There is no shortage of interest in finance books. Sales of business and economics print books reached a 10-year high, accounting for a quarter of all nonfiction unit volume and realized a 10% raise from 2021, according to the market research firm the NPD Group. Business is the second-highest category in print publishing after books about religion. This large, complex print category has 100 categories and 200 sub-categories.

To help you sort through these offerings, we’ve put together a list of the best—everything from a biography, how-to’s on managing money and investments, a lively reference book about cryptocurrency, policies that impact economics, scandals and personalities laid bare, and the thinking behind decision-making in the stock market and other areas, as well as the all-time best book on negotiating. These books, written by authors of diverse backgrounds, offer the most comprehensive picture and the freshest insights to provide a broad perspective on the economy in these complicated and high-risk times and will help you make better financial choices.

1- The Inside Story of Instagram


Sarah Frier's No Filter: The Inside Instagram Story. It ranks as the best comprehensive book in the list of beautiful financial books. The title doesn't do the book justice, as it is much more than a book about two smart men who create a new app and then sell it on Facebook.

In her well-written, well-reported prose, Frier, Bloomberg's editor in charge of covering Big Tech, addresses the importance of social media — how it can change the outcome of elections, and affect the self-esteem and behavior of followers who don't. . Having a seemingly perfect life for celebrities, influencers, and, in general, harming society, when he claims to be doing the opposite. That also takes us inside Facebook, particularly in describing its co-founder Mark Zuckerberg, described by Instagram co-founder Kevin Systrom as the strategic thinker everyone has met. A gripping read.

“If Facebook is about friendships, and Twitter is about opinions, Instagram is about experiences — anyone can care about anyone’s visual experiences, anywhere in the world,” Freer wrote in her story about app envy among Silicon Valley leaders. In 2010, Instagram founders Mike Krieger and Systrom were tackling the scale of their online creation, a photo and video social media app that Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg led to acquire for $1 billion two years later.

Systrom continued to operate after the sale and tried to maintain the app's initial goal of creating a beautiful photo station, but clashed with Zuckerberg, who wanted to develop Instagram, which prevented him from blackouting the parent. The book quotes an unnamed former Instagram CEO: "Facebook was like an older sister who wants to dress you up for a party, but doesn't want you to be prettier than her." Instagram appears poorly too, with its photos of women "looking" prompting some of his followers to request plastic surgery, and opioids have been sold across his site for several years.

Silicon Valley's business has been accurately reported, thanks to Frier's extensive interviews with venture capitalists, tech executives, influencers and celebrities on Instagram. Awards No Filter: Named Best Business Book of 2020 by the Financial Times and McKinsey Business Book, and garnered equal attention from Fortune and The Economist, Inc. and NPR.

2- Rich Dad Poor Dad


As any investor knows, it's not about how much money you make, but how much you keep - the main assumption of Rich Dad Poor Dad, now published in the 20th Anniversary Edition. This conversational book—in which financial education is essential to acquiring wealth—cits lessons from “rich daddy,” the father of a friend who grew up from humble beginnings to creating a profitable, capitalist business, and “poor dad” Robert T. Kiyosaki's own father, who was a well-educated government employee throughout his working life and a socialist.

It's clear that Kiyosaki took the lessons of "rich dad" very seriously in co-writing what, 25 years later, is still considered one of the most important personal finance books. Chapter 2 questions the "American Dream" of home ownership by illustrating Kiyosaki's controversial argument that owning a home is a financial obligation, not an asset, because paying for and maintaining it is a drain on financial resources, while Chapter 4 delves into the history of taxation and corporate power. He says that financial education means a broad understanding of accounting and investment and knowledge of markets and law.

Each chapter ends with a 'study session', which reviews the material and asks questions. Rich Dad spent nearly seven years on the New York Times bestseller list, and is one of the first self-published books to get there. “It [provides] useful information for a generation about to make important financial decisions,” says Eric Estevez, Investopedia's Financial Review Board member and independent insurance broker. Robert has a proven track record of breaking down complex financial concepts into simple explanations.

3- The Basics of Bitcoins and Blockchains


You can judge this book by its cover because it delivers on its title, resulting in a comprehensive, lively must-have reference book on cryptocurrencies. Antony Lewis, a former technologist at Credit Suisse in Singapore and London, left banking to join the startup iBit, where clients buy and sell Bitcoins, and has never looked back.

His nine-chapter book starts with defining money—followed by definitions of digital money, cryptography, cryptocurrencies, digital tokens, and blockchains—and illustrates points with pictures, graphs, tables, pie charts, and infographics. He suggests, for example, that Bitcoin be called an “electronic asset” because “the word currency often sidetracks people when they are trying to understand Bitcoin. They get caught up trying to understand aspects of conventional currencies which do not apply to Bitcoin, which backs it (nothing) and who sets the interest rates (there is none)."

Investopedia’s Vinamrata Chaturvedi, senior editor overseeing blockchain and cryptocurrency, says this about the book: “There are many questions we have when thinking about blockchain. This book answers all of them. It explains how blockchain technology works and why cryptocurrencies are the future of money.”

Lewis freely admits that he “loves the industry” of crypto assets, Bitcoins, and blockchains, yet he also cautions about the very real dangers to investors. In a section called “Scams,” he lays out the swindles of Ponzi schemes, exit and fake scams, Pump & Dumps, scam initial coin offerings (ICOs), spoof ICOs, scam mining schemes, and fake (digital) wallets. “People have made and lost fortunes trading cryptocurrencies and investing in ICOs, but there are many risks,” he writes. “If you do decide to get involved, be careful and do a lot of research before committing your money.”

4- A Random Walk Down Wall Street


Burton G. Malkiel is an economics professor, a former director at Vanguard, and a former dean of the Yale School of Management, yet his most recognizable contribution to finance is his Random Walk book, originally published in 1973 and, as of 2019, in its twelfth edition. If you wait for Jan. 3, 2023, you can get the 50th anniversary edition in a green, not yellow, cover, the one pictured above.

“A random walk is one in which future steps or directions cannot be predicted on the basis of past history,” writes Malkiel. “When the term is applied to the stock market, it means that short-run changes in stock prices are unpredictable.” Sound familiar?

Amy Drury, a member of Investopedia’s Financial Review Board, and CEO and founder of the financial-training company OnPoint Learning, who recommended the book, had this to say, “I re-read this recently and found that it was a pretty comprehensive overview about finance and investing. It is very dense, so maybe not one to take to the beach, but it is great as a reference book to dip into on specific topics.”

5- What to Do With Your Money When Crisis Hits


There are two ways to read Michelle Singletary’s personal finance book, and both are right: You can tackle it from start to finish or dive into the topics that are the most pressing first and then read the rest. In her Survival Guide—an outgrowth of her nationally syndicated personal finance column, “The Color of Money,” for The Washington Post—Singletary covers how to manage money and deal with crises, using a question-and-answer format, which delivers authoritative, straightforward, and actionable answers.

When money is tight, Singletary advises triaging: assessing what must be paid for, such as having food on the table, and dealing with remaining creditors directly by working out payment plans. What’s especially impressive about her book is that it serves a wide range of readers—those who enjoy hefty incomes and live beyond their means, rank newcomers to financial self-care, and everyone in between.

Its “Resources” chapter lists organizations, companies, and government agencies that offer information and, as needed, possible relief for the consumer. “Very timely, relevant, practical and helpful” is how Marguerita M. Cheng, CEO of Blue Ocean Global Wealth, describes the book.