This Month
The books Australian economists loved in 2024
The Shortest History of Economics by Andrew Leigh ranked as one of the most popular books among our most prolific readers.
- Cecile Lefort
December 2024
- Christmas Gift Guide 2024
- eBooks
Books to treasure or give this holiday season
Elevate your mood and mind with our selection of new coffee table editions, ranging from spectacular photography to quirky knowledge.
- Updated
- Stephen Clark
- Drinks With Max Allen
- Life & Leisure
Max Allen picks the best wine books to give
One Thousand Vines will change the way the reader thinks about – and enjoys – wine. Plus, three vintages to sip along the way.
- Updated
- Max Allen
Barnesy, Farnesy... blue Wiggle? The best music books of 2024
Some icons of music wrote their story this year – or had it written for them. Here’s our pick of the greatest music book hits for when the Christmas carols are done.
- Michael Bailey
The year’s best books as chosen by the Financial Review newsroom
From highly anticipated novels to memorable memoirs, here are the top picks from our journalists to make your summer reading list sizzle.
- Staff writers
Angela Merkel’s autobiography is a ‘stunning disappointment’
The former German chancellor provides only the most superficial explanations for her controversial actions and decisions, particularly those to do with Vladimir Putin.
- John Kampfner
Oliver Sacks’ letters from a beautiful mind
The great neurologist offered a lesson in treating our fellow humans with care and true attention.
- Erica Wagner
November 2024
Why Jordan Peterson thinks the West is going to hell
The controversial commentator’s new book argues Western civilisation is in mortal danger because people have turned to false gods.
- John Gray
The US dollar is already a loaded weapon. What next?
The apparent decay in the institutions that underpin the power and credibility of the dollar – and its issuer – are the focus of a recent book.
- Carey K Mott
- Opinion
- Opinion
On Remembrance Day: new ways to understand an old war
Scholarship on the Great War extends far beyond the traditional focus on heroic but doomed Anzacs.
- Peter Stanley
From Cats to the Babe sequel, the most disastrous films of all time
Andrew Lloyd Webber was left so traumatised by what Hollywood did to Cats that he bought an emotional support dog.
- Leaf Arbuthnot
October 2024
Malcolm Gladwell’s Tipping Point sequel oversimplifies the times
The C-suite’s favourite thinker has written a follow-up to his runaway bestseller of 2000. One problem: it’s like the internet still doesn’t exist.
- Gal Beckerman
A tour of the weird places the global elite hide wealth
A new book explores the ‘special zones’ created to bring in money and industry.
- Jordan Weissmann
- Analysis
- UK leadership
For a politician, Boris Johnson makes a very good journalist
‘Unleashed’ is a disarmingly self-deprecating tale of an eventful British decade. His observations aren’t always reliable, but they’re sharp and illuminating.
- Hans van Leeuwen
The surprising history of the humble notebook
This history of writing on paper helps explain the enduring allure of the blank page in the digital age.
- Michael Dirda
Religion has made Sally Rooney boring
“Intermezzo”, the fourth book by the kingpin of Millennial fiction, sees a growing preoccupation with religion flatten out her once enigmatic prose.
- Susie Goldsbrough
August 2024
- Opinion
- Financial planning
This wealth book has great advice – so why do I dislike it?
Scott Galloway is a superstar when it comes to wealth creation. The problem is, he knows it.
- Andrew Hobbs
The comic cynicism of the celebrity academic
A new, celebrated novel makes fun of academic fame, university politics and self-entitled students.
- John Mullan
An ex-Murdoch man turns on the populist press
Crikey publisher Eric Beecher laments the plight of modern media in an argumentative new book, The Men Who Killed the News.
- Nick Bonyhady
May 2024
- Analysis
- Australian economy
Long-term growth is more vulnerable than it looks
The rise of anti-science movements pose the greatest economic threats since the industrial revolution, writes a former deputy RBA governor.
- Guy Debelle