Best summer books of 2024: from our own stable
Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.
The Future-Proof Career: Strategies for Thriving at Every Stage by Isabel Berwick (Pavilion Books)
A guide to navigating a career in a post-pandemic world by the host of the FT’s Working It podcast. Berwick looks at the big trends shaping the ever-evolving workplace.
Final Verdict: The Holocaust on Trial in the 21st Century by Tobias Buck (Hachette Books)
Buck, the FT’s managing editor, narrates the trial of former Nazi guard Bruno Dey. Through the lens of Buck’s own family’s experience of the Nazi period, Final Verdict examines Germany’s reckoning with its past and the questions it is raising today.
Steak by Tim Hayward (Quadrille Publishing)
This encyclopedia on steak from the FT’s restaurant writer covers everything from the fungibility of beef and problems with USDA regulations to recipes and home cooking experiments.
Good Chaps: How Corrupt Politicians Broke Our Law and Institutions — And What We Can Do About It by Simon Kuper (Profile)
Following on from Chums, the FT columnist exposes the corruption permeating UK politics and the death of the so-called “good chap”.
Impossible City: Paris in the Twenty-First Century by Simon Kuper (Profile)
With the perspective of a foreigner, and two decades as a Paris resident behind him, Kuper chronicles the paradoxical complexities of Parisian life in his memoir.
Code Dependent: Living in the Shadow of AI by Madhumita Murgia (Picador)
The FT’s AI editor investigates the effects of AI technologies on individuals and wider society. Through the voices of ordinary people rather than those from Silicon Valley, Murgia explores how AI is changing what it means to be human. Code Dependent was shortlisted for the inaugural Women’s Prize for Non-Fiction this year.
Hype Machine: How Greed, Fraud and Free Money Crashed Crypto by Joshua Oliver (Bonnier)
An explanation of the rise and crash of crypto that traces the journey of Sam Bankman-Fried, the founder of notorious crypto exchange FTX. Hype Machine features exclusive interviews and research from the FT property correspondent, who was awarded Young Journalist of the Year at the Harold Wincott awards for his reporting on FTX.
What Everyone Knows About Britain* (*Except The British) by Michael Peel (Monoray)
A scrutiny of the fundamental truths about Britain and Britishness from a foreign perspective by former FT foreign correspondent and current science editor.
Democracy: Eleven Writers and Leaders On What It Is — And Why It Matters compiled by Juliet Riddell (Profile)
A collaboration between Profile Books and the FT, Democracy features reflections from 11 women, including Margaret Atwood, Erica Benner and Lea Ypi, on the threats facing democracy in 2024, the “year of elections”.
What Went Wrong With Capitalism by Ruchir Sharma (Allen Lane)
Sharma, an FT contributing editor, explains what went wrong with capitalism by showing how government intervention has slowed economic growth. Sharma provides a solution in seven fixes.
Private Revolutions: Coming of Age in a New China by Yuan Yang (Bloomsbury)
Private Revolutions puts a human face on the economic and social transformation of China. Yang, a former Beijing correspondent for the FT, tells the story of four young women and the challenges they face.
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