Its that time of the year again, where Bill Gates recommends his best reads of 2014.

Business Adventures: Twelve Classic Tales from the World of Wall Street by John Brooks

Capital in the Twenty-First Century by Thomas Piketty

How Asia Works by Joe Studwell

The Rosie Effect: A Novel by Graeme Simsion

Making the Modern World: Materials and Dematerialization by Vaclav Smil

Comments:

I’ve read How Asia Works twice now, and its a brilliant book on Asia. Very frank discussion of what’s worked and what’s not work in Asia, and an interesting discussion of the “arbitrage function” of Hong Kong and Singapore that makes both countries unique to the region.

Joe Studwell has another great book entitled Asian Godfathers: Money and Power in Hong Kong and Southeast Asia

If you want to truly understand Asia, and how the “shadow economy” works, this is the book you want to read. If ...