We’re at the midpoint of a whirlwind year. Rapid changes from trade policy, technology developments and wars have forced companies to recast their plans, oftentimes repeatedly. And it doesn’t look the pressures on CFOs and finance leaders are poised to let up any time soon.
As such, it seems like a good time for a break — hopefully one that includes a beach, some time with family and friends, and a good book. With that in mind, CFO Dive is recommending 10 books we think you should pick up over the summer.
The books below include some of the ones on our own summer reading lists, as well as some recommendations from CFO Dive’s readers!
We’ve moved to cast a wide net, with books that look at everything from the gender data gap that’s impacting the everyday lives of women to sweeping examinations of AI’s impact — to what happens when a robot butler goes exploring.
We hope you’ll get a chance to sit down and relax with some of these. If you do, please reach out to me on LinkedIn and let me know what you thought! Happy reading!
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Invisible Women: Exposing Data Bias in a World Designed for Men by Caroline Criado Perez
Published in 2019 before the dawn of the generative AI age, Perez’s book shines a bright light on what happens when a data gap is not only allowed to widen, but also to become enshrined in daily life.
In looking at what she terms the “gender data gap,” Perez examines how failing to include information related to women can have severe and lasting impacts on everything from the design of proper safety gear to how we think about economic health. These impacts, she warns, are only going to get bigger as the world relies more and more on systems and technologies underpinned by data sets that don’t factor in women and women’s contributions.
At one point in this data-stuffed book, Perez points out the shortcomings of a widely used gauge of a country’s economic health: gross domestic product. It doesn’t account for contributions from unpaid labor such as household work and childcare, an exclusion that she argues can paint a skewed picture of those contributions themselves as well as of the overall economy. Looking back to the bygone days of 2012, for example, the value of unpaid childcare services alone in the U.S. was about $3.2 trillion — or the equivalent to about 20% of the country’s GDP.
Dirtbag Billionaire: How Yvon Chouinard Built Patagonia, Made a Fortune, and Gave It All Away by David Gelles
The list of founders who build a multi-billion dollar company from the ground up isn’t a lengthy one — but the list of those who built such a business only to largely give away its riches is an even shorter one. This book traces the journey both of the sportwear brand Patagonia and its unique founder Yvon Chouinard. It traces how the pioneering mountain climber turned a trunk of homemade pitons and climbing gear into one of the most iconic outdoor clothing brands in the world — and then gave that all away.
Gelles, a journalist who covers climate issues for The New York Times, examines how Chouinard’s “dirtbag” sensibilities helped to create a company culture as unique as its founder. The company often prioritizes employee needs and passions — offering a trailblazing childcare service for employees, for example, as well as dedicating a portion of its profits to fighting climate change. It also details how Chouinard’s own love of nature inspired often-risky business moves — such as abandoning the company’s best selling product due to its environmental harm — and how that love led up to his now-infamous decision to transfer ownership of the company into a trust which aims to continue fighting climate change.
The History of Money: A Story of Humanity by David McWilliams
Many of us spend at least part of our day — or, if you’re a CFO, likely the majority of your day — thinking about money and its impact on our day-to-day lives and experiences. But in this sweeping look at money’s development, from trade along the Silk Road to Wall Street, economist David McWilliams examines how money’s history has always been closely intertwined with the history of humanity.
Looking back across history, from the early creation of money through to modern currencies, McWilliams examines how money can both inspire innovation and spur acts of cruelty, often in ways that leave a lasting mark on society and the lives of everyday people.
Our Dollar, Your Problem by Kenneth Rogoff
The dollar has long reigned supreme among currencies, but getting to the top of that pack was a complicated journey, and one that economist Kenneth Rogoff argues took more than a little luck. Between the rise of inflation, rising frustration with global systems and growing challenges from the Chinese yuan and cryptocurrencies, the era of the almighty dollar might be in jeopardy, Rogoff argues.
In his 2025 book, the co-author of This Time is Different examines how the almighty dollar reached its present point at the top of the currency food chain — and what new challenges and changes in the global economic landscape could potentially shake it off its pedestal.
Barons: Money, Power, and the Corruption of America's Food Industry by Austin Frerick
Recommended by CFO Dive Senior Editor Maura Webber Sadovi, the debut book of agricultural and antitrust policy expert Austin Frerick takes a look at eight goliaths of the food world and how they built their empire, often by buying up smaller, independent competitors. The book examines the impacts of this corporate consolidation on the food industry and how untangling that web could provide benefits both for end consumers and business.
Blood in the Machine by Brian Merchant
The rise of AI has prompted many to draw parallels to other historic technological developments that irreversibly shifted how humans lived and worked, from the Internet to the invention of the printing press. Throughout history, some have embraced these new technologies from the get-go, while others — often critiqued as Luddites — have rejected them.
But who were the Luddites, and what were they fighting for in the first place? More importantly, in an age where advancements in Big Tech have left some jobs on shaky ground, what can their story teach us? Those are the questions Brian Merchant — a self-proclaimed Luddite himself — seeks to answer in this 2023 book.
Superagency by Greg Beato and Reid Hoffman
While AI has its detractors, the technology also has its enthusiasts. Recommended by AICPA’s Tom Hood, “Superagency” takes a look at the sunny side of the AI boom — envisioning a future where the technology helps to enhance human potential.
Co-written by LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman and tech writer Greg Beato, the book imagines scenarios where AI could be used to create personalized study plans for individual children or tapped to research diseases such as cancer. Such a future, the book argues, isn’t far off, and readers should embrace the technology — learning to pair it with human creativity to build a world where AI can be a force for positive change.
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Service Model by Adrian Tchaikovsky
With generative AI in the spotlight, some of us may be looking to a future where sentient machines and robots cater to humanity’s every whim — but as “Service Model” shows, that future could turn dark and grimy fast. The book follows the path of Charles, a robotic butler who leaves the estate of their murdered (by them) owner to discover a world where humans seem to be in short supply, and the machines people have relied on for food, deliveries, information gathering and maintenance have been abandoned to their own devices.
What are machines built to serve humans meant to do without any humans? As Charles steps further into this broken-down world, they’re going to need to find out — quickly.
Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir
In this science fiction adventure, we join Ryland Grace: a high school science teacher who wakes up on a space ship light years away from home, with no memories and no one else around. We follow Grace as he pieces together his memory and comes to understand the life-or-death mission that brought him to space — and how an unexpected ally can help him save the whole of the planet he left behind.
The Republic of Memory by Mahmud El Sayed
The crew of the spaceship Safina has two main tasks. First: generation after generation needs to keep the ship running as it continues on a long, 400-year journey to a new home. Second: Each generation needs to protect their ancestors who are preserved via cryostasis until the ship reaches its destination and they can start their new lives. But when events begin to disrupt the harmony of the ship, the course of the Safina’s journey could change for good.
