Mass Flourishing: How Grassroots Innovation Created Jobs, Challenge, and Change
Edmund Phelps
Princeton University Press, $30.95

Nobel Prize-winning economist Edmund Phelps draws on a lifetime of thinking to make a sweeping new argument about what makes nations prosper—and why the sources of that prosperity are under threat today. Why did prosperity explode in some nations between the 1820s and 1960s, creating not just unprecedented material wealth but “flourishing”—meaningful work, self-expression, and personal growth—for more people than ever before? Phelps makes the case that the wellspring of this flourishing was modern values such as the desire to create, explore, and meet challenges. The ultimate fate of modern values is now the most pressing question for the West: Will Western nations recommit themselves to modernity, grassroots dynamism, indigenous innovation, and widespread personal fulfillment, or will we go on with a narrowed innovation that limits flourishing to a few?

Will You Be Alive 10 Years from Now? And Numerous Other Curious Questions in Probability
Paul J. Nahin
Princeton University Press, $27.95

What are the chances of a gameshow contestant finding a chicken in a box? Is the Hanukkah dreidel a fair game? Will you be alive 10 years from now? These are just some of the one-of-a-kind probability puzzles that acclaimed popular math writer Paul Nahin offers in this lively and informative book. Nahin brings probability to life with colourful and amusing historical anecdotes, as well as an electrifying approach to solving puzzles that illustrates many of the techniques that mathematicians and scientists use to grapple with probability.

What Makes Clusters Competitive? Cases from the Global Wine Industry
Edited by Anil Hira
McGill–Queen’s University Press, $39.95

While global competitiveness is increasingly invoked as necessary for economic success stories, there are few answers available about how it can be achieved or maintained. The idea of stimulating industries to spur on economies is often proposed, but industrial policy can be seen as a boondoggle of government spending, and theorists of globalization are doubtful that such efforts can succeed in a world of fragmented supply chains. What Makes Clusters Competitive? tests fundamental theoretical hypotheses about what makes industries competitive in a globalized world by using the wine industries of several countries as case studies: British Columbia (Canada), Extremadura (Spain), Tuscany (Italy), South Australia, and Chile. Taking into account historical and location-specific characteristics, and drawing out policy lessons for other regions that would like to promote their industries, this volume demonstrates the value of applying cluster theory to understand market forces, while also describing the forces underlying the development of the wine industry in a range of different settings.

A Giant Cow-Tipping by Savages: The Boom, Bust, and Boom Culture of M&A
John Weir Close
Palgrave Macmillan, $32.00

Modern mergers and acquisitions, or M&A as it’s more commonly known, is a new phenomenon. In 2007, before the recession hit, it was a $4.4 trillion global enterprise. And yet it remains largely unexplored. Discrete stories have been pulled from the annals of M&A, both true and fictionalized, that have become touchstones for wealth and excess. But while there have been a few iconic characters and tales to emerge, no one has told the rich history of M&A until now.

The Fall of the Euro: Reinventing the Eurozone and the Future of Global Investing
Jens Nordvig
McGraw-Hill, $36.95

The euro started out with great promise, but it has seen major problems in the last few years. What will happen if Germany decides to drop the euro? Greece? Italy? Spain? How will your investments be affected? The financial crisis of 2007 and 2008 may have had its epicentre in the United States, but it exposed fault lines inherent in the euro. Some have given way, resulting in crises in Greece, Spain, Ireland, Cyprus, and other European nations. But if action isn’t taken soon, the whole European financial system might give way to a crisis the likes of which the world has never seen. Jens Nordvig describes the potential outcome as “financial anarchy.”

Big Data: A Revolution that Will Transform How We Live, Work, and Think
Viktor Mayer- Schönberger, Kenneth Cukier
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, $34.00

A revelatory exploration of the hottest trend in technology and the dramatic impact it will have on the economy, science, and society at large. Which paint colour is most likely to tell you that a used car is in good shape? How can officials identify the most dangerous New York City manholes before they explode? And how did Google searches predict the spread of the H1N1 flu outbreak? The key to answering these questions—and many more—is big data. A revolution on a par with the Internet or perhaps even the printing press, big data will change the way we think about business, health, politics, education, and innovation in the years to come. It also poses fresh threats, from the inevitable end of privacy as we know it to the prospect of being penalized for things we haven’t even done yet, based on big data’s ability to predict our future behaviour..

Countdown: Our Last, Best Hope for a Future on Earth?
Alan Weisman
Little, Brown and Company, $31.00

With a million more of us every 4½ days on a planet that’s not getting any bigger, prospects for a sustainable human future seem ever more in doubt. For this long-awaited follow-up book, Alan Weisman travelled to more than 20 countries to ask what experts agreed were probably the most important questions on Earth—and also the hardest: How many humans can the planet hold without capsizing? How robust must the Earth’s ecosystem be to assure our continued existence? Can we know which other species are essential to our survival? and How might we actually arrive at a stable, optimum population and design an economy that allows genuine prosperity without endless growth?

Stock Trader’s Almanac 2014
Jeffrey A. Hirsch
Wiley, $60.00

An annual guide to stock-trading market cycles and seasonal trends, Stock Trader’s Almanac 2014 is packed with timely insights and targeted analysis to help you navigate turbulent markets and beat the odds in the year ahead. This trusted guide combines over a century’s worth of data, statistics, and trends, along with vital analysis you won’t get anywhere else.

More Gift Ideas from Charterholders

The Value Proposition
by Kim Shannon, CFA

Tap Dancing to Work: Warren Buffett on Practically Everything, 1966-2012
by Carol J. Loomis

Think and Grow Rich
by Napoleon Hill

Den of Thieves
by James B. Stewart

Liar’s Poker
by Michael Lewis

The Predators’ Ball: The Inside Story of Drexel Burnham and the Rise of the Junk Bond Raiders
by Connie Bruck

Barbarians at the Gate: The Fall of RJR Nabisco
by Bryan Burrough and John Helyar

When Genius Failed: The Rise and Fall of Long-Term Capital Management
by Roger Lowenstein