5 Business Books to Pick Up This Summer

Time management, navigating clueless colleagues and the real reason for the success of Amazon, Apple, Google and Facebook are just a few of the topics covered.

Michelle Graff michelle.graff@nationaljeweler.com

New York--Time management, navigating clueless colleagues and the real reason for the success of Amazon, Apple, Google and Facebook are just a few of the topics covered.

1. Off the Clock: Feel Less Busy While Getting More Done
By Laura Vanderkam

Vanderkam shares the stories of individuals who have figured out how to make time work for them in order to teach readers how to stay calm on busy days—meaning how to fight that feeling of, “I’m so busy, I don’t know where to start”—and give them tools to get more done without feeling stressed.

She is the author of a number of time management and productivity books and delivered a TED Talk on the same subject in 2016, “How to Gain Control of Your Free Time.”

2. Alone Time: Four Cities, Four Seasons and the Pleasures of Solitude
By Stephanie Rosenbloom

Rosenbloom uses a blend of on-the-ground reporting, recounting others’ experiences and interviews with psychologists and sociologists who have studied happiness and solitude to examine how being alone can spark creativity and learning, teach self-reliance and give people the ability to experiment and possibly change.

This book is divided into four separate parts, each of which is set in a different city in a different season: Paris, Istanbul, Florence and New York.

3. Ask a Manager: How to Navigate Clueless Colleagues, Lunch-Stealing Bosses, and the Rest of Your Life at Work
By Alison Green

Green created the “Ask a Manager” website and is the work advice columnist for New York magazine.

Her book is a guide to navigating 200 situations one might encounter in the workplace, including: what to do when you say something negative in an email and then press “reply all;” your boss seems unhappy with your work; or you drank too much at the company holiday party.

4. The Four: The Hidden DNA of Amazon, Apple, Facebook and Google
By Scott Galloway

In his book, Galloway, a marketing professor at New York University’s School of Business, looks at what has made these four companies the most influential companies on Earth, debunking the myths about what led to their success.

He also examines why the stock market is able to give these four companies more leeway and if any company is in a position to challenge them as they race to become the first trillion-dollar companies in the world.

5. Jack of Diamonds
By Neil Behrmann

“Jack of Diamonds” is the latest installment in the Jack

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Miner series by Behrmann, a U.K.-based author who has written articles on diamonds for numerous publications including The Wall Street Journal.

The plot is this: Jack is released early from prison to help uncover the murder of a Russian mine manager, with an oligarch as the prime suspect. Jack changes his identity and begins to penetrate the billionaire’s business web, entering a murky underworld of diamond smuggling and mining. His trail leads the discovery of diamonds on a volcanic island and a mining boom follows.

Michelle Graffis the editor-in-chief at National Jeweler, directing the publication’s coverage both online and in print.