It's a tough slog sifting through the piles of business books to find the ones worth giving, so Globe Investor did some digging around for you.
The Little Book of Economics
By Greg Ip
(John Wiley & Sons Inc., $23.95)
Full disclosure: I've known Greg Ip - a veteran Canadian business journalist who is now U.S. economics editor for the Economist magazine - for 25 years; I once camped out on his parents' living room floor in university. What I first noticed about him back then was that he was a scary-smart guy with a disarming way of making the complicated sound easy and even entertaining. This book shows he's still putting those qualities to work.
The Little Book of Economics covers a complicated topic in a tiny package. It walks the reader through the basic theory behind the key indicators that routinely affect markets and explains where and when you'll find important economic data and how to read it. This is a terrific little guide for investors who would like to understand the economic mechanisms behind their investments, but don't want to suffer a brain hemorrhage in the process. - David Parkinson
Benjamin Franklin's The Way to Wealth (Special Edition)
By Jack Vincent (Helpful Info Publishing Co., $12.95 U.S.)
Looking for a nice stocking stuffer? This 90-page gem fits the bill. Jack Vincent has taken an essay written by Benjamin Franklin in 1758 and put a 21st century spin on it. The simple rules it contains - limit your debt, build your savings, avoid unnecessary spending, don't blindly hand over financial management to others - are as relevant today as they were 250 years ago.
To even a moderately sophisticated investor, this little book might seem at first glance to be a simplistic anachronism. But the wisdom it expresses can serve as guiding principles for anyone's personal finances, no matter how rich or poor. - David Parkinson
The Elements of Investing
By Burton Malkiel and Charles Ellis
(John Wiley & Sons Inc., $23.95)
Think you can beat the market? After reading this straightforward guide by two of the biggest proponents of index investing, you may have second thoughts.
The authors, both in their seventies, sing the praises of low-cost index funds and illustrate why diversification and dollar-cost averaging are critical to investment success. They also show why the vast majority of actively managed mutual funds trail the market, and why investors who buy these funds do even worse.
You'll find useful discussions of asset allocation, portfolio rebalancing and the most common investing blunders. Trying to pick hot stocks isn't the way to build wealth, they argue. Rather, "the secrets to success are patience, persistence and minimizing mistakes." This U.S. book doesn't cover Canadian index funds or exchange-traded funds, but it's a useful primer for anyone interested in taking the passive approach. - John Heinzl
Debunkery
By Ken Fisher, with Lara Hoffmans
(John Wiley & Sons Inc., $33.95)
You've heard the old saw that the stock market is powered by fear and greed. Well, according to billionaire money manager and Forbes columnist Ken Fisher, it's also powered by a lot of unsubstantiated nonsense. Hence the book's subtitle: Seeing Through Wall Street's Money-Killing Myths.
For instance, those cute seasonal aphorisms such as "Sell in May"? Total bunk, according to the author. The same goes for the notion that high unemployment and low consumer confidence are bad for the stock market. Especially timely is Mr. Fisher's skeptical take on gold. Despite all the hype surrounding the precious metal, gold's returns since it resumed trading freely in the early 1970s have paled next to stocks and even U.S. Treasuries. Mr. Fisher considers gold a speculative commodity, appropriate only for skilled market timers. That argument won't sit well with gold bugs, of course, but it's refreshing to hear a dissenting voice on this and other topics covered in the book. - John Heinzl
All the Devils are Here
By Bethany McLean and Joe Nocera
(Portfolio, $41)
You could fill a shelf with books about the U.S. financial crisis, but this is the best - at least so far. It offers a dispassionate look at the crowd of fools, knaves and true believers that powered the biggest real estate bubble in history and the worst U.S. downturn since the Depression. Unlike other books on the crisis, it covers the entire gamut of players, from investment banks to regulators to mortgage originators.
You won't find any simple explanation for the bubble in these pages, but you will begin to appreciate how ideology (notably a blind faith in the ability of markets to regulate themselves) combined with questionable central banking (Alan Greenspan's decision to keep interest rates abnormally low) to create an anything-goes environment that allowed financial engineers to brew the poison that eventually brought down the system. People at both ends of the political spectrum will find their views challenged by this panoramic account of a disaster that is still unfolding. - Ian McGugan