FT readers’ best books of 2022

This is the best book I read this year. The title is terribly literary but it is a pretty raw first-person journey through Turkey, Iran and Greece with asylum seekers. Matthieu Aikins got rid of his Canadian passport and travelled with asylum seekers as an undercover reporter. He’s sympathetic to the migrants (most of which are economic migrants) but he is also realistic about the fact that western countries can’t accept everybody. It’s humane and sensible and tells a gripping story.

— Moomoo

I would recommend this book by Marie Yovanovitch, who was US Ambassador to Ukraine until 2019. Her memoir not only offers insightful reading about Ukraine and its relationship with Russia and Putin, but also how she had to face another bully when she stood up against Donald Trump who didn’t take kindly to anyone who didn’t agree with his views. A must read for anyone trying to understand the background to the current situation in Ukraine (and what is involved in standing up to bullies at home).

— Ian George

This book is a must-have road map for understanding the geopolitical landscape. Peter Zeihan’s writing style endows with a conversational tone on a topic that could be very dry indeed. I suspect the many live talks he has given have helped hone his delivery. The book is well-researched and it speaks to those who have been following recent events. Zeihan’s insights are full of “aha” moments and help decode the factors at play in a complex world, explaining them less in political terms and more in terms of demography, geography and natural resources, and their long-term impact.

— Neil Winward

This is certainly a book for Succession fans! I am sure FT readers will remember Paddy Manning’s book on the hapless Nathan Tinkler, one of Australia’s briefest mining billionaires. Very entertaining and instructive.

— Smiley

I found the style of writing in short chapters was very compelling, and the story goes places you don’t expect. I never expected the ending.

— Warren Bimblick (FT Books Café)

Beautifully brief, The Story of Russia shows centuries of regimes that revisit their past to manipulate the future, and eternally start from the wrong place acting in venal self-interest rather than the true national interest. Reading Orlando Figes’ argument reminded me of To the States by Walt Whitman (“To the States or any one of them, or any city of the states, resist much, obey little,/ Once unquestioning obedience, once fully enslaved, no nation, state, city of this earth ever afterward resumes its liberty”)

— CJ

Lawrence Freedman’s book illustrates command situations from various countries’ experience since world war two, showing how politics and national security thinking combine to shape outcomes that have distinctive characteristics. For example, reading about the Russian mistakes of the 1990s in Chechnya it is easier to understand the Russian mistakes in Ukraine.

— Paul A. Myers

This was an excellent investigation of the five main fibres used by humans (linen, cotton, wool, silk, nylon). Sofi Thanhauser zeroes in on specific personal stories, focusing on a particular aspect in the production of each fibre, and then shifts her focus on to all the aspects that go into large-scale production.

— Vansa Davi (FT Books Café)

What are your favourites from this list — and what books would you recommend? Tell us in the comments below