Stieg Larsson's Millennium Trilogy, of which I'm a big fan, isn't strictly about economics. But not only does it have a business journalist as hero, the third volume (The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest, a Christmas present) is all about governance. There could hardly be a hotter topic in economics. The book is fiction not fact so I assume it exaggerates the vulnerability of Sweden's democracy to rogue secret policemen. On the other hand, all the western democracies have seen erosions of civil liberties thanks to the threat of terror attacks, so it's useful to be reminded that democracy is a constant process rather than a permanent state. It's also a great testament to a thriller that it can keep the reader turning the page when the heroine is immobilized and isolated in a hospital bed for much of the book.

The other aspect I really appreciated is the author's feminism. Remember feminism? Women of my age will recall the heady days of the late 1970s when the momentum towards not only equal rights but equal outcomes seemed unstoppable. Not only did it grind to a halt, but the attainments and status of women have gone into reverse in the noughties. The economics profession has always been dire in this regard, and I haven't seen any improvement. Women have been more or less purged from the City, from the Cabinet and senior political ranks, have gained no ground in the boardrooms of big companies. This despite a compelling case that diversity in the conventional politically correct sense – women and men, people of different ages, races and cultural backgrounds – strengthens organisations. (See Scott Page's The Difference, a brilliant book on this subject.) There are next to no senior women to be seen in the papers or on the news, so no role models. Any women who gain power and prominence tend to be subjected to nasty, sexist comments in the media.

So I like an author who's a feminist. And although Larsson's heroine, Lisbeth Salander, is anti-social and frankly not very nice, I adore her. She's an expert computer hacker, adept at martial arts, mathematically gifted and tough and stroppy as anything. What's not to like?