2025 Book Recommendations

I have done a poor job of updating this list, and have not provided summary reviews as I usually do. I hope to rectify that at some point but in the meantime, here is a list to at least guide fellow book enthusiasts in the right direction.

Business, Finance and Economics

Apple in China (Patrick McGee). 5.0 stars.

Common Stocks and Uncommon Profits (Philip Fisher). 4.5 stars.

Can't Deny It ( Doug Terreson). 4.4 stars.

Breakneck (Dan Wang) 4.4 stars.

Great by Choice (Jim Collins, Morten T. Hansen). 4.3 stars.

Hardball (George Stalk, Rob Lachenaur) 4.0 stars

How to be Rich (J. Paul Getty). 4.0 stars.

Kaput (Wolfgang Munchau). 4.0 stars.

Beyond Business (John Browne). 4.2 stars

Conspiracy of Fools (Kurt Eichenwald). 4.8 stars.

Playing to Win (A.G. Lafley, Roger L. Martin). 4.9 stars.

Seoul Man (Frank Ahrens) 4.5 stars.

Turning the Flywheel (Jim Collins). 4.8 stars.

Politics, History and Current Affairs

Singapore: A Very Short History (Alvin Tan): It's not easy to write the 700-year history of a country in 170 pages but Alvin Tan makes an excellent go of it. Being most interested in post-independence Singapore, I felt that era perhaps got relatively short shrift but it's a great read all the same. 4.5 stars.

All the President's Men (Carl Bernstein & Bob Woodward). 4.5 stars.

Breaking Point (Bricker & Ibbitson). 4.4 stars.

Unit X (Raj M. Shah, Christopher Kirchhoff). 4.1 stars.

Self-Improvement

The Compass Within (Robert Glazer). 4.5 stars.

The Collapse of Parenting (4.1 stars)

Dark Horse (Todd Rose). 4.0 stars.

Fiction

Harry Potter series (J.K. Rowling). 4.8 stars.

Last Days of Night (Graham Moore): I absolutely loved this novel, which describes the race between Edison and Westinghouse to electrify America. 4.8 stars.

The Skull Mantra (Eliot Pattison). 4.3 stars.

The Aunty Lee Series (Aunty Lee's Delights, Aunty Lee's Deadly Specials, Aunty Lee's Chilled Revenge, Meddling and Murder): This murder-mystery series has been described as "No.1 Ladies Detective Agency for Singapore" and I can see why. Very pleasant, easy reads with lots of entertaining characters, especially the eponymous Aunty Lee. 3.9 stars.