Which books should you read this summer?

There are still a few weeks of summer left. So for those of you heading off for a late August vacation – or even staying in the office with one eye on the in-tray – what better way to enliven the drowsy summer hours than with an informative and improving read, as recommended by some of the brightest and best at the World Economic Forum. From climate change to modern spycraft, joyriding to economics – here are a few non-fiction works we think you’ll enjoy.

The Sixth Extinction by Elizabeth Kolbert
Klaus Schwab, Founder and Executive Chairman
This is a must-read for everyone. In a fascinating way, Elizabeth Kolbert shows us that climate change is not only a global challenge that we have to confront, but a wider biological transformation taking place in our planetary habitat. The book reads like a thriller, but will open your eyes to the wonderful ecosystem that still exists, and which we are in the process of destroying. It is a love story between man and nature – one that may end up facing imminent divorce, as events appear to lead to the loss, ultimately, of up to half of the Earth’s living species.

I approached the book with a natural caution for doom-like predictions, but found myself intrigued. It makes good reading for the summer months: entertaining and informative, and also deeply reflective about the future of humanity and our own responsibility towards safeguarding nature.

Joyriding in Riyadh by Pascal Ménoret
Margareta Drzeniek, Lead Economist
For anyone who, like me, visited Saudi Arabia and wondered how its society functions, this is a welcome and eye-opening book. The author, French anthropologist Pascal Ménoret, takes half a step into Saudi society (half a step because he always remains a Westerner and outside observer). From his interactions with young Saudi lower and middle-class men in Riyadh, he gives the reader a view of the role of men in the country. The result is a vivid, respectful account of the “coming of modern age” in today’s Saudi Arabia, set against the backdrop of joyriding, the dangerous and sometimes lethal pastime of about 10% of Saudi men.

It is striking to read about a society that appears so uniform from the outside but is so deeply fragmented along so many faultiness – modernism versus tradition, urban communities v rural, religious extremism v secular traditions, men v women. Small decisions taken in recent history, often delegated to foreign experts, have led to a highly fragile society today.

The New Spymasters by Stephen Grey
Adrian Monck, Head of Public Engagement
Spy thrillers make popular vacation reading, but if you want your espionage real, it is hard to beat Stephen Grey’s The New Spymasters. In a world of electronic surveillance and algorithmic threat assessments there is still a place for human intelligence, and Grey charts its story from the very beginnings of the 20th century.

The historical cliches of colourful agents and oddballs are all there, but this account goes far deeper. It is not afraid to ask the bigger questions about the value of secretly acquired information and the price paid for acquiring it, in breaches of trust between allies and the toll on individual conscience itself.

Assumptions are challenged too (Grey says that Britain’s MI6 has lost no serving officers since the Second World War) and in the course of what appear to be well-sourced chapters moving up to the world of today, it shows how much organizational culture, preferences and resourcing drive differences between agencies and their methods. The cocktail of bravado, competence, incompetence, and moral ambiguity leaves the reader shaken rather than stirred.

(Disclosure: the author and reviewers are friends, but share many differences of opinion)

Poor Economics: A Radical Rethinking of the Way to Fight Global Poverty
by Abhijit V Banerjee and Esther Duflo
Jennifer Blanke, Chief Economist
This is not a very new book since it came out a few years ago, but it has become one of my favourite classics in development. It is well worth the read for those with an interest in what makes the development process tick. The authors explain, through compelling analysis backed up by their many randomized trials in the field and great examples, why development policy has failed to alleviate poverty over the years. This is because we simply do not understand how poor people make decisions and choices. There’s an illuminating argument about why there are so many half-built houses in developing countries, for example – because the difficulty of opening a bank account ends up forcing the poor to save brick by brick. As the authors say themselves, “the battle against poverty can be won, but it will take patience, careful thinking and a willingness to learn from evidence”.

The God Species: How the Planet Can Survive the Age of Humans
by Mark Lynas
Dominic Waughray, Head of Environmental Initiatives

When Mark Lynas, an award-winning environmental journalist, saw a presentation on planetary boundaries by Professor Johan Rockstrom, he was so struck by it he wrote this excellent book – The God Species. Lynas takes each planetary boundary issue in turn and explores how we as a species are pushing the environmental system to the brink in this, the age of the Anthropocene.

It’s a terrific, easy-to-digest read with loads of interesting factoids. For anyone who wants a primer on the state of our global environment, and why these things matter so fundamentally, I couldn’t recommend it enough. If I can get my sceptical brother to read it, which he did, I can surely convince you to go take a look.

For fellow geeks, the nine planetary boundaries are: climate change, biodiversity loss, bio-geochemical cycles (such as nitrogen and phosphorous), ocean acidification, water resources, land use, ozone depletion, atmospheric particulate pollution, and chemical pollution. Of these, the latest thinking is that the first three have already passed the planet’s safe limit, the next four haven’t but are fast on their way, and the last two have not yet been quantified.

For super geeks, check out former Oxfam policy analyst Kate Raworth’s blog on Doughnut Economics. Raworth sees the planetary boundaries as the upper limit for environmentally sustainable growth, and universal social safety nets as the floor below which no one should fall. Growth, she argues, should be maximized between these two boundaries.

Image: Books that make up part of an auction lot at Bloomsbury Auctions in London February 26, 2008. REUTERS/Luke MacGregor