Freezing Order. A true story of money laundering, murder, and surviving Vladimir Putin’s wrath. Bill Browder. 2022 ISBN 97819821533335. A truly frightening book. The author was a hedge fund manager working Russia when like so many others, Putin wrenched his investments and funds away through illegal means. The author documents all this and more thefts by Putin and his allies in Russia. He also shows the trail of murders of those who defied Putin that followed. The author further documents the trail of Putin and crony assets all over the world. Browder further got to Putin through helping facilitate asset seizure legislation in most of the free world that threatens many Putin and oligarchs’ assets. Putin reacts with characteristic disinformation and bogus “crimes’ by Browder at every opportunity – going beyond harassment, character assignation and then physical threats. Browder does a reasonable dive into the links between Putin and Trump, which is further evidence of joint malfeasance. You come away with the realization that Russia is controlled by thieves on a massive scale. I gained sympathy for the those resisting Putin and the average Russian.

The Escape Artist. The man who broke out of Auschwitz to warn the world. Jonathan Freedland. 2022. ISBN 9781529369076. The story of Rudolf Vrba ( Walter Rosenberg) who along with his partner Fred Wetzler were successful at escaping Auschwitz and found their way to the Jewish underground in Slovakia to get the story out. The description of life, and death, at Auschwitz is thorough, detailed and enough to make your blood boil. Then you have Vrbo’s life after he escaped and tried to get the story out as they had found out that The Nazi’s were preparing to exterminate all the Jews in Hungary. He was shaped by his years in the camps and afterward. Really gripping book.

Madam Secretary. Madeleine Albright. 2013. ISBN 9780062265470. What a testament to a ground breaking woman. First woman US ambassador to the UN ( Clinton), first woman US Secretary of State (Clinton). Albright has been through it all. It’s a full autobiography that reads well, and spares no details. She came from a war wrought in Europe and settled in the US at a young age. My takeaway is her descriptions of diplomacy and how the UN can effect change in countries through assistance as well as sanctions. And it takes a long long time. Eg Milosevich in Serbia. So, there is room for optimism but a requirement for patience. Worthwhile reading as you learn a lot about Europe, the Middle East and the US.

The Undoing Project. A friendship that changed our minds. Michael Lewis. 2017. ISBN 978039324594. A story by the author of Moneyball. The story of the work by Daniel Kahneman & Amos Tversky. These two genius psychologists have affected so much of our daily decisions by relating psychology to economics and dealing with real situations. For example, they discovered that our fear of loss is so much larger than then the appreciation of gain. Something used by every successful sales person and politician. The work (and there is a lot of it) now permeates so much of our perceptions of the world and how items are framed to us. Man is fallible and not purely rational and these two found numerous insights into our fallibility. Prior to these two, economists were stuck in believing in the rational man. Making this shift took a long time. After Tversky passed away, Kahneman went on to so any plaudits ( Nobel Prize) and recognition. Lewis does a great job of showing us their humanness and their powerful synergy with the work they did together. Every sales manager needs to read this one.

Pickup the Phone and Sell. How proactive calls to customers and prospects can double your sales. Alex Goldfayn. 2022. A very useful boon for today’s SDRs. This book is full of tactics and tips for outbound selling. Also, it has a lot of motivational material for sales managers to use with their teams. I found it easy but detailed enough to read that the material can be immediately useful. His website goldfayn.com has good free resources for the sales teams. You need this on your shelf to read through the year.

The Billion Dollar Spy. David E. Hoffman,. 2015.ISBN 9780385537605. Fascinating true story about a highly placed Russian engineer who gave the US the information about Russian advances in radar and airborne systems during the ’90s. This saved the US billions in expenditures on deterrents that would not work and directed US advances to the point that they were singularly superior in the air vs the Russian MIGs and Supelovs. The CIA was beset with cautious leaders during the Clinton years so this individual was initially stymied by indecisions. At great risk to himself, he provided 100s of classified documents to CIA. Eventually he was betrayed by a washed-out CIA agent Holmes and Aimes the Russian spy. Well written.