Category Archives: New books

Book display in the Sainsbury Library.

Financial Times and Schroders Business Book of the Year Award 2023

  • What is a ‘right kind of wrong’?
  • Have you wondered how big projects get done or why they end up in disasters?
  • Do you know about the six materials that have shaped human history and will shape our future?
  • Are you aware of the modern-day slavery involved in the production of cobalt, a material that is used to power our everyday lives?
  • Have you considered what the new era of AI means for the world?
  • What drives the innovation, triumphs, and failures of one of the most influential people in the world?

Sainsbury Library invites you to explore these questions with our Financial Times and Schroders Business Book of the Year display. You can access the Financial Times through the Bodleian Libraries, our Current News LibGuide has instructions for registering.

The Financial Times Business Book of the Year Award started in 2005 and aims to find enjoyable books that are pertinent to modern issues in business. The shortlist, for 2023, according to the judges, offers ‘exciting, engaging, and important titles that together provide a highly readable guide to the future of business’1 and ‘solutions to the pressing challenges facing executives and policymakers at a time of profound disruption and uncertainty.’2

The books shortlisted are about topics that go beyond what most people would define as a “business” book and are likely to be of interest to a wide range of readers.

Titles like Right Kind of Wrong (2023 winner) and How Big Things Get Done may be useful for managers but also for people who want to understand why things fail, and how to effectively learn and improve from mistakes. Cobalt Red, Material World, and AI: The Coming Wave, all explore the hidden world of technology, materials, and minerals. The authors shine a light on the history, exploitation, and risks to society and the environment associated with their subject matters. Finally, ‘Elon Musk’ – whether you love the man or hate him – offers readers an insight into one of the most influential and powerful figures in the world today.

A special mention and congratulations to Prof. Bent Flyvbjerg who is an Emeritus Professor at Saïd Business School and who co-authored the shortlisted book How Big Things Get Done: The Surprising Factors Behind Every Successful Project, from Home Renovations to Space Exploration.

We hope you find something that will pique your interest and that you come along and borrow one, or all of them!

Book of the Year

Right Kind of Wrong: Why Learning to Fail Can Teach Us to Thrive
By Amy Edmondson- a world-renowned organisational psychologist and Novartis Professor of Leadership and Management at the Harvard Business School.


Shortlist

Material World: A substantial Story of our Past and Future
By Ed Conway- a writer and broadcaster, currently the Economics and Data editor for Sky News and regular columnist for The Times and Sunday Times.

How Big Things Get Done: The Surprising Factors Behind Every Successful Project, from Home Renovations to Space Exploration
By Bent Flyvbjerg- Saïd Business School Emeritus Professor and the world expert on megaprojects; and Dan Gardner, New York Times bestselling author, speaker, and consultant.

Elon Musk
By Walter Isaacson- a history professor at Tulane University, journalist, former CEO of CNN, and bestselling author of biographies including about Steve Jobs and Kissinger.

Cobalt Red: How the Blood of the Congo Powers our Lives
By Siddharth Kara- a British Academy Global Professor and Rights Lab Associate Professor of Human Trafficking and Modern Slavery at the University of Nottingham.

The Coming Wave: AI, Power and the Twenty-First Century’s Greatest Dilemma
By Mustafa Suleyman (with Michael Bhaskar)- a serial tech entrepreneur. AI researcher and co-founder of DeepMind, part of Google, and co-founder of Inflection AI; and Michael Bhaskar – New York Times bestselling writer, and publisher on AI, technology, publishing, and the future of media.

If you are interested in seeing the books that did not reach the shortlist, then you should check out the Financial Times Book of the Year Longlist and you can also see historical entries on their Best Business Books page.

Further Reading: Book Reviews

If you want to find out more about each title above, here are snippets from reviews and you can read the full review by clicking on the book title.

Right Kind of Wrong by Amy Edmondson
‘Do good teams make fewer mistakes? It seems a reasonable hypothesis. But in the early 1990s, when a young researcher looked at evidence from medical teams at two Massachusetts hospitals, the numbers told her a completely different story: the teams who displayed the best teamwork were the ones making the most mistakes. What on earth was going on?’3

Material World- the six commodities that shape our lives
‘Ed Conway’s lucid book explores the mines and quarries beneath the ‘ethereal’ economy of technology and services.’ 4

How Big Things Get Done
‘The book has an upbeat title, perhaps because publishing lore suggests that including “failure” is a sure way to crater sales, but, rest assured, it is full of delicious anecdotes about project management disasters.’5

Elon Musk
‘An exploration of the tech billionaire’s epic feats, which is long on reporting detail but shorter on the meaning of Musk.’6

Cobalt Red
‘Takes a deep dive into the horrors of mining the valuable mineral — and the many who benefit from others’ suffering.’7

AI: The Coming Wave 
‘Bristles with breathtaking excitement about the extraordinary possibilities that the revolutions in AI and synthetic biology could bring about (…) In the 21st century, the dilemma will be how to contain technology’s power.’8

We hope you enjoy reading some of these books. If you have any ideas for other business books do contact us! You can also use the Bodleian request form to suggest a new book, e-book, database or resource.

References
1. 2. Hill, Andrew. “FT Business Book of the Year 2023 — the shortlist” Financial Times, September 21, 2023.
3. Harford, Tim. “The art of making good mistakes,” Financial Times, September 15, 2023.
4. Gapper, John. “Material world-the six commodities that shape our lives,” Financial Times, June 15, 2023.
5. Hill, Andrew, et al. “FT business books: What to read this month,” Financial Times, February 9, 2023.
6. Foroohar, Rana. “Elon Musk by Walter Isaacson — clashes of the titan,” Financial Times, September 13, 2023.
7. Aikins, Matthieu. “How Is Your Phone Powered? Problematically.,” New York Times, January 23, 2023.
8. Thornhill, John. “AI and the next great tech shift,” Financial Times, September 14, 2023.

Photograph of the AI book display in the Sainsbury Library.

Welcome to the World of AI

Step into the Sainsbury Library and explore the fascinating, fun, but sometimes frightening, world of Artificial Intelligence with our book display in the lower reading room. AI is ubiquitous in many people’s daily lives and is impacting and raising questions in all areas of businesses. With AI ‘creating’ art, films, music and novels; aiding doctors, researchers and patients in the life-saving work of medicine; and assisting both defensive and offensive forces in wars. For some, the rapid growth and innovation of AI represents a golden opportunity for business, humans, and the future of our world. However, for others, AI spells impending doom, with visions of mass unemployment and even the end of the world. For both, AI is a tool that makes the imagined events of Sci-fi-the good, the bad, and the fun-a reality.

The Sainsbury Library’s display, ‘Welcome to the World of AI’, has books ranging from the threats and opportunities of AI in business and economics, the history of AI, the ethics of AI, and even chess and AI. We hope you will find something of interest to you, whether you are a doomsayer, optimist, or have no idea what AI is all about!

Please note all books are available on-line, unless otherwise specified. Please click on the links provided or even better come and browse the colourful display in-person and scan our QR codes!

General and Philosophy

Business

Further resources

For more resources see our Business of AI LibGuide.

The O’Reilly learning platform and Gartner research library both provide free access to expert-created and curated information covering all the areas that will shape our future – including artificial intelligence.

Online Learning with O’Reilly

Gartner Campus Access

Book display for Mental Health Awareness week.

Resources: Mental Health Awareness Week

This week is Mental Health Awareness Week (15 – 23rd May). The theme this year is anxiety with the aim of starting a national conversation and encouraging people to share their experiences. At the Sainsbury Library, you can take a look at our new book display in the lower reading room and the posters near the library entrance. They are packed with reading and listening ideas for reducing stress and anxiety. You can also find the links to all the resources below.

Ebooks

Audiobooks

For more resources and support see our recent post on Self-help e-books.

Self-help e-books

Woman working on a digital tablet in the new normal. Image by rawpixel.com

Self-help e-books

Trinity Term is a particularly stressful time of year for our students but support is available. The University Health and Welfare team are on hand to provide a variety of resources and assistance. In addition to University services, Nightline provides a completely independent listening, support, and information service run for and by students.

From a library perspective, we feel we have a pastoral duty of care to our readers. We seek to provide a safe, welcoming space where students can achieve what they set out to achieve. The Bodleian as a whole has been carefully collecting and curating a selection of self-help books for students, staff, and any other interested users. The majority of these books are e-books, which we feel adds an element of discretion for those who wish for it. These e-books are available to view at any time of day, from any location; all you need is an internet connection and your Single Sign-On.

The full list of titles is available as a Reading List on ORLO. If you feel there are any titles or topics we may have missed, please do get in touch with our disability librarian.

FT book display in the library.

FT Business Book of the Year Display 2022

All the books on the @FT Business Book of the Year shortlist are now available in the library. You can take a look at the display in the lower reading room. In this post we highlight each book and link to the record or ebook in SOLO.

Dead in the Water: Murder and Fraud in the World’s Most Secretive Industry by @MattCampbell and @KitChellel
Written in a novelistic style, this book looks at the crimes surrounding an attack on a tanker, to uncover the realities of the global shipping industry. It is available to read online via SOLO.

Influence Empire: The Story of Tencent and China’s Tech Ambition by @luluyilun 
Influence Empire charts the rise of Tencent, the developer of WeChat and the wider Chinese tech economy.

The Rise and Fall of the Neoliberal Order: America and the World in the Free Market Era by @glgerstle
This book looks at the rise of neoliberalism since the 1970s, through to Trumpism and the reinvigorated American left. It is available to read online via SOLO.

The Power Law: Venture Capital and the Art of Disruption by @scmallaby
The Power Law looks at Silicon Valley VC firms and how they have influenced both innovation and global economics.

Disorder: Hard Times in the 21st Century by @HelenHet20 
This book looks at the overlapping geopolitical, economic, and political crises faced by Western democratic societies in the current decade. It is available to read online via SOLO.

Chip War: The Fight for the World’s Most Critical Technology by @crmiller1
Chip War is the winner of Business Book of the Year, it looks at the decades-long battle to control microchip technology and the economic and geopolitical forces that shaped this industry.

We hope you enjoy reading some of these books. If you have any ideas for other business books do contact us! You can also use the Bodleian request form to suggest a new book, e-book, database or resource.

Map The System: Resources and books

Taking part in Map The System?

We now have a selection of useful and inspiring books as requested by Map The System participants at Oxford Saïd. If you’d like to borrow any, just ask at the library enquiry desk.

We have also prepared a guide with a selection of databases and resources. For more check the Bodleian A-Z list, or contact any of the librarians.