Skip Bill Clinton's thriller. Read something entertaining to make you business smart

After one false start, it looks like summer is here, the perfect season to find a comfy chair at the beach or on your backyard deck, settle in with a cool beverage in one hand, and in the other … an entertaining read on business and economics.

Well, why not? Let the others burn their summer days away with some page-turner potboiler thriller or romance. You’ll be relaxing your body while exercising your mind with these nominees for our annual mid-year list of business books:

"Troublemakers" by Leslie Berlin. We know the story of how Silicon Valley came to be with founding companies such as Hewlett-Packard. We know what Silicon Valley is today, the epicenter of the world’s tech sector.

But there’s a middle chapter, made up of still-current names such as Apple and Genentech and some once-prominent names like Atari. “Troublemakers” is an informative and interesting look at the men — and in some cases women — who wrote that part of the story.

"The Human City" by Joel Kotkin. In the headlong rush to remake Seattle into the west end of Vancouver, on the way to an American version of Hong Kong, very little consideration is given to the ideas that maybe people don’t want, and ought not, to live like that.

Joel Kotkin has long been the most prominent contrarian to the prevailing urbanist push to create megacities based on the “pack ‘em in, stack ‘em high” model. In “The Human City” he lays out a convincing approach that manages to say something nice about low-rise, low-density neighborhoods and even — gasp! — the suburbs.

"How Not to Get Rich" by Alan Pell Crawford. Mark Twain was a great author and humorist, perhaps America’s greatest. He was also a spectacularly bad investor and entrepreneur. His serial disappointments in a variety of ventures squandered what today would be millions of dollars.

If you want to feel better about your own financial missteps, here’s your book. Twain did at least maintain some humor and perspective about his experiences. When asked about his association with one robber baron and his tainted money, Twain pronounced it twice-tainted. “It tain’t yours, and it tain’t mine.”

"Janesville" by Amy Goldstein. When the local General Motors plant was operating, Janesville, Wisconsin, was a prosperous community. When the plant went through rounds of downsizing, then closed, Janesville and its families struggled, just as so many other industrially dependent towns have.

This chronicle of how people tried to cope, or didn’t, with the ups and downs, the false hopes raised and dashed, goes a long way toward explaining this country’s political and economic divisions.

"Long Haul" by Finn Murphy. Ever done a long-distance move? Ever seen giant moving vans rolling on the interstate, or trying to negotiate a narrow residential street?

For those curious about how the business works and the people who wrestle those cumbersome trucks for a living, “The Long Haul” is an illuminating if highly unofficial guide to trucking and long-haul movers. There’s even a sex scene. More seriously, you’ll get some insights into why the driving life is so hard on the people who do it, and why there’s a shortage of truck drivers.

"Crazy Rich Asians," "China Rich Girlfriend," and "Rich People Problems" by Kevin Kwan. All right, if you absolutely insist on some popcorn reading for the summer, here are three.

If anyone questions how these made it into your stack of serious books, tell them you’re doing background reading and research on the economic and sociological lives of the hyper-wealthy in Asia, the connections and rivalries between such centers of wealth as Singapore, Hong Kong and Shanghai, and between Asia, Europe and the United States.

The depictions of wealth among the top families in Asia will make their American counterparts appear impoverished by comparison.

Now here are two from the “on the bedside table stack yet to be read” list:

"Milk" by Mark Kurlansky. He might not have invented the category of books that take a deep dive into a single food subject, but Mark Kurlansky has popularized the genre with “Cod” and “Salt,” among others. His latest “global food history” (the publisher’s term) is “Milk,” subtitled, “A 10,000 Year Food Fracas.”

"Magic Bean" by Matthew Roth. Speaking of single-subject books related to food, how did the soybean, a transplant from China, become this country’s second biggest cash crop (second only to corn)? “Magic Bean” seeks to explain.

That should keep you occupied through Labor Day. And once everyone gets serious about work in September, won’t all your coworkers be impressed with your expanded knowledge on all manner of subjects and issues, thanks to these recommendations.

You’re welcome.

This story was originally published July 5, 2018 at 12:00 PM.