Fans pick 52 books like Freddy and the Bean Home News

By Walter R. Brooks, Kurt Wiese (illustrator),

Here are 52 books that Freddy and the Bean Home News fans have personally recommended if you like Freddy and the Bean Home News. Shepherd is a community of 12,000+ authors and super readers sharing their favorite books with the world.

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Book cover of The New Deal and the Problem of Monopoly: A Study in Economic Ambivalence

Jonathan B. Baker Author Of The Antitrust Paradigm: Restoring a Competitive Economy

From my list on reads before—or after—you learn antitrust law.

Why am I passionate about this?

After college, I studied economics and law. Working in antitrust lets me use what I’ve learned about both fields. I’ve been a professor at a law school and a business school and worked on competition issues while serving in senior government positions in multiple federal agencies, including both antitrust agencies. I also like working in antitrust because fostering competition is important to our economy. Competition encourages firms to pursue success by developing and selling better and cheaper products and services, not by coordinating with their rivals or trying to exclude them. And I like antitrust because the cases can involve any industry—I might learn about baby food one day and digital platforms the next.  

Jonathan's book list on reads before—or after—you learn antitrust law

Jonathan B. Baker Why did Jonathan love this book?

This detailed historical narrative ably recounts the zig-zags in government policy toward large firms during the New Deal and the concomitant debates among advocates of regulation, antitrust, and laissez-faire.

Modern antitrust can be understood as emerging during the 1940s to resolve the 1930s policy struggles successfully. Today’s antitrust policy debate may seem new and fresh, but it often echoes the divergent positions taken during the 1930s.  

By Ellis W. Hawley,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked The New Deal and the Problem of Monopoly as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

A re-issue of this classic study of President Roosevelt's adminstrative policy toward monopoly during the period of the New Deal, updated with a new introduction by the author.


Book cover of Slouching Toward Utopia: An Economic History of the Twentieth Century

Jonathan B. Baker Author Of The Antitrust Paradigm: Restoring a Competitive Economy

From my list on reads before—or after—you learn antitrust law.

Why am I passionate about this?

After college, I studied economics and law. Working in antitrust lets me use what I’ve learned about both fields. I’ve been a professor at a law school and a business school and worked on competition issues while serving in senior government positions in multiple federal agencies, including both antitrust agencies. I also like working in antitrust because fostering competition is important to our economy. Competition encourages firms to pursue success by developing and selling better and cheaper products and services, not by coordinating with their rivals or trying to exclude them. And I like antitrust because the cases can involve any industry—I might learn about baby food one day and digital platforms the next.  

Jonathan's book list on reads before—or after—you learn antitrust law

Jonathan B. Baker Why did Jonathan love this book?

This is a wide-ranging, thought-provoking, accessible, informed, lively, and convincing economic history of the “long” 20th century (1870 to 2010). 

Among its many narratives, the book shows how “thirty glorious years of social democracy” ended around 1975 when the U.S. and other economies in the global north took “the neoliberal turn” in favor of relying more on the market to organize society. 

That history is essential context for understanding why the U.S. Supreme Court, beginning in the late 1970s and 1980s, relaxed the “structural era” antitrust rules in place since the 1940s, which had emphasized skepticism about growing concentration and the conduct of large firms in concentrated markets. 

The book also emphasizes the importance of technology-driven economic growth for human well-being. That perspective helps make the case today for economic policies that promote competition among firms, which fosters productivity and growth.

By J. Bradford DeLong,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Slouching Toward Utopia as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

From one of the world's leading economists, a grand narrative of the century that made us richer than ever, yet left us unsatisfied.
Before 1870, humanity lived in dire poverty, with a slow crawl of invention offset by a growing population. Then came a great shift: invention sprinted forward, doubling our technological capabilities each generation and utterly transforming the economy again and again. Our ancestors would have presumed we would use such powers to build utopia, but it was not so. When 1870-2010 ended, the world instead saw global warming, economic depression, uncertainty, inequality, and broad rejection of the status…


Book cover of Competition Demystified: A Radically Simplified Approach to Business Strategy

Jonathan B. Baker Author Of The Antitrust Paradigm: Restoring a Competitive Economy

From my list on reads before—or after—you learn antitrust law.

Why am I passionate about this?

After college, I studied economics and law. Working in antitrust lets me use what I’ve learned about both fields. I’ve been a professor at a law school and a business school and worked on competition issues while serving in senior government positions in multiple federal agencies, including both antitrust agencies. I also like working in antitrust because fostering competition is important to our economy. Competition encourages firms to pursue success by developing and selling better and cheaper products and services, not by coordinating with their rivals or trying to exclude them. And I like antitrust because the cases can involve any industry—I might learn about baby food one day and digital platforms the next.  

Jonathan's book list on reads before—or after—you learn antitrust law

Jonathan B. Baker Why did Jonathan love this book?

The antitrust rules introduced in the late 1970s and 1980s are largely still in place. 

In important ways, those rules were shaped by the economic analyses and arguments of well-known scholars associated with the University of Chicago.

Since then, microeconomics has been transformed using concepts from game theory, and economic thinking about the competitive consequences of firm practices has changed.  This economic-based guide to business strategy distills key concepts that underlie modern antitrust analysis, which is a close cousin to business strategy.

The book lays out those concepts clearly and accessibly, with instructive case studies and minimal jargon. These ideas from economic theory, combined with new empirical tools and data, are the basis for the recent economic research that finds that today’s antitrust rules are inadequate to prevent the acquisition and exercise of market power. 

By Bruce Greenwald, Judd Kahn,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Competition Demystified as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Bruce Greenwald, one of the nation's leading business professors, presents a new and simplified approach to strategy that cuts through much of the fog that has surrounded the subject. Based on his hugely popular course at Columbia Business School, Greenwald and his coauthor, Judd Kahn, offer an easy-to-follow method for understanding the competitive structure of your industry and developing an appropriate strategy for your specific position.

Over the last two decades, the conventional approach to strategy has become frustratingly complex. It's easy to get lost in a sophisticated model of your competitors, suppliers, buyers, substitutes, and other players, while losing…


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Book cover of Aggressor

Aggressor By FX Holden,

It is April 1st, 2038. Day 60 of China's blockade of the rebel island of Taiwan. The US government has agreed to provide Taiwan with a weapons system so advanced, it can disrupt the balance of power in the region. But what pilot would be crazy enough to run the…

Book cover of Information Rules: A Strategic Guide to the Network Economy

Jonathan B. Baker Author Of The Antitrust Paradigm: Restoring a Competitive Economy

From my list on reads before—or after—you learn antitrust law.

Why am I passionate about this?

After college, I studied economics and law. Working in antitrust lets me use what I’ve learned about both fields. I’ve been a professor at a law school and a business school and worked on competition issues while serving in senior government positions in multiple federal agencies, including both antitrust agencies. I also like working in antitrust because fostering competition is important to our economy. Competition encourages firms to pursue success by developing and selling better and cheaper products and services, not by coordinating with their rivals or trying to exclude them. And I like antitrust because the cases can involve any industry—I might learn about baby food one day and digital platforms the next.  

Jonathan's book list on reads before—or after—you learn antitrust law

Jonathan B. Baker Why did Jonathan love this book?

Information technology is reshaping the economy and has raised novel competition concerns. 

Many of the highest-profile antitrust cases involve giant firms in the information technology sector, from IBM and Microsoft in the past to Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, and Meta today.

This business strategy book, written by two leading economists, taught a generation of business leaders how to navigate the competitive challenges that arise in information industries. It explains simply and clearly, with useful examples, concepts like network effects and lock-in that form the essential economic background for understanding both the business strategy problems that are the focus of the book and the antitrust issues that can arise in this sector.  

By Carl Shapiro, Hal R. Varian,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Information Rules as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

In Information Rules, authors Shapiro and Varian reveal that many classic economic concepts can provide the insight and understanding necessary to succeed in the information age. They argue that if managers seriously want to develop effective strategies for competing in the new economy, they must understand the fundamental economics of information technology. Whether information takes the form of software code or recorded music, is published in a book or magazine, or even posted on a website, managers must know how to evaluate the consequences of pricing, protecting, and planning new versions of information products, services, and systems. The first book…


Book cover of Stick it Up Your Punter: Rise and Fall of the Sun

Mike Leidig Author Of The King Of Bullsh*t News

From my list on reading to understand journalism.

Why am I passionate about this?

A popular cliché tells you that you need to find something you are passionate about, make it your job, and you'll never work a day in your life. I have always loved writing but never wanted to be tied down to one form, and working freelance allowed me to write books, sensational tabloid tales, and in-depth investigations depending on what came up on my desk. 

Mike's book list on reading to understand journalism

Mike Leidig Why did Mike love this book?

As a foreign correspondent based in Vienna, I'm often asked to arrange interviews for reporters flying in from London. I remember a journalist from the Sun newspaper who flew in and wanted a translator. I found a local book author, but he canceled when he found out it was for the Sun. The journalist asked him why, and he said, "You wouldn't understand."

But that journalist had a first-class honors degree in literature from Oxford. Of all the types of journalism, tabloid is reviled, yet it attracts the best journalists. It starts the ball rolling on the best stories, and in its purest form, it is never about fake news; it's about taking on the biggest bully in the playground. I love it, and this book is pure tabloid.

By Peter Chippindale, Chris Horrie,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Stick it Up Your Punter as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

The SUN is more than a newspaper. It is, in its own words, a phenomenon - the biggest-selling daily paper in the English language, fascinating 12 million readers and making its owner, Rupert Murdoch, a profit of over 1 million a week. The SUN has unashamedly dragged journalistic standards into the gutter. This book takes you inside the machine to tell in graphic and often hilarious detail the story of how the paper has evolved from cashing in on the permissive society of the sixties, to helping Maggie win the election in 1979, to the world of foul-mouthed Kelvin MacKenzie…


Book cover of The Stone Reader: Modern Philosophy in 133 Arguments

Firmin Debrabander Author Of Life After Privacy: Reclaiming Democracy in a Surveillance Society

From my list on stoic themes, influence and inspiration.

Why am I passionate about this?

I have always loved the Stoics, from the first time I read Seneca. I appreciate that they seek to speak to a wider audience than most philosophers, on issues that concern many: happiness, anxiety, pain, loss. The Stoics were wonderful writers, whose influence has been manifest throughout western philosophy. And they extended their expertise beyond the academy, and were very involved in politics. Seneca was the advisor to the emperor Nero; Cicero, who dabbled in Stoicism, was perhaps the most famous senator of Rome. Marcus Aurelius was emperor. 

Firmin's book list on stoic themes, influence and inspiration

Firmin Debrabander Why did Firmin love this book?

The Stoics were expansive philosophers, in that they were concerned about many diverse aspects of our existence: politics, ethics, epistemology, therapy, cosmology. The Stoics also aimed for their philosophy to be practical; hence, they wrote in accessible, readable fashion, so their teachings could reach many. The New York Times philosophers’ column, “The Stone,” shares Stoic concerns in applying philosophical thinking to a wide variety of topics, in a manner accessible to many. The Stone Reader is an anthology of some of the most popular essays from the New York Times column; the essays touch on many subjects, such as violence, anxiety, happiness, faith, and political power.

By Peter Catapano, Simon Critchley,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked The Stone Reader as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Once solely the province of ivory tower professors and university classrooms, contemporary philosophy was emancipated from its academic closet in 2010, when The Stone was launched in The New York Times. First appearing online, the column has attracted millions of readers through its accessible examination of topics like the nature of science, consciousness and morality, while also probing more contemporary issues such as the morality of drones, gun control and the gender divide.

Collected for the first time, The Stone Reader presents 133 influential pieces, placing nearly the entirety of modern philosophical discourse at a reader's grasp. With an introduction…


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Book cover of Subjugation: Zanchier

Subjugation By S.G. Boudreaux,

Harper Brinley is running for her life.

After escaping from a government holding facility where she, along with other scientists, was being forced to build a deadly weapon. She headed for the most remote place she could think of, the wild Xantifal Mountains.

The one place where no one would…

Book cover of Dave Barry's Greatest Hits

Sam Bowring Author Of Sam, Jake and Dylan Want Money: A Badly Behaved Comedy

From my list on which claim to be funny, but actually are.

Why am I passionate about this?

As a stand-up comedian myself, I find a lot of so-called funny books to be hugely disappointing. In these days of authors wanting their amazing works listed in every possible category on Amazon, you often find books in the humor sections which have severely mistaken ‘a somewhat light tone’ or ‘occasional moments of levity’ for being actual comedies. And don’t even get me started on the reams of literotica with covers featuring musclebound torsos that fill up any search for something supposedly funny. Kindly f*ck off, writers of the latest Billionaire Bad Boy Romance—you do not belong here. Instead, here are some books that will actually make you laugh.  

Sam's book list on which claim to be funny, but actually are

Sam Bowring Why did Sam love this book?

A collection of American humorist Dave Barry’s newspaper columns, which I’m often re-reading and laughing a great deal. Definitely ‘of it’s time’ in parts (aka a bit dated), but it also contains plenty of general observations about life, family, and defending your home against tornados. A good one for the loo, as shaking with laughter might help you ‘move things along’. 

By Dave Barry,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Dave Barry's Greatest Hits as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

When Dave Barry is on the loose, no one is safe!

What Dave Barry did for the men’s movement in his Complete Guide to Guys and for foreign relations when he did Japan he now does for . . . everything in America. The rapacious observer of Tupperware ladies and leisure concept salesmen sounds off on:

Football—Football is more than just a game. It is a potential opportunity to see a live person lying on the ground with a bone sticking out of his leg, while the fans, to show their appreciation, perform “the wave.”

Sailing—There’s nothing quite like getting…


Book cover of The Ventriloquists

Reese Hogan Author Of Shrouded Loyalties

From my list on cross-dressing women in wartime.

Why am I passionate about this?

As a nonbinary trans guy, I grew up obsessed with novels about women disguising themselves as men. I loved everything about the trope, and always felt disappointed when they had to go back to living as women. It is a trope I eagerly embraced when I wrote Shrouded Loyalties, and though I didn’t yet know the term “transgender,” I was already exploring my own gender identity through my reading and writing of this theme. The books I’ve chosen to highlight here are ones that became some of my very favorites, and also feature action-packed wartime settings like the one used in Shrouded Loyalties.

Reese's book list on cross-dressing women in wartime

Reese Hogan Why did Reese love this book?

Based on a true story, this book was a treasure of a find, detailing the rebellion of artists in Nazi-occupied Belgium in 1943. Helene, a girl disguised as a male newspaper hawker, is only a side character – a cog in the machine of the farce newspaper being published by the rebels – but her incredible voice brings the movement to life, while expertly weaving in her own questions about gender and sexuality in a world she’s not sure has a place for her. The author later came out on the nonbinary spectrum as well, which really brought home for me how many of us explore our identities through our writing before coming to terms with significant truths about ourselves.

By E. R. Ramzipoor,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked The Ventriloquists as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

“[A] remarkable saga.... Engrossing.” —Booklist, starred review

In this triumphant debut inspired by true events, a ragtag gang of journalists and resistance fighters risk everything for an elaborate scheme to undermine the Reich.

The Nazis stole their voices. But they would not be silenced.

Brussels, 1943. Twelve-year-old street orphan Helene survives by living as a boy and selling copies of the country’s most popular newspaper, Le Soir, now turned into Nazi propaganda. Helene’s world changes when she befriends a rogue journalist, Marc Aubrion, who draws her into a secret network that publishes dissident underground newspapers.

The Nazis track down Aubrion’s…


Book cover of Hearts Unbroken

Christina Berry Author Of The Road Home

From my list on Native romance by Native authors.

Why am I passionate about this?

I am an award-winning author of sex-positive contemporary romance and a citizen of the Cherokee Nation. As a reader, I’ve grown weary of Native American romance characters who are mostly caricatures and stereotypes. Last year, I went on a quest to find romance stories that portrayed contemporary Native characters experiencing love as they navigated real life in the 21st century. And who better to tell those stories than Native authors using their own voice? Now that I’ve found several great Native romance authors, I want to share these recommendations far and wide. Come, come, read Native romance!

Christina's book list on Native romance by Native authors

Christina Berry Why did Christina love this book?

This is one of the best Native books I’ve ever read. As a white-passing Native who lived away from the tribe, I really identified with Louise Wolfe’s experience as one of the few Native families in their mostly white, middle-class Kansas town. Lou’s struggle against racism on a macro and micro scale is relatable, and the story is wonderfully rewarding. It's a must-read.

By Cynthia Leitich Smith,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Hearts Unbroken as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it. This book is for kids age 14, 15, 16, and 17.

What is this book about?

Winner of an American Indian Youth Literature Award

New York Times best-selling author Cynthia Leitich Smith turns to realistic fiction with the thoughtful story of a Native teen navigating the complicated, confusing waters of high school — and first love.

When Louise Wolfe’s first real boyfriend mocks and disrespects Native people in front of her, she breaks things off and dumps him over e-mail. It’s her senior year, anyway, and she’d rather spend her time with her family and friends and working on the school newspaper. The editors pair her up with Joey Kairouz, the ambitious new photojournalist, and in…


Book cover of Our Front Pages: 21 Years of Greatness, Virtue, and Moral Rectitude from America's Finest News Source

Jass Richards Author Of Too Stupid to Visit

From my list on funny bits to make you laugh out loud.

Why am I passionate about this?

Years ago, when I went to Montreal to get my Master's degree in Philosophy, I decided to become a stand-up comic at the same time. I soon realized that I had a lot more fun coming up with the funny bits than I did being ignored or heckled while on stage delivering them. So I became a sit-down comic. (Well, a sprawled-on-the-couch comic.) I've since written and published several novels, which contain a lot of funny bits, but I decided, in addition, to publish the leftover or funny-on-their-own bits in a separate book. Hence, Too Stupid to Visit.

Jass' book list on funny bits to make you laugh out loud

Jass Richards Why did Jass love this book?

I discovered The Onion late in life as well, and also through their website. Which, yes, I have bookmarked as well—I love most just their headlines. And discovered, again, they'd actually published a book of headlines! 'Nuff said.

By The Onion,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Our Front Pages as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?


From The Birth Of A Nation To The Death Of Journalism

Since its founding by a bloodthirsty tyrant in 1756, The Onion has not merely changed the way we think about the news -- it has changed whether we think about the news at all. As the first decade of this new millennium draws to a close, Our Front Pages shows us the first thing that presidents, kings, prime ministers, and popes saw when they opened their eyes each morning for the last 21 years. Now you, the common reader and citizen, can see what they saw and be as…


Book cover of The New Deal and the Problem of Monopoly: A Study in Economic Ambivalence
Book cover of Slouching Toward Utopia: An Economic History of the Twentieth Century
Book cover of Competition Demystified: A Radically Simplified Approach to Business Strategy

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