25. What should I be reading?

Here’s today’s letter:

I’m looking for some reading material to learn about how I might better walk the talk in my own life. Like, I have all these strong beliefs about things, but I’m not always sure I’m living in alignment with those values. Do you have any recommendations for where to start?

Let’s talk books! There are some books on this topic, I’m going to list out a few here, let me know if you’d be interested in an episode where I do a book synopsis, for those of you out there who just don’t have the time to read each book.

As a note, I like to read books by author’s who I disagree with, including on fundamental values, because it helps me to be more informed, so I’m going to include some of those books as well in my list today. Most of these books can be found on bookshop.org . That is a website where you can buy books from local, independent bookstores. The books are usually discounted so that by the time you add shipping, it costs about the same as Amazon. I’ll see if I can include some bookshop links to make your browsing easier. An independent bookstore will make some sales, the podcast will earn a few pennies, aaand Jeff Bezos will still be incomprehensibly wealthy. Ok, so the books!

First up,

DECOLONIZING WEALTH: Indigenous Wisdom to Heal Divides and Restore Balance. This is by Edgar Villanueva, he is a philanthropy executive and this book contains some radical honesty about what is broken in philanthropy and finance, the colonial roots of the dysfunction, and some beautiful suggestions about how to move forward from where we are today. He even includes some examples of how people are doing exactly what you mentioned in your letter, which is living out their values.

Winners Take All: the Elite Charade of Changing the World by Anand Giridharadas. He is a journalist and in this book is a thorough dragging of the way that “doing good” has been co-opted by the rich and powerful who are interested in somehow doing more good without doing less harm, all the while, eroding our public institutions, and never threatening their own position at the top. Whew!

Dead Aid: Why Aid is Not Working and How There is a Better Way for Africa by Dambisa Moyo. She is an economist and boy did she stir up some stuff when this book came out. The premise of the book is that aid is making things worse in Africa, not better, and she outlines a different way for developing countries to grow, without creating a dependence on foreign aid.

23 Things They Don’t Tell You About Capitalism by Ha-Joon Chang, another economist. In this book, which was published a couple of years after the 2008 financial crisis, he lays out his thoughts on the limitation of the way we’re doing capitalism now- specifically the minimal government involvement. He has some provocative suggestions in there, which you might enjoy reading; I do wish there was a more recent release, but still I will put this book on the list. His overall belief is that we should still do capitalism, but with more oversight.

FRANCHISE: The Golden Arches in Black America by Marcia Chatelain. This one is a little different than the other recommendations. It is written by a historian and a very interesting look at the tangled relationship between McDonald’s and the African American community. She covers the fight for the first Black franchisees of the corporation, she talks about how McDonald’s capitalized on the civil rights movement, and all of the history is interesting, but for me, I think the most interesting part of the book is what’s just beneath the surface of what she’s explaining. Which is a question of what it means when our relationship with a corporation can serve as a proxy for how we measure our civil rights in a society. I know, it’s complex. Actually this book won the Pulitzer Prize in 2021. It’s deep. If you’re looking to educate yourself more on the history of racism and capitalism in the US, you might also be interested in The Color of Money and another book called Race for Profit.

I’m going to include a couple of books I’m reading right now as well.

Activate Your Money: Invest to Grow Your Wealth and Build a Better World by Janine Firpo. The author is a former World Bank, Gates Foundation type. The book is interesting. It’s a handbook to learn how to do values based investing. She defines the terms, she provides some interesting ideas on how to get started, I like her ideas particularly around group investing.

Wallet Activism: How to Use Every Dollar You Spend, Earn, and Save As a Force for Change by Tanja Hester. She is known within personal finance communities. So far, I get the sense that this could be helpful if you’re trying to create a personal spending philosophy from scratch, based on your values. Some good ideas about walking the talk in this book.

I want to include a couple of children’s books as well. They were briefly mentioned in Episode 23.

The first book is called, “A Chair for My Mother” and it is written and illustrated by Vera B. Williams about a community coming together to furnish a home after a house fire and how the family saves up to buy the final item that they need to have a comfortable home. For those of you who want to teach your kids about personal finance and specifically about the power of saving, this is also a good book for that. So, “A Chair for My Mother” by Vera B. Williams.

And there’s another book that stood out called “Sam and the Lucky Money” by Karen Chinn. Sweet story about a boy who receives money for Chinese New Year’s and then goes all through Chinatown with his mom to try to decide how to spend it. He ends up giving it to a man on the street who doesn’t have shoes. The illustrations are beautiful and pretty much everyone in the story is Asian American, another great aspect of the book. Again, that is “Sam and the Lucky Money” by Karen Chinn.

I’m going to stop there, that is a very healthy start. If you want more recommendations, or you’d like me to provide an old school book report like we used to do in grade school, just let me know. I’d be happy to do that if it is helpful.

If you have other books to suggest, drop a line anytime.

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