It's summertime and the living is easy, as that song says. So why not read a good book? Like on the beach or by the pool or maybe in your office because you've used up all your vacation days. We at Planet Money and The Indicator are always reading for our stories (and also for fun), and so today we're sharing some favorite recommendations that fit the summer vibe. Here you go:
DARIAN WOODS: My econ beach read is Who Is Government, an essay collection curated by Michael Lewis, who you probably remember as the author of The Big Short and Moneyball (and this Planet Money episode on how sports gambling blew up). In Who Is Government, we learn about a former coal miner who saved countless lives through better mine designs and testing. Also, how one man led the National Cemetery Association to the top of customer satisfaction ratings. It's a timely read as economics and politics are becoming more entwined. (Also the topic of this season of Planet Money Summer School, catch up here or on Spotify here.)
KENNY MALONE: My summer read is Doomsday Book by Connie Willis.Have you gotten your vaccines before traveling… to the fourteenth century? In Doomsday Book, time travel is used for academic research; PhDs are temporal astronauts. Connie Willis' version of time travel is thoughtfully, brutally, realistic. Researchers get preventative appendectomies (no surgery in 1320 if anything goes wrong). They become fully fluent in dead languages (you need Middle English to study in Medieval England). They calculate the risk of being assaulted on Oxford's main road (quite high in 1320!) and then fake their own assault upon arrival as a form of protection. Economic historians will sometimes look to the seemingly mundane, concrete details of past lives to understand whole economic ecosystems. I feel like Connie Willis has written a sci-fi version of that. It's astounding. So far. I just started it on vacation.
JESS JIANG: My summer read is Waste Wars: The Wild Afterlife of Your Trash by Alexander Clapp. This is not the first book asking what happens to our trash after we throw it out. But Waste Wars is a deeply investigative, globe-trotting journey with outrageous stories full of memorable specificity. In one chapter, Clapp tells the story of a toxic waste ash shipment that started in Northwest Philadelphia back in the 1980s. The ship and the crew tasked with selling off (or by the end, finding any willing receiver) for the toxic ash ended up traveling for more than two years, clocking thirty thousand miles, and visiting twenty countries. And by the end, the ship's captain refused to say where the ash wound up, because of political dealing or maybe outright bribes. But this book is more than just 40-year-old stories. Clapp meets people around the world who handle (sometimes literally) the waste from places like the U.S. and gets a glimpse of how the waste economy is shaping cities and communities half a world away.
ADRIAN MA: I recently read After the Spike: Population Progress and the Case for People, in which authors Dean Spears and Michael Geruso argue how, in a few centuries, the world's population could shrink to a size much smaller than it is today. Not exactly a beach book, but surprisingly readable. It's a humane and non-panicky look at the potential consequences of global population decline. Check out a recent episode we did on The Indicator about it.
GREG ROSALSKY: My summer read is Apple in China: The Capture of the World's Greatest Company by Patrick McGee. Thoroughly researched and reported by McGee, a Financial Times journalist, the book offers an eye-opening look at the mega-corporation's business dealings across the Pacific. It shines a spotlight on the tremendous investments Apple has made to manufacture its products in China, and how those investments have helped supercharge China's development. I liked the book so much I wrote a long newsletter about it.
WAILIN WONG: My summer read is The Finest Print by Erin Langston. This is a historical romance set in Victorian London during a pivotal time for print media. Belle Sinclair is an aspiring serialized fiction writer who's been shunned by polite society after a broken engagement. Ethan Fletcher is a rugged American who arrives in London to take over his uncle's debt-ridden print shop. Belle and Ethan must grapple with both their attraction to each other AND the vagaries of the British tax code. Seriously—the villain of this story is taxes! Also, Ethan has great forearms.
ALEX MAYYASI: My summer read is Noise: A Flaw In Human Judgment by Cass R. Sunstein, Daniel Kahneman, and Olivier Sibony. This book has fascinated me, empowered me, and haunted me. The authors' argument is that we're all failing to appreciate noise: the random variability that leads judges to dole out different punishments for identical crimes (even to identical defendants), or the random luck that's responsible for successes and failures that we assume to be the result of skill or determination. Reading the book, I thought of all the time I spend mulling decisions and analyzing my successes and failures. How often was the difference between success and failure just noise? Were my decisions consistent and my judgment reasonably good? Or no better than a random-number generator or coin flip? Years later, I'm still thinking about Noise.
ERIC MENNEL: For the sake of offering fiction, I just read And Then We Came to the End by Joshua Ferris, which is a very funny and sharp novel about layoffs and corporate voice, published in 2006. What I liked was how much it felt like stepping in a workplace time machine. The layoffs are looming for a group of people in an actual office, who navigate the feelings in ways that feel very physical (office pranks, gossip about people who don't show up one day, etc). Given the environment we live in now, I couldn't help but wonder what a book about layoffs and workplace culture navigated mostly via Zoom would look like. Having gone through cancellations and layoff both in-person and remotely, the book made me really nostalgic for the days when we suffered together.
MARY CHILDS: I recommend The Trading Game by Gary Stevenson. I read this book over the holidays this past year, and I know this is a cliche, but I literally could not put it down. The first half is an absolute romp, with his unorthodox way into finance and markets and hilarious navigation thereof. The second half is also a unique reckoning with the implications of what he and his colleagues did, the world they were creating for the rest of us to live in. It is actually the funniest and most lucid account of life on Wall Street since — I'm gonna say it — Liar's Poker.
And… by the way … the best recommendation of all is the Planet Money book. It won't be out till April, but sign up here to be the first to know about pre-sale deals and special offers.
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