It’s the weekend when all the papers have run their pre-Christmas round-up of recommendations. Here are mine: all books I read and blogged about this year, although some were published in hardback earlier than I got to them. They are listed in order of reading through 2011, and all have been reviewed on this blog (although a few are buried so deep in an archive transferred from earlier software that I’ve not yet been able to excavate them):

[amazon_link id=”0385529961″ target=”_blank” ]Griftopia[/amazon_link] – Matt Taibbi (outstanding combination of analysis and anger, originator of the ‘great vampire squid’ metaphor)

[amazon_link id=”1594134618″ target=”_blank” ]The Big Short[/amazon_link] – Michael Lewis (A perspective on how the financial crisis happened from the point of view of the few who clearly saw it coming). Review

[amazon_link id=”1846681472″ target=”_blank” ]Why the West Rules for Now[/amazon_link] – Ian Morris (magisterial history of the world and the ebb and flow of economic might)

[amazon_link id=”B005PUWRM4″ target=”_blank” ]The Dragon’s Gift[/amazon_link] – Deborah Brautigam (a balanced and well-informed survey of China’s activities in Africa) Review

[amazon_link id=”1848879849″ target=”_blank” ]The Master Switch[/amazon_link] – Tim Wu (brilliant history and assessment of the competitive dynamics of communications industries) Review

[amazon_link id=”1586487981″ target=”_blank” ]Poor Economics[/amazon_link] – Abhijit Banerjee and Esther Duflo (what we know about tackling poverty and fostering economic development) Review

[amazon_link id=”0224089021″ target=”_blank” ]Edgelands[/amazon_link] – Paul Farley and Michael Symmons Roberts (a travelogue of Britain’s urban fringes, important spaces on this island) Review

[amazon_link id=”033044736X” target=”_blank” ]Factory Girls[/amazon_link] – Lesley Chang (fantastic insight into China’s industrial and social transformation, terrific reportage) Review

[amazon_link id=”1408703300″ target=”_blank” ]Made in Britain[/amazon_link] – Evan Davis (a highly readable portrait of the state of British manufacturing, and its strengths and weaknesses). Review

[amazon_link id=”1408701529″ target=”_blank” ]Adapt[/amazon_link] – Tim Harford (enjoyable advocacy of the benefits of experimentation and failure, a terrific read) Review

[amazon_link id=”0330458078″ target=”_blank” ]Triumph of the City[/amazon_link] – Ed Glaeser (a great urban economist sets out the benefits of cities, economic, social and environmental) Review

[amazon_link id=”0525952713″ target=”_blank” ]The Great Stagnation[/amazon_link] – Tyler Cowen (too slow technological gains are to blame for unemployment). Review. To be read along with

[amazon_link id=”B005WTR4ZI” target=”_blank” ]Race Against the Machine[/amazon_link] – Erik Brynjolfsson and Andrew McAfee (too fast technological gains are to blame for unemployment) Review

[amazon_link id=”0691148422″ target=”_blank” ]Economics Evolving[/amazon_link] – Agnar Sandmo (excellent history of economic thought) Review

[amazon_link id=”1933633867″ target=”_blank” ]Debt: The First 5000 Years[/amazon_link] – David Graeber (somewhat tendentious but thought-provoking history of credit, and reflection on today’s debt crises) Review

[amazon_link id=”0091936969″ target=”_blank” ]The Fear Index[/amazon_link] – Robert Harris (pacy thriller: what happens when financial market algorithms develop a mind of their own)

[amazon_link id=”0674057759″ target=”_blank” ]Capitalist Revolutionary[/amazon_link] – Roger Backhouse and Bradley Bateman (an illuminating short history of J.M.Keynes) Review

[amazon_link id=”1846140552″ target=”_blank” ]Thinking, Fast and Slow[/amazon_link] – Daniel Kahneman (a must-read summary of the state of our knowledge about how humans take decisions, especially in economic contexts) Review

But of course if you only read one book published in 2011, I have to recommend my own [amazon_link id=”0691145180″ target=”_blank” ]The Economics of Enough: How to Run the Economy as if the Future Matters[/amazon_link]!

[amazon_image id=”0691145180″ link=”true” target=”_blank” size=”medium” ]The Economics of Enough: How to Run the Economy as If the Future Matters[/amazon_image]