Category Archives: Book Recommendations

From time to time, the writings of legendary thinker Peter Drucker have come up on this blog.  Drucker, who was probably one of the most brilliant strategic and long-term thinkers are corporate and governmental structure, incentives, and behavioral consequences, is one of the few people I think everyone should read regardless of who they are or what they do in life.  Whether you are a small business owner launching a company, an executive overseeing a division of a Fortune 500 corporation, a politician dealing with constituents, a non-profit director striving to improve the world, a pastor leading a congregation, a professor teaching a course, or you simply enjoy learning, his body of work can shave decades off your journey, clarify your thinking, and make you far more effective at achieving your objectives.

Elizabeth Currid-Halkett, the James Irvine Chair in Urban and Regional Planning and a professor of public policy at the University of Southern California, recently published a book called, “The Sum of Small Things: A Theory of the Aspirational Class”. It looks at how affluent and upper class individuals and families are now engaging in a different type of consumption that effectively strengthens their own advantages, making upward mobility more difficult for those who don’t understand the codes or values of the group.

There are a handful of books I re-read to refresh some of the timeless lessons I think are important.  One of them, which you can probably tell from some of my recent posts, is Security Analysis.  I recently started my way through the updated Sixth Edition, based on the 1940 text, and the clarity of thought never ceases to amaze me.

I completely forgot that I ordered Nestlé 125 Years 1866-1991 by Jean Heer earlier this month when I mentioned I was looking at the firm for the first time in a while, and then later, buying a few shares for my family’s permanent holdings.  When it showed up today, it was like Christmas in July!

In 1985, one of the greatest scholarly works ever penned on the Great Depression was published by Barrie A. Wigmore under the title The Crash and Its Aftermath: A History of Securities Markets in the United States, 1929-1933.  Using actual data from the period that took years to acquire, analyze, and interpret, Wigmore takes 751 pages…

Legendary distressed debt investor, and equity mutual fund manager, Martin J. Whitman has been called “the vulture of Wall Street” for his knack at finding amazing opportunities in beat down securities.  When the rest of the world is falling apart, he can often be found, cash in hand, buying up things that will be worth…

At the time it was published by the most successful mutual fund manager of all time, Peter Lynch, One Up on Wall Street was considered pie-in-the-sky by some because it was addressed to the average investor who wanted to select individual stocks for a portfolio, recounting wildly successful investment strategies.  One Up on Wall Street was…