I read business books so you can skip the ones that won’t help you.
I’ve spent the better part of a decade in procurement — sourcing suppliers across Latin America and Asia for a Miami distributor, then running purchasing and a small team in Rio. Before that, five years in the Brazilian Navy. Negotiation, for me, is a Tuesday, not a chapter.
What this site does differently
Most reading lists rank by reputation. The problem is that reputation tells you a book sold well, not that it will change anything for you, this quarter, in the job you actually have.
So every recommendation here answers three questions instead of one:
- Who is this for? Not “managers” — a situation. The person who freezes when the other side names a number first.
- Who should skip it? Every review says who a book is for. Almost none say who would waste their money. That paragraph is the one that makes the rest believable.
- What does it cost you? Page count and honest reading time. Six hours is six hours whether the book is famous or not.
How the recommendations are made
I keep a catalogue of the books I’ve read and can speak to. When I write about a topic, the picks come from that catalogue — never from a bestseller list I haven’t opened. If I don’t have enough books on a subject to make an honest list, I don’t publish a list about it.
Where a book’s page count, publisher or publication year appears on this site, it comes from library records rather than marketing copy. If a number isn’t verifiable, it isn’t printed.
How this site makes money
Links to books are affiliate links. If you buy through one, I earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. The site also runs display advertising.
Neither changes what gets recommended. The honest version of that promise is structural, not a pledge: the books I recommend pay roughly the same commission whatever I say about them, so there is nothing to gain from praising a bad one — and a reader who buys a book I oversold does not come back.
Talk to me
Disagree with a pick? Think I got a book wrong? That’s the most useful email I can get. The contact page is here.