Want to know what books Oliver James recommends on their reading list? We've researched interviews, social media posts, podcasts, and articles to build a comprehensive list of Oliver James's favorite book recommendations of all time.
1
Charlie Wales left Edinburgh University with dreams of the high-life. Six months later, he is marooned in London, unemployed and living a dreary existence in a house he shares with the girl he loves (but who no longer loves him). Finally securing a job at
Silverbirch — a hedge-fund based in Mayfair, he begins to work in the brutal and remorseless world of high finance.
When the markets crash, Charlie sees the potential for an escape; but is he already too far immersed in the City to get out? more Charlie Wales left Edinburgh University with dreams of the high-life. Six months later, he is marooned in London, unemployed and living a dreary existence in a house he shares with the girl he loves (but who no longer loves him). Finally securing a job at
Silverbirch — a hedge-fund based in Mayfair, he begins to work in the brutal and remorseless world of high finance.
When the markets crash, Charlie sees the potential for an escape; but is he already too far immersed in the City to get out? less 
Oliver JamesThis is by a banker who is an English literature graduate and has the narrative here that shows what it was like to be in the thick of it, on the frontline, during the credit crunch, what it was like on the inside. But, more than that, it’s a good book because it’s a real proper novel. It starts off at university and it is part of that not-very-much-discussed problem that is the shift from having... (Source)
See more recommendations for this book...
2
Winner of the 2007 Gradiva Award and the 2006 Goethe Award for Psychoanalytic Scholarship
The definitive biography of one of the most engaging figures of British psychoanalysis.Both gifted analyst and generational bete noire, M. Masud R. Khan (1924–1989) exposed through his candor and scandalous behavior the bigotry of his proponents turned detractors. The son of a wealthy landowner in rural India (now Pakistan), Khan grew up in a world of privilege that was radically different from the Western lifestyle he would adopt after moving to London. Notorious for his flamboyant... more Winner of the 2007 Gradiva Award and the 2006 Goethe Award for Psychoanalytic Scholarship
The definitive biography of one of the most engaging figures of British psychoanalysis.Both gifted analyst and generational bete noire, M. Masud R. Khan (1924–1989) exposed through his candor and scandalous behavior the bigotry of his proponents turned detractors. The son of a wealthy landowner in rural India (now Pakistan), Khan grew up in a world of privilege that was radically different from the Western lifestyle he would adopt after moving to London. Notorious for his flamboyant personality and, at first, widely acknowledged as a brilliant clinician, Khan was closely connected to some of the most creative and accomplished individuals of his time, including Donald Woods Winnicott, Anna Freud, Robert Stoller, Michael Redgrave, Julie Andrews, Rudolph Nureyev, and many more. Khan’s subsequent downfall, which is powerfully narrated in this biography, offers interesting insights not only into Khan’s psychic fragility but into the world of intrigues and deceptions pervasive in the psychoanalytic community of the time. In telling the story of this provocative man, Linda Hopkins makes use of unprecedented access to a complete copy of Khan’s unpublished Work Books, which are quoted extensively. Additionally, she conducted innumerable interviews with Khan’s peers, relatives, and analysands in order to provide an in-depth and balanced account of Masud Khan as a talented and deeply conflicted individual. less Oliver JamesWell I think it’s an extraordinary book. It’s essentially a biography of a psychoanalyst who was famous in the 60s and 70s called Masud Khan. Masud was actually a friend of my parents, so I knew him, and he was a very glittering figure. He was incredibly handsome and he was married to a famous prima ballerina of that era and this book was written by a psychoanalyst and it’s an attempt to help you... (Source)
See more recommendations for this book...
3
By the time he dies, Ivan Ilych has come to understand the worthlessness of his life. Paradoxically, this elevates him above the common man, who avoids the reality of death and the effort it takes to make life worthwhile.
Librarian's note: See alternate cover edition of ISBN 1840224533 here. more By the time he dies, Ivan Ilych has come to understand the worthlessness of his life. Paradoxically, this elevates him above the common man, who avoids the reality of death and the effort it takes to make life worthwhile.
Librarian's note: See alternate cover edition of ISBN 1840224533 here. less Oliver JamesIt’s possibly the best short story ever written, depending on whether or not you consider The Leopard [Giuseppe di Lampedusa] to be a short story, but it is only about 50 pages or so. It describes how easy it is to go through life, in the same way as Eliot describes in ‘Prufrock’, trying to please everyone and to be a good person, to conform, without really having any authentic intimacy with... (Source)
See more recommendations for this book...
4
Writing with the scathing wit and bright perceptiveness for which he has become known, celebrated English author Edward St. Aubyn creates a complex family portrait that examines the shifting allegiances between mothers, sons, and husbands. The novel’s perspective ricochets among all members of the Melrose family -- the family featured in St. Aubyn’s widely praised trilogy, Some Hope -- starting with Robert, who provides an exceptionally droll and convincing account of being born; to Patrick, a hilariously churlish husband who has been sexually abandoned by his wife in favor of his... more Writing with the scathing wit and bright perceptiveness for which he has become known, celebrated English author Edward St. Aubyn creates a complex family portrait that examines the shifting allegiances between mothers, sons, and husbands. The novel’s perspective ricochets among all members of the Melrose family -- the family featured in St. Aubyn’s widely praised trilogy, Some Hope -- starting with Robert, who provides an exceptionally droll and convincing account of being born; to Patrick, a hilariously churlish husband who has been sexually abandoned by his wife in favor of his sons; to Mary, who’s consumed by her children and overwhelming desire not to repeat the mistakes of her own mother. All the while, St. Aubyn examines the web of false promises that entangle this once illustrious family -- whose last vestige of wealth, an old house in the south of France -- is about to be donated by Patrick’s mother to a New Age foundation. An up-to-the-minute dissection of the mores of child-rearing, marriage, adultery, and assisted suicide, Mother’s Milk showcases St. Aubyn’s luminous and acidic prose -- and his masterful ability to combine the most excruciating emotional pain with the driest comedy. less Oliver JamesMother’s Milk, I suppose, is about the difficulties for mothers of providing good care for babies and small children in a societies where mothering has the status slightly less than that of a street sweeper. At the same time it shows that if the care you received when you were young was unresponsive it leaves you feeling very empty and dissatisfied and emotionally deprived and makes it hard for... (Source)
See more recommendations for this book...
5
Since the 1940s Americans and Britons have come to enjoy an era of rising material abundance. Yet this has been accompanied by a range of social and personal disorders, including family breakdown, addiction, mental instability, crime, obesity, inequality, economic insecurity, and declining trust.
Avner Offer argues that well-being has lagged behind affluence in these societies, because they present an environment in which consistent choices are difficult to achieve over different time ranges and in which the capacity for personal and social commitment is undermined by the flow of... more Since the 1940s Americans and Britons have come to enjoy an era of rising material abundance. Yet this has been accompanied by a range of social and personal disorders, including family breakdown, addiction, mental instability, crime, obesity, inequality, economic insecurity, and declining trust.
Avner Offer argues that well-being has lagged behind affluence in these societies, because they present an environment in which consistent choices are difficult to achieve over different time ranges and in which the capacity for personal and social commitment is undermined by the flow of novelty. His approach draws on economics and social science, makes use of the latest cognitive research, and provides a detailed and reasoned critique of modern consumer society, especially the assumption that freedom of choice necessarily maximizes individual and social well-being.
The book falls into three parts. Part one analyses the ways in which economic resources map on to human welfare, why choice is so intractable, and how commitment to people and institutions is sustained. It argues that choice is constrained by prior obligation and reciprocity. The second section then applies these conceptual arguments to comparative empirical studies of advertising, of eating and obesity, and of the production and acquisition of appliances and automobiles. Finally, in part three, Offer investigates social and personal relations in the USA and Britain, including inter-personal regard, the rewards and reversals of status, the social and psychological costs of inequality, and the challenges posed to heterosexual love and to parenthood by the rise of affluence.
less Oliver JamesHe provides specific details of Thatcherism and Reaganomics in America smashed the family to pieces. What I was talking about earlier, the disinvestment in the domestic household economy, he provides all the evidence. Insecure working conditions combined with increased levels of education in women makes everybody compete ever harder and creates a much greater conflict for women about whether to... (Source)
Danny DorlingIt looks at the question of why there is this ‘addiction’ to material goods—what they make people feel about their social status. (Source)
See more recommendations for this book...
Don't have time to read Oliver James's favorite books? Read Shortform summaries.
Shortform summaries help you learn 10x faster by:
- Being comprehensive: you learn the most important points in the book
- Cutting out the fluff: you focus your time on what's important to know
- Interactive exercises: apply the book's ideas to your own life with our educators' guidance.