The 2018 800-CEO-READ Business Book Awards Longlist

We received over 600 submissions to our annual business book awards this year. It was intellectually invigorating, and incredibly challenging, making our way through that veritable mountain of books. If you can possibly do something similar to that as a company, we'd highly recommend it. The immersion into and exchange of ideas, and literal opening up of different perspectives as we open up those books, has caused us—as it does every year—to reflect on our own business in productive and powerful ways.

Discussing the books, our General Manager Sally Haldorson stated that:

This year’s longlist represents a rich diversity of authors and publishers that push the boundaries of the genre, framing ‘business’ as less transactional and more holistically inclusive of psychology, sociology, economics, politics, and the humanities. As we try to make sense of this world in transition, these forty books ensure we consider the broadest range of viewpoints as we search for solutions.

Our CEO Rebecca Schwartz added:

Rejecting the immediate for the immersive is, in fact, a better way to gain an understanding of our current moment, to gain perspective and make meaning of it all. For in the act of giving over to someone else’s story, be it through literature or nonfiction, we can focus less on the latest outrage and more on the humanity between the covers in our hands.

The books of 2018 have been as helpful in challenging business at this inflection point in our history as they have in championing new approaches and ideas to move it forward. The following forty books offer a great balance of both approaches.

In the LEADERSHIP & STRATEGY category:

• Clarity First: How Smart Leaders and Organizations Achieve Outstanding Performance by Karen Martin, McGraw-Hill Education
• Dare to Lead: Brave Work. Tough Conversations. Whole Hearts. by Brené Brown, Random House
• Farsighted: How We Make the Decisions That Matter the Most by Steven Johnson, Riverhead Books
• Growth IQ: Get Smarter About the Choices That Will Make or Break Your Business by Tiffani Bova, Portfolio
• This Is Day One: A Practical Guide to Leadership That Matters by Drew Dudley, Hachette Books

In the MANAGEMENT & WORKPLACE CULTURE category:

• Dream Teams: Working Together Without Falling Apart by Shane Snow, Portfolio
• Dying for a Paycheck: How Modern Management Harms Employee Health and Company Performance—and What We Can Do About It by Jeffrey Pfeffer, Harper Business
• The Fearless Organization: Creating Psychological Safety in the Workplace for Learning, Innovation, and Growth by Amy C. Edmondson, Wiley
• It Doesn't Have to Be Crazy at Work by Jason Fried & David Heinemeier Hansson, Harper Business
• That's What She Said: What Men Need to Know (and Women Need to Tell Them) About Working Together by Joanne Lipman, William Morrow

In the MARKETING & SALES category:

• Fusion: How Integrating Brand and Culture Powers the World's Greatest Companies by Denise Lee Yohn, Nicholas Brealey
• The Snowball System: How to Win More Business and Turn Clients into Raving Fans by Mo Bunnell, PublicAffairs
• Story Driven: You Don't Need to Compete When You Know Who You Are by Bernadette Jiwa, Perceptive Press
• Subscribed: Why the Subscription Model Will Be Your Company's Future—and What to Do About It by Tien Tzuo with Gabe Weisert, Portfolio
• This Is Marketing: You Can't Be Seen Until You Learn to See by Seth Godin, Portfolio

In the INNOVATION & CREATIVITY category:

• Creative Quest by Questlove, Ecco
• Elastic: Flexible Thinking in a Time of Change by Leonard Mlodinow, Pantheon Books
• Leapfrog: The New Revolution for Women Entrepreneurs by Nathalie Molina Niño with Sara Grace, TarcherPerigee
• Mismatch: How Inclusion Shapes Design by Kat Holmes, MIT Press
• Unsafe Thinking: How to Be Nimble and Bold When You Need It Most by Jonah Sachs, Da Capo Lifelong Books

In the PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT & HUMAN BEHAVIOR category:

• The Art of Gathering: How We Meet and Why It Matters by Priya Parker, Riverhead Books
• Failing Up: How to Take Risks, Aim Higher, and Never Stop Learning by Leslie Odom, Jr., Feiwel & Friends
• In Praise of Wasting Time by Alan Lightman, TED Books
• So You Want to Talk About Race by Ijeoma Oluo, Seal Press
• When: The Scientific Secrets of Perfect Timing by Daniel H. Pink, Riverhead Books

In the CURRENT EVENTS & PUBLIC AFFAIRS category:

• Brotopia: Breaking Up the Boys' Club of Silicon Valley by Emily Chang, Portfolio
• Gigged: The End of the Job and the Future of Work by Sarah Kessler, St. Martin’s Press
• The Pan-Industrial Revolution: How New Manufacturing Titans Will Transform the World by Richard D'Aveni, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
• Silicon City: San Francisco in the Long Shadow of the Valley by Cary McClelland, W.W. Norton & Company
• Silicon States: The Power and Politics of Big Tech and What It Means for Our Future by Lucie Greene, Counterpoint

In the NARRATIVE & BIOGRAPHY category:

• American Prison: A Reporter's Undercover Journey into the Business of Punishment by Shane Bauer, Penguin Press
• Dopesick: Dealers, Doctors, and the Drug Company that Addicted America by Beth Macy, Little, Brown and Company
• Heartland: A Memoir of Working Hard and Being Broke in the Richest Country on Earth by Sarah Smarsh, Scribner
• The Kings of Big Spring: God, Oil, and One Family's Search for the American Dream by Bryan Mealer, Flatiron Books
• Temp: How American Work, American Business, and the American Dream Became Temporary by Louis Hyman, Viking

And, in the BIG IDEAS & NEW PERSPECTIVES category:

• 21 Lessons for the 21st Century by Yuval Noah Harari, Spiegel & Grau
• Give People Money: How a Universal Basic Income Would End Poverty, Revolutionize Work, and Remake the World by Annie Lowrey, Crown
• The Job: Work and Its Future in a Time of Radical Change by Ellen Ruppel Shell, Currency
• New Power: How Power Works in Our Hyperconnected World—And How to Make It Work for You by Jeremy Heimans & Henry Timms, Doubleday
• Winners Take All: The Elite Charade of Changing the World by Anand Giridharadas, Knopf

We will be announcing the winners of each of these eight categories on December 4th. Those eight category winners will make up the shortlist for the overall winner, the 800-CEO-READ Business Books of the Year. The winner will be announced at an event on January 17th in New York City, where we will also be celebrating the fifth Annual Jack Covert Award for Contribution to the Business Book Industry.   

Stay tuned here for both of those announcements.