“The man who does not read has no advantage over the man who cannot read.” - Mark Twain

Summer is here, so this month I am taking a break from my usual financial commentary to share my annual reading list. Lately, I have had more than enough fiction from the overly optimistic prospectuses of companies behind recent initial public offerings, when their shares debut on the stock market. So once again, we will focus on nonfiction. Each of these books offers a useful lesson in leadership, courage, or finance.

Think Like a Horse

Grant Golliher is a veteran cowboy and horse whisperer who has written an engaging book about leadership, drawn from his years on the ranch. After training thousands of horses, many of them traumatized or abused, he developed a practical understanding of trust, discipline, and communication. He now brings those same lessons to Fortune 500 executives, professional athletes, and even Supreme Court justices who visit his Wyoming ranch each year.

Excerpt: “Make the right thing easy and the wrong thing difficult. Honour the slightest try and the smallest change. Be slow to take and quick to give. Always quit on a good note.”

Hero of the Empire

I love Winston Churchill, and this book brings to life an episode that is often treated as a brief footnote in his biographies, though for most people it would be the story of a lifetime.

After retiring from the military, Churchill traveled to South Africa in 1899 as a reporter covering the Boer War. He arrived with a valet and crates of vintage wine, which tells you something about his style. While riding on a train with British troops, he was captured in an ambush by Boer forces. He later made a daring escape from a South African prisoner of war camp in an episode that helped launch his political career and feels more like something out of a James Bond movie than a history book.

Excerpt: “Toujours de l’audace,” he wrote, quoting the famous words of George Danton, a leader of the French Revolution. “Always more audacity”

Our Dollar, Your Problem

In this thoughtful book, economist Kenneth Rogoff, a Harvard professor and former chief economist at the International Monetary Fund, explains how the United States dollar rose to prominence after the Second World War to become the center of the global financial system.

He traces how the dollar outlasted rivals such as the Soviet ruble, the Japanese yen, and the Euro. More important, he explains why that dominance should never be taken for granted. The dollar now faces challenges from crypto, the Chinese yuan, political instability, and inflation. The book is a timely reminder that even strong systems require careful stewardship.

Excerpt: “An unexpected burst of inflation is tantamount to partial default since the government gets to repay its debt in dollars that buy much less that originally expected when the debt was issued.”

Stay disciplined,

-Andrew