The FT just announced that [amazon_link id=”059307047X” target=”_blank” ]The Everything Store[/amazon_link] by Brad Stone won its business book of the year competition. Unusually, I’ve not read any of the shortlist this year, apart from half of [amazon_link id=”0753541629″ target=”_blank” ]Lean In[/amazon_link] (a short book), as it was lying around an office where I was waiting for a meeting. The first half was disappointing – it made a perfectly reasonable point about women needing to do a bit of self-promotion as the men around aren’t going to do it for them. But it didn’t even seem to touch – even in the second half – on the institutional and societal barriers to women’s status and income; it is all about the individual.

[amazon_image id=”059307047X” link=”true” target=”_blank” size=”medium” ]The Everything Store[/amazon_image]

Anyway, I’ll pick up some of the other short-listed titles when they’re out in paperback. [amazon_link id=”1848547927″ target=”_blank” ]Big Data [/amazon_link]appeals, as do [amazon_link id=”0755362683″ target=”_blank” ]The Alchemists[/amazon_link] (about central banks) and [amazon_link id=”1471113558″ target=”_blank” ]Making It Happen[/amazon_link] (about RBS).

Although I don’t read as many business as economics books, a few of them are truly ripping yarns – it has to be said that the majority are extremely dull. My husband just read, and strongly recommends [amazon_link id=”1444761978″ target=”_blank” ]Hatching Twitter[/amazon_link] by Nick Bilton. One of my all-time favourites is Robert Cringley’s [amazon_link id=”0140258264″ target=”_blank” ]Accidental Empires[/amazon_link]. My introduction to the oeuvre was Alfred Sloan’s classic [amazon_link id=”0385042353″ target=”_blank” ]My Years With General Motors[/amazon_link]  – a little different as it’s a business autobiography rather than a biography by a more or less objective outsider, but I think it definitely stands the test of time, and it was the first time I realised that there could be good, interesting books about business.

[amazon_image id=”1444761978″ link=”true” target=”_blank” size=”medium” ]Hatching Twitter[/amazon_image]