Summer reading list 2025/26

With the summer holidays around the corner, we asked Betashares staff to put forth their literary recommendations from the past year.

Our staff read widely, covering topics such as history, leadership, investing, economics as well as fiction.

Here are their top picks.

Chamath De Silva – Head of Fixed Income

1929: The Inside Story of The Greatest Crash in Wall Street History by Andrew Ross Sorkin

“1929 offers a detailed, character-driven narrative of the 1929 Wall Street Crash, focusing on the greed, hubris, and flawed decisions of key figures, revealing how their actions, fuelled by speculation and easy credit, led to the collapse, drawing parallels to modern financial bubbles.

It’s an immersive account, using extensive archives, to show the human story behind the economic disaster, highlighting the overlooked warnings and the systemic failures that led to the Great Depression.”

Cordelia Blaze Morrell – Product Growth Manager

Dataclysm: Who We Are (When We Think No One’s Looking) by Christian Rudder

“Dataclysm explores what massive datasets, particularly from online dating, reveal about how people actually behave, not how they say they behave. Rudder shows that when you strip away self-image and social signalling, patterns around attraction, bias, honesty and decision-making become uncomfortably clear.”

“What makes the book compelling is how data consistently contradicts our intuition: people claim to value personality but act on appearance, profess equality while displaying bias, and believe they’re unique while behaving predictably at scale. It’s not really a book about dating, it’s about human nature in a data-rich world, and how behavioural truths emerge once sample sizes are big enough to overwhelm individual stories.”

Hugh Lam – Investment Strategist

The New China Playbook by Keyu Jin

“I first stumbled across Keyu’s work online after watching her presentation at the London Business School here.”

“She brings an honest, unique perspective on the Chinese economy given she first grew up there but would eventually study economics at Harvard. Her book was published in May 2023 and provides a comprehensive overview of how China ascended to dominate the world stage in just a few decades.”

“Keyu explains how China’s political economy blends markets with government guidance, why productivity and demographic pressures matter, and how technology, entrepreneurship and rising household expectations are set to influence China’s future role in global trade, finance and geopolitical cooperation.”

Katherena Koh – Account Manager

When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi

“The book is a deeply moving memoir by Paul Kalanithi, a neurosurgeon who faces his own mortality after being diagnosed with terminal lung cancer at the age of 36. It explores profound questions about life, death, and meaning through the lens of someone who has spent years studying the brain and the essence of human identity.”

“Kalanithi reflects on his journey from medical student to accomplished surgeon, and how his perspective shifts when he transitions from doctor to patient. He grapples with the challenge of finding purpose in the face of death, ultimately focusing on love, family, and the pursuit of meaning. The narrative is both philosophical and personal, offering insights into what makes life worth living even when time is short.”

Alec Renehan – Co-founder Equity Mates

Prisoners of Geography by Tim Marshall 

“Prisoners of Geography makes clear how much of human history (and politics today) is dictated by one, immovable constant: our geography.”

“From the mountains to the seas, our geography has dictated how societies developed and how they came into conflict. To understand where we’ve come from and where we are going, you need to start with where we are. This book has been great to understand that.”

Annabelle Dickson – Content Marketing Manager

Slanting Towards the Sea by Lidija Hilje

“Slanting Towards the Sea follows two characters, Ivona and Vlaho, whose relationship was undone by the pressures of the new Croatian democracy and a painful secret. Reconnecting later in life, the novel explores how people search for connection, belonging and clarity while they move through the shifting currents of personal history, unresolved relationships and the quiet transformations that define a life.”

Peter Harper – Executive Director – Head of Distribution & Capital Markets

Extreme Ownership by Jocko Willink

“Willink shares leadership lessons from his time as a Navy Seal commander because he believes that true leaders take complete responsibility for everything within their world and never pass blame. He also shows that effective leadership requires humility, steady control of ego and simple, clearly communicated plans that allow teams to act with confidence and unity.”

Vania Jiang – Legal Counsel

Uses for Obsession by Ben Shewry

“Uses for Obsession is a candid and empathetic reflection on creativity, identity and the ethics of the restaurant world, told with emotional honesty and a striking absence of ego. Ben Shewry writes with a kind of earnestness that’s rare in chef memoirs: he owns his vulnerabilities, doubts and mistakes without dressing them up as heroic mythology. Instead of the usual ‘behind-the-scenes war stories’ common in restaurant writing, he gives you a portrait of a person trying to do meaningful work without losing himself.”

Cameron Gleeson – Senior Investment Strategist

The Riders by Tim Winton

“The Riders follows an Australian man who travels across Europe in search of his missing wife because her unexplained disappearance upends his sense of safety and identity. As he moves through unfamiliar places and encounters people who deepen both the mystery and his anxiety, the story explores how love, fear and obsession intertwine while he confronts a truth that is far more complex than he imagined.”

Hans Lee – Senior Finance Writer

Red Notice: A True Story of High Finance, Murder and One Man’s Fight for Justice by Bill Browder

“As a professional storyteller, nothing is better than a story that is both true and one that couldn’t be written by fiction if it tried. This book is very much one of those. Set in post-Soviet Russia, the author (Hermitage Capital Management CEO Bill Browder) uncovers a $230 million tax fraud by Russian officials. In the process of discovering this crime, Browder goes from financier to an anti-corruption activist. His efforts even end up inspiring genuine legislative change. The book is a real page-turner and since I picked it up, I haven’t been able to put it down!”