorption of attention, the COVID pandemic, the declining quality of K-12 education in the U.S., the breakdown of the nuclear family in the U.S., and so on.  But I would add another factor: the decline of a reading culture as opposed to cultures of watching (as in sports and entertainment), listening (to podcasts), or playing (videogames and day trading).

One way to understand a culture is by what everyday people chat about.  In a culture in which reading matters you will overhear conversation stimulated by the following kinds of questions:

  1. What have you been reading lately?
  2. Why did you read that?
  3. How did you hear about it? Did someone recommend it to you?
  4. Did you like it? Would you recommend it to others?  Why or why not?
  5. Did anything about it surprise you?
  6. Did it change your thinking in some way?

In a reading culture, such conversations are not isolated exchanges among bookish people but are part of the daily “social lubricant” among employees on a break, parents waiting for the school bus, friends together at drinks and meals, and so on.  Talking about books is a currency of social engagement.  I recommend making a habit of talking about books—with children (especially reading with them), with family at mealtime, with peers at work, in book clubs, among friends, and so on.

My message to you this year is to contribute to the growth of the culture of reading around you.  If you aren’t alarmed by trends in reading, you aren’t paying attention.  Get with it.  As I have argued in previous posts, you must lead from where you are.  Prompt the people around you to talk about what they are reading and how they have valued it (see my six questions above).

In that spirit, I share here recommendations of the best books among the 66 I read in the past 12 months.  The 2025 list spans business, leadership, economic history, politics, science, the arts, and what I call “guilty pleasures” (mysteries and adventure tales).

Find a time and a place that you like to read—preferably quiet, comfortable, with an appropriate beverage at hand (coffee, tea, or something stronger).  Settle in and browse what I’ve been reading — or any of the other “best books” lists in circulation these days (for instance, see this, that, and another).  Pick something that seems (a) interesting, (b) fun, and (c) possibly relevant to your life or work.  Give the book at least 30 minutes a day for the next five days—this helps to make reading a habit.  If the book grabs your attention, then plow on and finish it; if not, set it aside and pick up another book.  When you finish a book, always get going on another soon.  I often pick successors based on themes or interests sparked by one of the books I recently finished.

🧭 Business and Leadership

Patrick McGee, Apple in China: The Capture of the World’s Greatest Company.  McGee traces how Apple’s fortunes became entwined with China’s industrial rise—its supply chains, political compromises, and moral complexities.  I was impressed by McGee’s great depth of research and reporting and by the message that aggressive technology transfer can have competitive and geopolitical consequences.  Very well written.

“A penetrating portrait of the Faustian bargain between Silicon Valley and Beijing.” — Financial Times
Quote: “The iPhone is a miracle of design—and a monument to the contradictions of global capitalism.”

David Cottrell & Julie Baldwin, Monday Morning Leadership: 8 Mentoring Sessions You Can’t Afford to Miss.  This is a brief fable of a manager transformed through eight candid mentoring conversations. It distills leadership wisdom into simple, actionable habits.  I have shared this book to good effect both with mentees who needed some idea of what mentoring is about and with mentors who were looking for an example of good mentoring.

“Simple, direct, and enduringly useful.” — Publishers Weekly
Quote: “You can’t lead a team you don’t serve.”

Steve Magness, Do Hard Things: Why We Get Resilience Wrong and the Surprising Science of Real Toughness. What determines who succeeds and who fails under stressful conditions?  Magness challenges the reader that the old cult of “grit” (sheer determination and hard work) is not the only answer to tough challenges.  He harnesses new research to argue that resilience stems from self-awareness, calm, and adaptability under stress.  Friends and mentees have found it very helpful.

“Replaces old-school toughness with evidence-based wisdom.” — The New York Times
Quote: “Real toughness is about responding, not reacting.”

Stanley McChrystal, Character: The Ultimate Challenge for Leaders.  This retired four-star general gives four-star insights into the nature of leadership.  He argues for the importance of purpose and moral grounding rather than perfect style or the paradigm du jour as the basis for effective leadership.  The insights are peppered with anecdotes from his career.  It is well-written with brief chapters easily absorbed by a busy reader.

“Battlefield clarity applied to timeless virtue.” — The Wall Street Journal
Quote: “Reputation is what others think of you; character is what you think of yourself when no one’s watching.”

💰 Business and Economic History

Jon Moen & Mary Tone Rodgers, Before the Fed: J.P. Morgan, America’s Lender of Last Resort.  This book offers exceptional insights into investment banking and the growth of the global financial sector in the 19th century.  The authors draw on previously neglected archives and use novel research techniques to discern the immense impact of J.P, Morgan’s personal authority in stabilizing financial conditions.

“A meticulous reconstruction of pre-Fed crisis management.” — EH.Net
Quote: “When everyone else lost their nerve, Morgan lent his.”

Andrew Ross Sorkin, 1929: Inside the Greatest Crash in Wall Street History—And How It Shattered a Nation.  We are approaching the centennial of the Great Crash and are bound to hear a great deal about it in the next three years.  Andrew Ross Sorkin (the Dealbook columnist for The New York Times) has timed the release of this book perfectly to meet popular interest.  I have studied the Great Crash in some detail and written about it, as have many others[viii].  I wondered what might be left to add.  The answer is that Sorkin taps previously undisclosed archives to reinterpret the events with the on-the-ground perspective of key players.  He also carries the narrative past the crash itself to1933, the nadir of the Great Depression—and he argues that the crash did not cause the depression, though it probably accelerated it.  Sorkin’s profiles of Carter Glass (U.S. Senator and promoter of the Glass-Steagall Act), Thomas Lamont (head of J.P. Morgan & Co.) and “Sunshine Charlie” Mitchell (head of National City Bank) illustrates a lesson often forgotten in the politics and economics of financial crises–that human agency (good or bad) has a big impact on the outbreak, dynamics, and consequences of crises.

“A gripping reexamination of the original financial meltdown.” — Kirkus Reviews
Quote: “The enduring lesson is not that booms can be prevented or that busts can be fully averted.  It is that we need to remember how easily we forget.  The antidote to irrational exuberance is not regulation by itself, nor skepticism, but humility—the humility to know that no system is foolproof, no market fully rational, and no generation exempt.  The greater the heights of our certainty, the longer and harder we fall.”[ix]

Ross King, The Bookseller of Florence.  How did the rebirth (the Renaissance) of Western Civilization unfold?  It was a process of the rediscovery and dissemination of Roman humanism and classical Greek philosophy, the impact of which radically transformed fields as different as architecture, medicine, politics, literature, fine arts, finance, accounting, warfare, and engineering.  When modern pundits talk about revolutions and social transformations, it is useful to get grounded in the mother of all social transformations, the Renaissance.  Central to the process of rediscovery and dissemination were a small number of “connectors” who facilitated the translation, copying by hand (and printing), and distribution of books.  Ross King presents a portrait of one of these connectors, Vespasiano da Bisticci (1421-1498), the bookseller of Florence.  More than a biography of Vespasiano, this book is an engaging “biography” of the early Renaissance.

“Evokes a world where manuscripts were as coveted as masterpieces.” — The Guardian
Quote: “In the age before printing, a library was an act of faith.”

Christopher Hibbert, The House of Medici: Its Rise and Fall.  The Medici family—a.k.a. the House of Medici–was an iconic example of this transformation during the Renaissance.  A powerful banking and political dynasty, it is remembered as one of the most impactful in European history.  Not only did the House of Medici finance rulers, Popes, and their armies through its merchant bank, it also promoted international trade, financed the arts and the book trade, ruled Florence and other city-states, and advanced humanist ideas about government and diplomacy.

“As irresistible as a Florentine fresco.” — Times Literary Supplement
Quote: “In Florence, money bought beauty—and sometimes salvation.”

Jill Eicher, Mellon vs. Churchill: The Untold Story of Treasury Titans at War.  One of the most important debates in economic policy during the 20th Century was between advocates of austerity and advocates of credit expansion after World War I and up to mid-1930s.  U.S. Treasury Secretary Andrew W. Mellon advocated austerity and economic isolationism.  Winston Churchill, Britain’s Chancellor of the Exchequer from 1924 to 1929, advocated American forgiveness of Britain’s war debts to America, extension of credits to rebuild Europe, and the rejection of isolationism.  Churchill failed to sway Mellon and .  Consequently America’s economic and foreign policies contributed to the onset of the Great Depression.  The book is well-written and a fine complement to Liaquat Ahamed’s The Lords of Finance.

“A thrilling study in contrasting economic philosophies.” — Financial History Review
Quote: “Between austerity and ambition lies the soul of policy.”

🏛️ Politics and the Political Life

Jake Tapper & Alex Thompson, Original Sin: President Biden’s Decline, Its Cover-Up, and His Disastrous Choice to Run Again.  The stunning denouement to Biden’s presidency will be fodder for many writers to come.  Tapper and Thompson were first out of the gate and bring to bear their years as senior journalists covering the White House and Washington politics.  They document the decline in Biden’s energy, cognitive acuity, and judgment during the latter part of his first term as president—as well as the role of White House staff and administration officials in covering up Biden’s condition.  The “Original Sin” of the book’s title refers to Biden’s decision to run again.  I commend this book to senior executives in all kinds of organizations: business, not-for-profit, government, military, religious etc. as a cautionary warning to assess the fitness of leaders and to plan for succession well in advance of the inevitable consequence of aging.

“Unsparing and deeply reported.” — The Atlantic
Quote: “The tragedy of politics is not ambition—it’s self-deception.”

Margaret A. Hogan & C. James Taylor, eds., My Dearest Friend: Letters of Abigail and John Adams.  In the history of the U.S. presidency, rarely have we seen a partnership that is both emotional and intellectual between the President and First Lady—a marriage of equals.  John Adams served as the second President, was among the original revolutionaries in the conflict with Britain, and ranks today among the “Founding Fathers” of the U.S.  The voices in these letters portray extraordinary intellect and purpose during America’s founding years.

“An indispensable human window on the American Revolution.” — Library Journal
Quote (John Adams): “Posterity! You will never know how much it cost the present generation to preserve your freedom.”

Kate Loveman, The Strange History of Samuel Pepys’s Diary.  Diaries yield insights into motivations and behavior of key figures in history.  Sometimes, they reveal more than the writers imagined.  A prime example is the diary of this mid-level government bureaucrat in England’s naval administration.  The contents and history of Samuel Pepys’s (pronounced “peeps”) diary give an unvarnished look into the politics and the mores of London society in the late 17th century.  Loveman’s book tells how a private diary survived, scandalized, and became one of the cornerstones of English literature.  Provocative and at times hilarious, Pepys’s diary remains one of the icons of political memoir.

“A detective story of literary survival.” — The Times (London)
Quote (Pepys): “Strange to see how a good dinner and wine make all things possible.”

🌌 Science

Kelsey Johnson, Into the Unknown: The Quest to Understand the Mysteries of the Universe.  Astronomy has been a neglected hobby of mine for years—these days I at least follow the planets across the night-time sky in their annual cycle.  Astronomy piqued my interest in cosmology, the study of the origins and development of the universe.  It is a field of inquiry that is dense with mathematical models, particle physics, and arresting discoveries from observational astronomy.  Over the past few decades, I dipped into various books but remained unsatisfied with what they had to tell.  That is, until I read this one: it opened my eyes (rather, my mind) to the incredible expanse of explanations for the beginning of the universe and planet Earth, and the implications of inflation of the universe.  She explains in some detail the physical properties of the universe and the infinitesimally small probability that these probabilities would align in the way they do.  New instruments and observational techniques have added greatly to our understanding, though much remains a mystery.  UVA astronomer Kelsey Johnson invites us into the wonder of the cosmos and bids us to approach it with humility as we embrace the mysteries of the Big Bang, black holes, dark matter, and dark energy.  The book is written at the level of a college course, so the reader should prepare to slog through some scientific models and concepts.  I slogged and still loved the clear and readable writing.  I recommend it highly.

“Lyrical and lucid—a reminder that wonder is the start of understanding.” — Science News
Quote: “given that we are sentient fluctuations of the universe, trying to understand the universe ultimately gives us insight into who we really are and what we could be.  Ignoring the cosmos feels a lot like not living up to our potential.” (p. 347)

🎶 Culture and the Arts

Charles King, Every Valley: The Desperate Lives and Troubled Times That Made Handel’s Messiah.  “The work of music we now call Handel’s Messiah has a good claim to being the greatest piece of participatory art ever created…a piece of music that people not only admire or enjoy but in which they also report finding something like truth—intimate, magnetic, awesome,” claims Charles King.  At this time of year, new recordings, public broadcasts, and live concerts of the Messiah abound.  I have heard this work countless times and have wondered about its origins.  This book carried me back to the 18th century to slake my curiosity.  We learn from it the story of collaboration between a composer (Georg Friedrich Handel) and librettist (Charles Jennens) that produced this masterpiece—and we also learn how a major artistic creation can be a child of its time.  Charles King details the very challenging decades in which Handel and Jennens lived and worked.  Thus, the book is a case study in the origins of a creative masterpiece.

“Turns a familiar score into a revelation of empathy and endurance.” — The Economist
Quote: “In line after line of song, the Messiah’s main message still comes through: a key to living better is practicing how to believe more.  The cynics are wrong, but so, too, are the naïve optimists, a point that Jennens emphasized over and over again in his selection of scriptures.  There is no sorrow like this sorrow, no heaviness like the one that only we can know.  Darkness really does sometimes cover the face of the earth, and we are all, in our ways, astray.  But the route out of despair, he concluded, lay on the pathway toward it.” (p. 157)

Christopher Booker, The Seven Basic Plots: Why We Tell Stories.  In reading Robert Shiller’s Narrative Economics, (a very good discussion of missing elements in mainstream economics and a book that I recommended here previously), I ran across Shiller’s commendation of The Seven Basic Plots.  Can all of literature be reduced to seven plots?  If so, what are they?  And why does a typology of plots matter to our understanding of literature—and even economics?  Booker suggests all stories are derivatives of these basic models: (1) overcoming the monster, (2) rags to riches, (3) the quest, (4) voyage and return, (5) comedy, (6) tragedy, and (7) rebirth.  This is an interpretive framework for understanding stories and draws on a very large range of examples.  Booker explores why readers are inclined to resonate with such categories and draws on psychological and evolutionary theories to explain that archetypes help us understand the world.  This book changed the way I think about fiction by lending a framework for comparing stories and assessing how well stories resolve the tensions they create.  I recommend it highly.

“One of the most ambitious works of literary theory ever written.” — The Spectator
Quote: “All stories are really one story—the struggle to become whole.”

Joseph Epstein, Essays in Biography.  I have followed Epstein’s essays and op-eds for years—he is a sharp critic with the gift of a rich and urbane writing style.  This book collects 39 mini-biographies of political figures, entertainers, sports champions, writers, actors, and composers.  Virtually no one escapes his sharp wit and incisive judgment.  The brief sendups are both entertaining and bound to stimulate reflections about excellence in public and private life.  Thus, this book is a refreshing riposte to biographical profiles published in mass media.

“America’s most civilized essayist.” — The Washington Post
Quote: “A biographer’s greatest temptation is not empathy—it’s envy.”

🔪 Guilty Pleasures: mainly mysteries

Lee Child, novels.  Child’s gripping mysteries about Jack Reacher (a wandering veteran who fights injustice whenever he encounters it) continue to populate my bedside table.  The books typically feature a long, tension-filled buildup followed by an explosive conclusion.  Of 41 Reacher novels on the market, I have finished 11 of them.  They are hard to put down once started—I slowly dole out the Reacher mysteries so that I have time for other books.  From this year, I commend:

  • The Persuader.  Reacher encounters a rug-importing business that has been taken over by a criminal gang for the purpose of exporting weapons.   
  • The Enemy. Reacher solves a murder on an army base and busts a conspiracy among senior officers.
  • One Shot. Reacher solves the false accusation of murder made against a former Army sniper.  He attacks the compound of gangsters who framed the sniper.
  • The Hard Way. Reacher solves an apparent kidnapping that was actually an escape by a wife fearful of her husband’s criminal band of mercenaries.
  • Bad Luck and Trouble. Reacher stumbles into two towns, named Hope and Despair, and confronts a conspiracy by religious zealots to create Armageddon.

“The last honorable drifter in modern fiction.” — The Guardian
Quote (Reacher): “Hope for the best. Plan for the worst. The rest is just luck.”

Anthony Hope, The Prisoner of Zenda.  I first read this 1894 novel as a pre-teen and enjoyed it.  But recently I stumbled on a copy of the book in a hotel lobby and got hooked again.  The story involves two young men who are distant relatives but remarkable look-alikes.  One is the new King of the country of Ruritania.  The other is a young British tourist.  A planned coup d’etat tries to replace the king with his evil half-brother—but the young Brit steps in to thwart the plot, save the real king, and leave everyone (but the evil brother) happy ever after.  A good yarn.

“Pure escapism, perfectly rendered.” — The New Yorker
Quote: “Fate doesn’t ask your permission before adventure begins.”

Bill Clinton and James Patterson, The First Gentleman.  Clinton and Patterson teamed up to produce three political thrillers, all centered on the White House.  In this (the third in the series) the President is running for reelection when her husband is framed for murder.  Courtroom drama, revelations by investigative journalists, and the exposure of a conspiracy by the president’s chief of staff make a fast-paced story.  The book benefits from Clinton’s former proximity to the inner workings of the presidency.

“a twisty thriller with plenty of inside jobs, political sabotage and many, many deaths.”―USA Today

Quote: “The American people put me here and trusted me—as they did all of you—not to play petty politics with every issue but to do big things.”

✨ Coda

The limericks remind us that reading books is not a solo venture; it is a community venture.  Happy reading—and may 2026 bring your reading example to others!

[i] From my prompts with help from ChatGPT-5.

[ii] National Assessment Governing Board, “The 2024 Nation’s Report Card,” https://www.nagb.gov/powered-by-naep/the-2024-nations-report-card.html.

[iii] Dana Goldstein, “Reading Skills of 12th Graders Hit a New Low,” September 9, 2025, The New York Times, https://www.nytimes.com/2025/09/09/us/12th-grade-reading-skills-low-naep.html.

[iv] Beth McMurtrie, “Is This the End of Reading?  Students are coming to college less able and less willing to read.  Professors are stymied.” The Chronicle of Higher Education, May 9, 2024 https://www.chronicle.com/article/is-this-the-end-of-reading.

[v] Jessica K. Bone et alia, September 19, 2025, “The decline in reading for pleasure over 20 years of the American Time Use Survey,” iScience, 28(9), https://www.cell.com/iscience/fulltext/S2589-0042(25)01549-4.

[vi] Tim Coates, June 28, 2024, “The Quiet Crisis Facing U.S. Public Libraries,” Publishers Weekly, https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/industry-news/libraries/article/95383-the-quiet-crisis-facing-u-s-public-libraries.html?utm_source=chatgpt.com.

[vii] U.S. book publishers’ revenues grew at a compound average annual rate of 2.1% from 2012 to 2013.  Over the same period, the U.S. gross domestic product price deflator grew 2.2%.  See Tom Corson-Knowles, “Report on the Changing Landscape of U.S. Book Sales from 2000-2024 and How Authors and Publishers Can Adjust,” https://www.tckpublishing.com/report-us-book-sales/.

[viii] Here is a sampler of books for the gung-ho enthusiast of the Great Crash and causes of the Great Depression.  The length of the list (a fraction of possible sources) suggests the complexity of the events.

  • Ahamed, Liaquat. Lords of Finance: The Bankers Who Broke the World. New York: Penguin Press, 2009.
  • Allen, Frederick Lewis. Only Yesterday: An Informal History of the 1920s. New York: Harper and Row, 1931.
  • Bierman, Harold, Jr. The Causes of the 1929 Stock Market Crash: A Speculative Orgy or a New Era? Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1998.
  • Bierman, Harold, Jr. The Great Myths of 1929 and the Lessons to Be Learned. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1991.
  • Eichengreen, Barry. Golden Fetters: The Gold Standard and the Great Depression, 1919–1939. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1992.
  • Galbraith, John Kenneth. The Great Crash, 1929. New York: Avon Books, 1954 and 1979.
  • Hoover, Herbert. The Memoirs of Herbert Hoover: The Great Depression, 1929–1941. New York: The Macmillan Company, 1952.
  • Irwin, Douglas A. Peddling Protectionism: Smoot-Hawley and the Great Depression. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2011.
  • Kabiri, Ali. The Great Crash of 1929: A Reconciliation of Theory and Evidence. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2015.
  • Kindleberger, Charles P. The World in Depression, 1929–1939. 2nd ed. History of the World Economy in the Twentieth Century Series 4. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1986.
  • Klein, Maury. Rainbow’s End: The Crash of 1929. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001.
  • Meltzer, Allan H. A History of the Federal Reserve, Volume 1: 1913–1951. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2003.
  • Wigmore, Barrie A. The Crash and Its Aftermath: A History of Securities Markets in the United States, 1929–1933. Contributions in Economics and Economic History 58. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1985.

[ix] Sorkin (2025), 1929: Inside the Greatest Crash in Wall Street History—And How It Shattered a Nation” page 444.