The Society for Advancing Business Editing and Writing announced the shortlist for its sixth annual Best in Business Book Awards, which recognizes and celebrates outstanding business books published between Aug. 1, 2024, and July 31, 2025.
A prestigious panel of judges selected 19 books for this year’s shortlist. The shortlisted books are from three categories: Business Reporting, Career and Financial Development, and Management and Leadership.
The 19 books the judges selected for the shortlist are:
Business Reporting
- Apple in China: The Capture of the World’s Greatest Company by Patrick McGee (Scribner)
- Bad Company: Private Equity and the Death of the American Dream ―An Exposé of Private Equity’s Devastating Impact on American Lives, Communities, and the Economy by Megan Greenwell (Dey Street Books)
- Character Limit: How Elon Musk Destroyed Twitter by Kate Conger and Ryan Mac (Penguin Press)
- Consumed: How Big Brands Got Us Hooked on Plastic by Saabira Chaudhuri (Blink Publishing)
- High Desert, Higher Costs: Bend and the Housing Crisis in the American West by Jonathan Bach (Oregon State University Press)
- House of Huawei: The Secret History of China’s Most Powerful Company by Eva Dou (Portfolio)
- The Nvidia Way: Jensen Huang and the Making of a Tech Giant by Tae Kim (W. W. Norton & Company)
- Punishing Putin: Inside the Global Economic War to Bring Down Russia by Stephanie Baker (Scribner)
- Sunk Cost: Who’s to Blame for the Nation’s Broken Student Loan System and How to Fix It by Jillian Berman (University of Chicago Press)
Career and Financial Development
- Becoming You: The Proven Method for Crafting Your Authentic Life and Career by Suzy Welch (Harper Business)
- Managing Up: How to Get What You Need from the People in Charge by Melody Wilding (Crown Currency)
Management and Leadership
- Any Dumb-Ass Can Do It: Learning Moments from an Everyday CEO of a Multi-Billion-Dollar Company by Garry Ridge and Martha Finney (Matt Holt Books)
- Click: How to Make What People Want by Jake Knapp and John Zeratsky (Avid Reader Press / Simon & Schuster)
- Make Work Fair: Data-Driven Design for Real Results by Iris Bohnet and Siri Chilazi (Harper Business)
- The Nvidia Way: Jensen Huang and the Making of a Tech Giant by Tae Kim (W. W. Norton & Company)
- Qualified: How Competency Checking and Race Collide at Work by Shari Dunn (Harper Business)
- The Relationship-Driven Leader: Strengthening Connections to Enhance Productivity and Wellness at Work by Dr. Karen Bridbord (Agate B2)
- Reset: How to Change What’s Not Working by Dan Heath (Avid Reader Press / Simon & Schuster)
- The Purposeful Decision Maker: A Guide to Making Great Decisions in Life and Business by Pádraig Ó Céidigh (Amplify Publishing)
The judges were led by Alan Deutschman, professor and Reynolds Endowed Chair of Business Journalism at the University of Nevada, Reno, and Rebecca Baker, editor at large at Bloomberg Industry Group.
“The book format continues to be a showcase for some of the most compelling writing about business by journalists, scholars, thought leaders, and practitioners,” said Deutschman.
“The great work by all of this year’s authors made selecting finalists a real struggle, but the chosen entries stood out for their deep reporting and compelling writing,” said Baker. “They deserve to be recognized.”
The winning authors from each category will be awarded a $1,000 cash prize and finalists from each category will receive $500. The results will be announced later this fall.
