The Big Con: How the Consulting Industry Weakens our Businesses, Infantilizes our Governments and Warps our Economies by Mariana Mazzucato & Rosie Collington, The Crisis of Democratic Capitalism by Martin Wolf and End Times: Elites, Counter-Elites and the Path of Political disintegration by Peter Turchin. Photos / Supplied
The Big Con: How the Consulting Industry Weakens our Businesses, Infantilizes our Governments and Warps our Economies by Mariana Mazzucato & Rosie Collington, The Crisis of Democratic Capitalism by Martin Wolf and End Times: Elites, Counter-Elites and the Path of Political disintegration by Peter Turchin. Photos / Supplied
The Big Con: How the Consulting Industry Weakens our Businesses, Infantilizes our Governments and Warps our Economies
by Mariana Mazzucato & Rosie Collington (Allen Lane)
A readable book that argues management consultancies in the publicsector have hollowed out state capacity, retarded innovation, compromised accountability and often don’t deliver, while providing a veneer of authority and draining the public purse.
The Crisis of Democratic Capitalism
by Martin Wolf (Allen Lane)
A vigorous survey by the distinguished financial journalist that argues democracy and capitalism need each other to survive and to continue to produce successful and free societies, blaming institutional elites, excess corporate profits and widening economic gaps.
The Big Con: How the Consulting Industry Weakens our Businesses, Infantilizes our Governments and Warps our Economies by Mariana Mazzucato & Rosie Collington, The Crisis of Democratic Capitalism by Martin Wolf and End Times: Elites, Counter-Elites and the Path of Political disintegration by Peter Turchin. Photos / Supplied
End Times: Elites, Counter-Elites and the Path of Political disintegration
by Peter Turchin (Allen Lane)
An expert in the study of how statistical patterns in historical data might predict future instabilities offers compelling evidence suggesting growing inequality, huge public debt and an overproduction of elites could lead to civil war or systemic collapse – and how societies have dodged them.
Rivets, Trivets and Galvanised Buckets: Life in the Village Hardware Shop
by Tom Fort (Headline)
Charming, thoughtful tale of a small hardware shop near Reading and its treasures. Retired BBC journalist Fort writes about how he and his daughter-in-law revived the shop, while surviving lockdown and dealing with eccentric customers.
Compelling tour of England’s seaside resorts, a love letter to the likes of “donkey rides, Punch and Judy … kiss-me-quick hats, and lettered rock”, though also a wider social commentary on the deprivation and inequality she finds.
Rivets, Trivets and Galvanised Buckets: Life in the Village Hardware Shop by Tom Fort, The Seaside: England’s Love Affair
by Madeleine Bunting and Time to Think: The Inside Story of the Collapse of the Tavistock’s Gender Service for Children by Hannah Barnes. Photos / Supplied
Time to Think: The Inside Story of the Collapse of the Tavistock’s Gender Service for Children
by Hannah Barnes (Swift Press)
Shortlisted for the Baillie Gifford Prize for Non Fiction is former BBC journalist Hannah Barnes’ deeply reported investigation of failures at the UK’s Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation gender identity development service.
Be in to win 10 books
For a chance to be the lucky winner of 10 books, email your name and address to listenergiveaways@aremedia.co.nz with ‘Best Books’ in the subject line by midday on December 1. We’ll be running The Year in Books throughout the next week so look out for hot picks for lovers of fiction and non-fiction stories alike.
The 100 Best Books was compiled with the invaluable assistance of Chris Baskett, Helena Brow, Catherine Chidgey, Sue Copsey, Kiran Dass, Nik Dirga, Greg Dixon, Elisabeth Easther, Brigid Feehan, Charlotte Grimshaw, Kirsty Gunn, Linda Herrick, David Hill, Stephanie Johnson, Anne Kennedy, Elizabeth Kerr, Rachael King, Graeme Lay, Eileen Merriman, Chris Moore, Kelly Ana Morey, Emma Neale, Jenny Nicholls, Jeremy Rees, Sue Reidy, Catherine Robertson, Anna Rogers, Josie Shapiro, Tina Shaw, Craig Sisterson, Elizabeth Smither, Gill South, Rebecca Styles, Fiona Sussman, Andrew Paul Wood and others.