Michael Lewis Popular Books

Michael Lewis Biography & Facts

Michael Monroe Lewis (born October 15, 1960) is an American author and financial journalist. He has also been a contributing editor to Vanity Fair since 2009, writing mostly on business, finance, and economics. He is known for his nonfiction work, particularly his coverage of financial crises and behavioral finance. Lewis was born in New Orleans and attended Princeton University, from which he graduated with a degree in art history. After attending the London School of Economics, he began a career on Wall Street during the 1980s as a bond salesman at Salomon Brothers. The experience prompted him to write his first book, Liar's Poker (1989). Fourteen years later, Lewis wrote Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game (2003), in which he investigated the success of Billy Beane and the Oakland Athletics. His 2006 book The Blind Side: Evolution of a Game was his first to be adapted into a film, The Blind Side (2009). In 2010, he released The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine. The film adaptation of Moneyball was released in 2011, followed by The Big Short in 2015. Lewis's books have won two Los Angeles Times Book Prizes and several have reached number one on the New York Times Bestsellers Lists, including his most recent book, Going Infinite (2023). Early life and education Lewis was born in New Orleans, the son of corporate attorney J. Thomas Lewis and community activist Diana Monroe Lewis. He went to Isidore Newman School. He later attended Princeton University and graduated cum laude with a B.A. in art and archaeology in 1982 after completing a 166-page senior thesis titled "Donatello and the Antique." At Princeton, Lewis was a member of the Ivy Club. He briefly worked with New York City art dealer Daniel Wildenstein. In an interview with Charlie Rose, Lewis said that his initial ambition was to become an art historian, but he was quickly dissuaded once he realized that there would be no jobs available for art historians and that even the handful that existed did not pay well.Lewis subsequently enrolled at the London School of Economics and received an MA in economics in 1985. He was hired by Salomon Brothers, stayed for a while in New York for its training program, and then relocated to London, where he worked at its London office as a bond salesman for a few years. He has said that the journalism from this era found in The Economist and The Wall Street Journal inspired him to explore becoming a writer. Career Writing Lewis described his experiences at Salomon and the evolution of the mortgage-backed bond in Liar's Poker (1989). In The New New Thing (1999), he investigated the then-booming Silicon Valley and the obsession with innovation. Four years later, Lewis wrote Moneyball (2003), in which he investigated the success of Billy Beane and the Oakland Athletics. In August 2007, he wrote an article about catastrophe bonds, "In Nature's Casino", that ran in The New York Times Magazine.Lewis has worked for The Spectator, The New York Times Magazine, as a columnist for Bloomberg, as a senior editor and campaign correspondent to The New Republic, and a visiting fellow at the University of California, Berkeley. He wrote the Dad Again column for Slate. Lewis worked for Conde Nast Portfolio, but in February 2009 left to join Vanity Fair, where he became a contributing editor.In September 2011, after the successful release of the film adaptation of Moneyball, it was reported that Lewis planned to take on "a much more active role in the what could be the next film based on one of his books" and would start writing a script for a Liar's Poker film.During 2013 in Vanity Fair, Lewis wrote on the injustice of the prosecution of ex-Goldman Sachs programmer Sergey Aleynikov, who is given an entire chapter in Flash Boys. Flash Boys, which looked at high-frequency trading of Wall Street and other markets, was released in March 2014.In 2016, Lewis published The Undoing Project, chronicling the close academic collaboration and personal relationship between Israeli psychologists Amos Tversky and Daniel Kahneman. The duo found systemic errors in human judgment under uncertainty, with implications for models of decision-making in fields such as economics, medicine, and sports. In 2017, Lewis wrote a series of articles for Vanity Fair in which he described the Trump administration's approach to various federal agencies, including the Department of Energy and the Department of Agriculture. His articles described a sense of incredulity and disillusionment from career civil servants, particularly because of the Trump administration's lack of attention to some of their work, and the lack of care, knowledge, experience, and respect from Trump political appointees.That material was incorporated into Lewis's book The Fifth Risk, which was on the New York Times nonfiction best-seller list for 14 weeks, and described the disconnect between the Obama administration's well-prepared transition plans and the incoming Trump administration's apparent lack of concern. Along with Energy and Agriculture, this book added Commerce among the main departments described. In September 2018, The Guardian published an excerpt from the book, using a quote by Trump advisor Steve Bannon in its title: "This Guy Doesn't Know Anything". The excerpt was republished again among a review of the most popular articles of the year.In 2018, Lewis wrote and narrated The Coming Storm for Audible Studios, which released the short nonfiction story as part of its new Audible Originals series of audiobooks.In 2023, he wrote Going Infinite, about the collapse of the cryptocurrency exchange FTX and its CEO, Sam Bankman-Fried. Broadcasting and podcasts Lewis's podcast, Against the Rules, first aired on April 2, 2019. The first season comprised seven episodes, each taking on a different aspect of society addressing the concept of fairness "in realms ranging from art authentication to consumer finance". The show often refers to the growing social distrust for authority, and refers to different types of public officials as "referees." Against the Rules is produced by Pushkin Industries, the media company founded by journalist Malcolm Gladwell and former Slate executive Jacob Weisberg. On January 12, 2020, Lewis appeared as one of the castaways on BBC Radio 4's Desert Island Discs. Reception In a review of Moneyball, Dan Ackman of Forbes said that Lewis had a special talent: "He can walk into an area already mined by hundreds of writers and find gems there all along but somehow missed by his predecessors". A New York Times piece said that "no one writes with more narrative panache about money and finance than Mr. Lewis", praising his ability to use his subject's stories to show the problems with the systems around them.Critics from outside the financial industry have criticized Lewis for what they consider inaccuracies in his writing. In a 2011 column in The Atlantic, American journalist and sports author Allen Barra took issue wi.... Discover the Michael Lewis popular books. Find the top 100 most popular Michael Lewis books.

Best Seller Michael Lewis Books of 2024

  • Money Men synopsis, comments

    Money Men

    Dan McCrum

    'The financial investigation of the decade... Money Men instantly enters the canon of great financial crime books' Bradley Hope, author of The Billion Dollar Whale'A riproaring rid...

  • The Creative Economy synopsis, comments

    The Creative Economy

    John Howkins

    Creativity is the fastest growing business in the world.Companies are hungry for people with ideas and more and more of us want to make, buy, sell and share creative products. But...

  • The Scandal of Money synopsis, comments

    The Scandal of Money

    George Gilder

    "Why do we think governments know how to create money? They don't. George Gilder shows that money is time, and time is real. He is our best guide to our most fundamental economic p...

  • The Sacred History synopsis, comments

    The Sacred History

    Mark Booth

    This collection of stories and illustrationsall about the wonders of the spiritual realmtakes you on a captivating ride from the great myths of ancient civilization to astounding d...

  • The Lords of Easy Money synopsis, comments

    The Lords of Easy Money

    Christopher Leonard

    The Wall Street Journal Best Book of the Year NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER The New York Times bestselling business journalist Christopher Leonard infiltrates one of America’s most my...

  • Winning Is Not Enough synopsis, comments

    Winning Is Not Enough

    Sir Jackie Stewart

    Sir Jackie Stewart is one of the most highly regarded names in global sport winner of three F1 World Championships, 27 Grands Prix and ranked in the top five drivers of all time. ...

  • The Divided Self synopsis, comments

    The Divided Self

    R. D. Laing

    The Divided Self, R.D. Laing's groundbreaking exploration of the nature of madness, illuminated the nature of mental illness and made the mysteries of the mind comprehensible to a ...

  • The Accidental Billionaires synopsis, comments

    The Accidental Billionaires

    Ben Mezrich

    NATIONAL BESTSELLER“The Social Network, the much anticipated movie…adapted from Ben Mezrich’s book The Accidental Billionaires.” The New York TimesBest friends Eduardo Saverin and ...

  • The Mechanic synopsis, comments

    The Mechanic

    Marc 'Elvis' Priestley

    Meet Marc 'Elvis' Priestley: the former numberone McLaren mechanic, and the brains behind some of Formula One's greatest ever drivers.Revealing the most outrageous secrets and fier...

  • Offerings synopsis, comments

    Offerings

    Michael ByungJu Kim

    The national bestseller that Gary Shteyngart has called, "A potent combination of a financial thriller and a comingofage immigrant tale. . . . Offerings is a great book."...

  • The Signal and the Noise synopsis, comments

    The Signal and the Noise

    Nate Silver

    "Nate Silver's The Signal and the Noise is The Soul of a New Machine for the 21st century." Rachel Maddow, author of Drift Nate Silver built an innovative system for predicting ...

  • Flight or Fright synopsis, comments

    Flight or Fright

    Stephen King

    #1 New York Times bestselling author and master of horror Stephen King teams up with Bev Vincent of Cemetery Dance to present a terrifying collection of sixteen short stories (and ...

  • The Debt Trap synopsis, comments

    The Debt Trap

    Josh Mitchell

    AN NPR AND NEW YORK POST BEST BOOK OF 2021From acclaimed Wall Street Journal reporter Josh Mitchell, the “devastating account” (The Wall Street Journal) of student debt in America....

  • Standing My Ground synopsis, comments

    Standing My Ground

    Harry Dunn

    New York Times Bestseller The stirring memoir of Harry Dunn, a Capitol Police Officer on duty January 6th, who has become one of the most prominent and essential voices regard...

  • 50 Economics Classics synopsis, comments

    50 Economics Classics

    Tom Butler-Bowdon

    Economics drives the modern world and shapes our lives, but few of us feel we have time to engage with the breadth of ideas in the subject. 50 Economics Classics is the smart perso...

  • Viking Age Iceland synopsis, comments

    Viking Age Iceland

    Jesse Byock

    Medieval Iceland was unique amongst Western Europe, with no foreign policy, no defence forces, no king, no lords, no peasants and few battles. It should have been a utopia yet its ...

  • Staying on Track synopsis, comments

    Staying on Track

    Nigel Mansell

    'EXTREMELY ENTERTAINING...REMARKABLY FRANK' DAILY TELEGRAPH 50 GREATEST SPORTS BOOKS OF ALL TIME After finishing as runnerup three times in the drivers' world championship, in 1992...

  • Pandemia synopsis, comments

    Pandemia

    Alex Berenson

    The most important fact about the coronavirus pandemic that turned the world upside down in 2020 is that our response to it has been an epic overreaction driven by a disastrous con...

  • Life After Google synopsis, comments

    Life After Google

    George Gilder

    A FINANCIAL TIMES BOOK OF THE MONTH FROM THE WALL STREET JOURNAL: "Nothing Mr. Gilder says or writes is ever delivered at anything less than the fullest philosophica...

  • Dueling with Kings synopsis, comments

    Dueling with Kings

    Daniel Barbarisi

    In the spirit of Bringing Down the House and The Wolf of Wall Street, “an engrossing and often hilarious behindthescenes look at the characters, compulsions, and chaos inside the f...

  • The Plague Year synopsis, comments

    The Plague Year

    Lawrence Wright

    From the Pulitzer Prize–winning author of The Looming Tower, and the pandemic novel The End of October: an unprecedented, momentous account of Covid19its origins, its wideranging r...

  • Travels With Casey synopsis, comments

    Travels With Casey

    Benoit Denizet-Lewis

    A New York Times bestseller and People “Book of the Week”: This hilarious, charming road trip through canineloving America is “essential reading for dog lovers and armchair travele...

  • Billion Dollar Whale synopsis, comments

    Billion Dollar Whale

    Bradley Hope & Tom Wright

    Named a Best Book of 2018 by the Financial Times and Fortune, this "thrilling" (Bill Gates) New York Times bestseller exposes how a "modern Gatsby" swindled over $5 billion with th...

  • The Wolf of Investing synopsis, comments

    The Wolf of Investing

    Jordan Belfort

    From the “raw and frequently hilarious” (The New York Times) investment guru and New York Times bestselling author of The Wolf of Wall Street who inspired the Oscarwinning film of ...

  • Making History synopsis, comments

    Making History

    Richard Cohen

    A “supremely entertaining” (The New Yorker) exploration of who gets to record the world’s historyfrom Julius Caesar to William Shakespeare to Ken Burnsand how their biases influenc...

  • Out of the Desert synopsis, comments

    Out of the Desert

    Ali Al-Naimi

    The extraordinary memoir of global oil's former central bankerAli AlNaimi is the former Saudi oil minister and OPEC kingpin a position he held for the two decades between August ...

  • The Bank That Lived a Little synopsis, comments

    The Bank That Lived a Little

    Philip Augar

    Based on unparalleled access to those involved, and told with compelling pace and drama, The Bank that Lived a Little describes three decades of boardroom intrigue at one of Britai...

  • Hits, Flops, and Other Illusions synopsis, comments

    Hits, Flops, and Other Illusions

    Ed Zwick

    A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER LOS ANGELES TIMES BESTSELLER USA TODAY BESTSELLER This heartfelt and wry career memoir from the director of Blood Diamond, The Last Samurai, Legends o...

  • American Rascal synopsis, comments

    American Rascal

    Greg Steinmetz

    A gripping, “rollicking” (John Carreyrou, New York Times bestselling author of Bad Blood) biography of Jay Gould, the greatest of the 19thcentury robber barons, whose brilliance, g...

  • Buzz Saw synopsis, comments

    Buzz Saw

    Jesse Dougherty

    The remarkable story of the 2019 World Series champion Washington Nationals told by the Washington Post writer who followed the team most closely.By May 2019, the Washington Nation...

  • Freezing Order synopsis, comments

    Freezing Order

    Bill Browder

    Following his explosive New York Times bestseller Red Notice, Bill Browder returns with another “explosive and compulsive” (Stephen Fry) thriller chronicling how he became Vladimir...

  • Number Go Up synopsis, comments

    Number Go Up

    Zeke Faux

    The “rollicking” (The Economist), “masterfully written” (The Washington Post) account of the crypto delusion, and how Sam BankmanFried and a cast of fellow nerds and hust...

  • Den of Thieves synopsis, comments

    Den of Thieves

    James B. Stewart

    A #1 bestseller from coast to coast, Den of Thieves tells the full story of the insidertrading scandal that nearly destroyed Wall Street, the men who pulled it off, and the chase t...

  • Lincoln and the Irish synopsis, comments

    Lincoln and the Irish

    Niall O'Dowd

    An unprecedented narrative of the relationship that swung the Civil War. When Pickett charged at Gettysburg, it was the allIrish Pennsylvania 69th who held fast while the surroundi...

  • Things My Son Needs to Know about the World synopsis, comments

    Things My Son Needs to Know about the World

    Fredrik Backman

    The #1 New York Times bestselling author of A Man Called Ove shares an irresistible and moving collection of heartfelt, humorous essays about fatherhood, providing his newborn son ...

  • The Dealmaker synopsis, comments

    The Dealmaker

    Guy Hands

    An inside account of the multibillion pound world of private equity and a masterclass on the art of dealmaking.The Dealmaker is a frank and honest account of how a severely dyslexi...

  • Losers synopsis, comments

    Losers

    Michael Lewis

       Michael Lewis is a master at dissecting the absurd: after skewering Wall Street in his national bestseller Liar's Poker, he packed his mighty pen and set out on t...

  • The Big Short by Michael Lewis - A 15-minute Summary synopsis, comments

    The Big Short by Michael Lewis - A 15-minute Summary

    InstaRead Summaries

    The Big Short by Michael Lewis A 15minute Instaread Summary Inside this Instaread Summary: Overview of the entrie book, Introduction to the important people in the book, Summary...

  • For the Love of Money synopsis, comments

    For the Love of Money

    Sam Polk

    “Part comingofage story, part recovery memoir, and part exposé of a rotten, moneydrenched Wall Street culture” (Salon), Sam Polk’s unflinching account chronicles his fight to overc...

  • Leading Without Authority synopsis, comments

    Leading Without Authority

    Keith Ferrazzi & Noel Weyrich

    The #1 New York Times bestselling author of Never Eat Alone redefines collaboration with a radical new workplace operating system in which leadership no longer demands an offi...

  • Capital synopsis, comments

    Capital

    Karl Marx & Ben Fowkes

    'A groundbreaking work of economic analysis. It is also a literary masterpice' Francis Wheen, GuardianOne of the most notorious and influential works of modern times, Capital is an...