The most recommended gold standard books

Erik Hickey is the pioneer in serial killer research. His renowned book is the gold standard for those wishing to gather the facts about serial murderers, their crimes, and their victims. He does not include “gore” (his word) in his writings. His work is methodical, evidence-based, and respectful, and his results have been consistently replicated by my team and others. With respect to my recommendation theme, in this book, Hickey describes his lengthy research on both male and female serial killers and emphasizes that the crimes of male serial killers (MSKs) are starkly different than those of FSKs. I know him to be a great supporter of other researchers in their empirical pursuits. His book is a must-have for scholars and students of psychology and criminal justice interested in this topic.

Britain, America, and France collectively adopted deflationary policies after 1920 to reestablish the gold standard at the pre-World-War-I parity. Japan's government joined in. The ensuing Japanese deflation retarded growth, produced widespread economic hardship, precipitated a banking crisis in 1927, and ultimately contributed to the sharp swing in Japan's politics towards fascistic, right-wing reactionaries, punctuated with an exclamation mark by the “Manchuria incident” of 1931. Metzler describes in granular detail this historical arc, with special attention to the key persons—including Innoue Junnosuke, Takahashi Korekiyo, and Thomas W. Lamont—and their own written justifications or critiques for the policies they or others implemented. It is not an economic analysis (like much of my book is) but a historical narrative, and a gripping one.

If you already know the economics of the gold standard, it’s even more gripping, because those behind the return to the gold standard in Japan, particularly including Innoue Junnosuke, were… show more.

This book outlines how the visual field operates at a psychological level.

I am an architect and cannot believe that we don’t teach straight from this and other Arnheim books more often. If you want to know what is happening to you, why you get chills up your spine when looking at art, read this book.

Arnheim is a psychologist, not a designer, so he breaks art down from this perspective.

I first read this book when I was a teenager, and it became my gold standard on how to write engaging, imaginative worlds and the unique histories, languages, and cultures that populate them.

More than the intricate space politics and incredibly innovative anthropology present in this massive series, however, I was most drawn to how the main character, Bren (a human diplomat trying to navigate his way through the court intrigue of an alien government) eventually finds a family unlike any other in his atevi bodyguards, Banichi and Jago. 

Bren also gathers a wide collection of allies and companions on the strange world his space-faring ancestors crash-landed on 150 years ago…all while trying to avoid being assassinated or starting an interplanetary war. 

Syd Field is revered as the original master of screenplay story structure, and this guide continues to be the industry's gold standard for learning the foundations of screenwriting. Even if you’re not writing a screenplay, read this book.

I have learned over the years that the principles of three-act structure can be recognised in, or applied to, almost every form of storytelling, whether you are making a film; telling a joke; designing a firework display; writing a novel, a play, a song; performing a magic act or making a speech. No one explains 3-act structure more clearly than Syd Field. He doesn’t offer it as a failsafe formula, but I have found his paradigm invaluable as both a writer and a teacher, especially for identifying narrative flaws in a story that is not working. (Usually mine).

In the view of many—including me!—early childhood education in Reggio Emilia, a city in Northern Italy, constitutes the gold standard, combining the genius of American and European approaches. While the ideas were developed primarily in Reggio Emilia, the long-term collaboration between Reggio and Project Zero at Harvard University made the practices clear to the rest of the world.

Interestingly, both Jerome Bruner and I spent many years visiting these schools, trying to understand them, and writing about them for both educators and the general public.

Iron Prince is unique in this list (and among most progression fantasy books) in that it takes place in the distant future, on one of many planets in a galaxy at war.

Instead of mystical cores or game or system-imposed leveling constructs, individuals are given CADs (combat assistance devices) that largely do the same thing. 

What I love about the book is that the main character, Rei, is the ultimate underdog. He’s done everything he could to achieve success despite his shortcomings, only to get crushed by peers and a governing system that abhors weakness.

His determination to push on is one of my favorite traits in characters, and ensures that we, the audience, remain engaged, even as he learns to leverage his unique gifts. Smart and never boring, I can’t wait for the sequel!

My own book title is explicitly an homage to this book, which tells the story of the sterling standard in its heyday. 

It is my dream that readers will put my book next to this one on their bookshelves, reading mine as a continuation of the story that DeCecco tells so masterfully. He is more economic historian, and I am more historian of economic ideas, so the books are different (and his original was in Italian), but they can be read as in conversation with one another. 

This is another book that I look forward to rereading, now that I know more, and engaging more deeply and systematically.

There have been a lot of comprehensive histories of the American Revolution published since, but Christopher Ward’s The War of the Revolution is still the gold standard.

Want me to prove it? Pick up a Ferling or Philbrick or any other historian writing about the American Revolution today and see how many times they use it in their work.

Expertly documented, with clean, concise writing that can be read end-to-end or used as a reference for specific campaigns and battles, this is my go-to source for everything American Revolution.  

Consultants come in many flavors. Some are content consultants; others focus on technology; still others deal with the “soft side.” Regardless of how consultants work their magic, this book lays out clearly and in fair detail the ABCs of “flawless” consulting.

The key question is: How can consultants leverage their impact in the absence of control? I find this book a valuable guide to answering this tough question. It covers the waterfront from the contracting process to overcoming client resistance to providing feedback, which is often a major roadblock to a consultant’s success.

This book should be required reading for all consultants, especially those who are new to the task.