Business & Economics Book Reviews

REFINERY TOWN by Steve Early
BUSINESS & ECONOMICS
Released: Jan. 17, 2017

"A specific tale of governance at the local level that should appeal to labor activists and scholars of urban studies."
In Richmond, California, overlooking scenic San Francisco Bay, is a company town bankrolled by Chevron. A resident reports, in some detail, on his town's fraught governance. Read full book review >
BUSINESS & ECONOMICS
Released: Jan. 17, 2017

"Valuable reading for shoppers and retailers alike."
Blame it on the smartphone, the technology that is bringing internetlike tracking and surveillance into brick-and-mortar stores. Read full book review >

CULTURE AS WEAPON by Nato Thompson
BUSINESS & ECONOMICS
Released: Jan. 17, 2017

"A precisely written critique of cultural manipulation in our daily lives."
How persuasive cultural mechanisms are encoded in broader social structures, from high art to war-planning. Read full book review >
CREATIVE CHANGE by Jennifer Mueller
BUSINESS & ECONOMICS
Released: Jan. 17, 2017

"Solid reading for the business set though no substitute for books by Twyla Tharp, Daniel Dennett, and other creative thinkers."
Of innovation and its great enemy, inertia. Read full book review >
OUR BODIES, OUR DATA by Adam Tanner
BUSINESS & ECONOMICS
Released: Jan. 10, 2017

"A thorough report, carefully researched and well-documented, aimed at both general readers and policymakers."
A disturbing look at the threat to privacy created by the lucrative and growing health care data-mining industry. Read full book review >

ECONOMISM by James Kwak
BUSINESS & ECONOMICS
Released: Jan. 10, 2017

"Do the better angels of our nature demand double-digit profit? For a soft-path, smart refutation, Kwak's book is just the ticket."
A spry manifesto that dismantles the many suppositions of modern economic theory. Read full book review >
THE GREAT EQUALIZER by David M. Smick
BUSINESS & ECONOMICS
Released: Jan. 10, 2017

"Is all this pie-in-the-sky thinking? Perhaps so, but Smick's call for a fairer capitalism makes for bracing reading for students of the modern economy and polity."
The worst enemy of capitalism is…capitalism. Read full book review >
THE UNBANKING OF AMERICA by Lisa Servon
BUSINESS & ECONOMICS
Released: Jan. 10, 2017

"Servon's approachable if somewhat academic study is an indictment of a financial structure bent on large returns at the expense of all else, but it also offers hope for ways around that ravenous system."
Banks seldom have much green money these days—and not many customers, either. Read full book review >
VALLEY OF THE GODS by Alexandra Wolfe
BUSINESS & ECONOMICS
Released: Jan. 10, 2017

"Nothing surprising but of some interest to business readers and entrepreneurs looking for ways to 'disrupt' education."
An account of the rising generation of Silicon Valleyites, who want it all—and then some. Read full book review >
SPARK by Angie Morgan
BUSINESS & ECONOMICS
Released: Jan. 3, 2017

"A straightforward presentation that promotes values of conduct most of us would be proud to share."
Three former U.S. military officers advocate for transferring military leadership methods into the civilian business sector and beyond. Read full book review >
EUROPE'S LAST CHANCE by Guy Verhofstadt
BUSINESS & ECONOMICS
Released: Jan. 3, 2017

"A proper diagnosis, likely some good medicine, delivered with an unfortunate bedside manner."
With the entire European project severely threatened, Belgium's former prime minister offers a prescription to save the European Union. Read full book review >
SPECULATION by Stuart Banner
BUSINESS & ECONOMICS
Released: Jan. 2, 2017

"A somewhat narrowly focused book that will not likely appeal to a broad swath of readers but will repay those who invest their undivided attention."
A mostly chronological history of a slippery financial concept combined with something akin to a lengthy law review article. Read full book review >
Kirkus Interview
Clinton Kelly
January 9, 2017

Bestselling author and television host Clinton Kelly’s memoir I Hate Everyone Except You is a candid, deliciously snarky collection of essays about his journey from awkward kid to slightly-less-awkward adult. Clinton Kelly is probably best known for teaching women how to make their butts look smaller. But in I Hate Everyone, Except You, he reveals some heretofore-unknown secrets about himself, like that he’s a finicky connoisseur of 1980s pornography, a disillusioned critic of New Jersey’s premier water parks, and perhaps the world’s least enthused high-school commencement speaker. Whether he’s throwing his baby sister in the air to jumpstart her cheerleading career or heroically rescuing his best friend from death by mud bath, Clinton leaps life’s social hurdles with aplomb. With his signature wit, he shares his unique ability to navigate the stickiest of situations, like deciding whether it’s acceptable to eat chicken wings with a fork on live television (spoiler: it’s not). “A thoroughly light and entertaining memoir,” our critic writes. View video >