The February Reading List

 The February Reading List: 

The latest lockdown has prompted a resurgence of reading in my daily activities. In the last month, I’ve rediscovered the joy of sitting down with an interesting book (or, heading out for a walk with an audiobook) and have plowed through about a thousand pages a week over the month. 

To reflect on what I’ve read, I’m going to publish a monthly list of my top recommended reads. I’m going to break it down into categories, and despite my financial/economics background I’m going to try and keep the finance specific recommendations to a minimum. 

Anyway, I’m planning to read at least something biographical, something(s) historical, something a little more academic, something finance/economics related and something slightly different every month and write about my favourites here. 

For each book, I've linked a relevant purchase page where available (believe me when I say... I receive no sponsors for this!) - usually to Waterstones rather than Amazon, as the advice of a local bookstore is always superior to that of an impersonal online retailer!

For anyone with suggestions, please ping me a FB/Instagram/LinkedIn/Twitter message, email, text or a comment! 

Something biographical: A Promised Land - Barack Obama

For Christmas I received Barack Obama’s overview of his Presidency - A Promised Land. I must confess I was a little nervous about starting to read the book, partly because it’s 700 pages and I was worried I might find one of my favourite “modern” world leaders... dull, and partly because I was worried I wouldn’t finish this gigantic book which would serve quite aptly as a door wedge. 

Anyhow, the book did not disappoint, and was a highly revealing read into the inner workings of the White House. I was pleased to find that this was not a book constituted of hubris and braggadocio but rather reflected an introspective President who was aware of his own failings, and where things could/should have been done differently. 

Often, world leaders find it too easy to write about their “achievements” while failing to acknowledge their weaknesses - which are, as with all of us, inevitable. 

As a warning, if you’re looking for a full two-term overview of the Obama Presidency, you won’t find it here - with the book running up just through the first half of his tenure, so if you’d rather read it all in one, best wait for the second instalment to hit the shelves in 

*I also highly recommend the audiobook version - narrated by Obama himself. With long books, I find it helpful to have the audiobook and switch between the formats as I read along - if I’m out for a walk, the audiobook lets me power through books more quickly. 

Something historical: One Minute to Midnight - Michael Dobbs

The Cuban Missile Crisis remains one of my favourite periods of history, and this narrative version by Michael Dobbs is a much better thriller than much of the crap which the “professional” thriller author produces. In his unique fashion, Dobbs tells the story from the perspective of both the USA and the Soviet Union (many books on the 13-day period have focussed solely on the JFK administration), and also outlines how the crisis could have spun into nuclear disaster at a number of points as events beyond the control of either Kennedy or Khrushchev spun out of control. 

Be it the major decisions of the superpowers, or the response of submarine commanders to losing communications with the outside world, this book kept me constantly engaged and was a real page-turner - I got through it in 2 days!

Something economic: Religion and the Rise of Capitalism - Benjamin Friedman

Now, I know you’re thinking that this topic sounds remarkably and perhaps uniquely boring, but the ties between the development of religious thinking and capitalism are deeply intertwined. 

With the movement away from predestination religious beliefs, the idea of self-determination became more ingrained in religious thinking, and this naturally fed into the uniquely American philosophy that via hardwork and effort, one can reach a level of (at least) financial security. 

For anyone looking for something a little bit different on the history of capitalism, this book is revealing. 

(It also ties in quite nicely with one of my books of March - FantasyLand by Kurt Andersen!). 

Something academic: World Order - Henry Kissinger: 

OK, I admit the previous book in my list was quite academic and arguably this is less so, but I needed to fill the category... so here goes.

For anyone less versed in history, Kissinger served as National Security Advisor under President Nixon. Now, I’m sure even those unschooled in history here the name Nixon and alarm bells start ringing. But, Kissinger was distinctly successful in his foreign policy achievements - particularly with regard to his understanding of the USSR and China, and playing the superpower and emerging power against each other. 

In World Order, Kissinger gives a fantastic history of the development of balance of power dynamics across the centuries, with an emphasis on the starting point of the Westphalian Sovereignty system (first put forward in the Peace of Westphalia - 1648) in which the countries of Europe originally agreed to not interfere in each other’s internal domestic affairs. 

I learnt a huge amount from this book on broad scopes of history. What is often lost in school level history is the bigger picture stories - instead focussing on the minutiae of just a few years, rather than considering the factors which led up to such moments. 

Kissinger breaks this down and gives a macro lens view of how different orders have formed (and broken) and how different regions of the world view the world order. He also presents ideas on how the future world order should be managed to obtain the best outcomes (the best outcomes for Western democracy at least). 

I’d recommend this book to anyone who’s interested in the power dynamics of the modern world, anyone who wants to understand the workings behind the foreign policy of various national actors, or anyone who just wants to learn a bit more about the functioning of the world order. 

Something Different: Norse Mythology - Neil Gaiman

I knew nothing about Norse Mythology before reading this (ok, slight lie, I knew there was a guy called Thor who had a brother called Loki, and their Dad was Odin - thanks Marvel) and I found this book quite interesting about some of the mythology and tales of the Norse world. 

I’m slightly more critical of this book, since I think it is almost patronising in the way some of the tales are told. However, this is a minor point in what is otherwise a fascinating work. The book is split into a number of the different myths and tales which all work to help form a broader picture of the mythological structure of the Norse world. 

To give you an idea of what to expect, my favourite tale was that of The Mead of Poets and you can read about it here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mead_of_poetry

My favourite of the month: 

Without a doubt, the best book I read this month was Kissinger’s. His understanding of the world order and the way he portrayed the differences between nations was revelatory. 

That said, all the books listed above are great, and I recommend to anyone who considers them remotely interesting. 

If you have suggestions about books you think I should read, please comment below. While I mainly read history and economics, I love anything a bit different which can broaden my horizons.

Next Month: 

1. Franklin D Roosevelt: A Political Life - Robert Dallek 
2. The Smart Money Method - Stephen Clapham 
3. Dark Towers: Deutsche Bank, Donald Trump & an Epic Trail of Destruction - David Enrich 
4. The Godfather - Mario Puzio 
5. Fantasyland - Kurt Andersen