Best Business Books in 2009: One Man’s Opinion

Brain Food

Amazon’s editors selected the following as the ten best business and finance books in 2009:

1. The Myth of the Rational Market, Justin Fox

2. Fool’s Gold, Gillian Tett

3. Shop Class as Soulcraft, Matthew B. Crawford

4. How Did That Happen?, Tom Smith

5. Rapt, Winifred Gallagher

6. In Fed We Trust, David Wessel

7. Trust Agents, Chris Brogan

8. Animal Spirits, George A. Akerlof

9. SuperCorp, Rosabeth Moss Kanter

10. Ignore Everybody, Hugh MacLeod

My own “Top Ten” for 2009 are listed in alpha order (per title) and include only Trust Agents and SuperCorp. Here are the other eight:

American Entrepreneur, Larry Schweikart and Lynne Pierson Doti

Note: Ironically, this is both the first book listed and my personal choice as the best business book published in 2009.

The Design of Business, Roger Martin

Freedom, Inc., Brian M. Carney and Isaac Getz

How We Decide, Jonah Lehrer

Maestro, Roger Nierenberg

The Power of Collective Wisdom, Alan Briskin, Sheryl, John Ott, and Tom Callanan

Management Rewired, Charles S. Jacobs

Strategy for Sustainability, Adam Werbach

Note: I think Guy Kawasaki’s Reality Check was the best business book published in 2008 and so voted as a member of selection committees for both Fortune and BusinessWeek magazines. My “Top Ten” that year also included Geoff Colvin’s Talent Is Overrated.