Here is the New York Times Hardcover Business Books Best Sellers List for November, 2011.  The new Steve Jobs biography by Walter Isaacson made the immediate jump to number 1, and it is also number 1 on the Nonfiction list.  For most of the past week, it has been #s 1, 2, and 3, with its different editions, on the Amazon Business Best Sellers list (updated hourly).

As I usually remind you, the New York Times list is a once a month list, so that it seems to be a more accurate look at the best sellers for a full month.  Most other lists are compiled weekly.  I prefer the monthly look.

At the First Friday Book Synopsis, we have presented synopses of #4, Great by Choice; #10, Switch; #12, Delivering Happiness; and # 13, How.  I have also presented synopses of #2, Boomerang, and # 3, That Used to Be Us, for a private client.

I think that Boomerang is a “must read” to get a look at the narrative underlying the current financial climate and crisis.  It looks especially at:  Iceland, Ireland, Greece, Germany, and California.  This is Michael Lewis at his story-telling best.

And I think it is interesting that How has made a reappearance.  I presented this at the First Friday Book Synopsis back in the summer of 2007, shortly after its initial release.  It was recently re-released in an updated version.  I think we are “floundering” a little in the meaning and ethics realm, and the subtitle points to its value:  How:  Why How We Do Anything Means Everything…in Business (and in Life).  It might be a good choice for you to read (or re-read).

I will be presenting a synopsis of #1, the Isaacson Steve Jobs book, at the January First Friday Book Synopsis.  And I suspect I will tackle #6, Thinking, Fast and Slow, by Daniel Kahneman, fairly early in 2012.

Here’s the November New York Times list.

1	STEVE JOBS, by Walter Isaacson. (Simon & Schuster, $35.)
2	BOOMERANG, by Michael Lewis. (Norton, $25.95.)
3	THAT USED TO BE US, by Thomas L. Friedman and Michael Mandelbaum. (Farrar, Straus & Giroux, $28.)
4	GREAT BY CHOICE, by Jim Collins and Morten T. Hansen. (Harper Business/HarperCollins, $29.99.)
5	ENTRELEADERSHIP, by Dave Ramsey. (Howard, $26.)
6	THINKING, FAST AND SLOW, by Daniel Kahneman. (Farrar, Straus & Giroux, $30.)
7	ULTIMATE QUESTION 2. 0, by Fred Reichheld with Rob Markey. (Harvard Business, $27.95.)
8	PRICE OF CIVILIZATION, by Jeffrey D. Sachs. (Random House, $27.)
9	LEAN STARTUP, by Eric Ries. (Crown Business, $26.)
10	SWITCH, by Chip Heath and Dan Heath. (Broadway Business, $26.)
11	IT’S YOUR BIZ, by Susan Wilson Solovic and Ellen R. Kadin. (Amacom, $22.95.)
12	DELIVERING HAPPINESS, by Tony Hsieh. (Business Plus, $23.99.)
13	HOW, by Dov Seidman. (Wiley, $27.95.)
14	START SOMETHING THAT MATTERS, by Blake Mycoskie. (Spiegel & Grau, $22.).
15	GREAT CRASH AHEAD, by Harry S. Dent, Jr. with Rodney Johnson. (Free Press, $27.)

 

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Many of these synopses, with audio + handout, are available for purchase at our companion web site, 15minutebusinessbooks.com.  Great by Choice should be added this week, and a few others (the ones that I prepared and presented for private clients) will be added in coming weeks.