Holiday Gifts for Expats and Global Citizens: 10 Great Books from 2023

By Peggy Creveling, CFA and Chad Creveling, CFA

With the year drawing to a close, we hope everyone enjoys a break over the upcoming year-end holidays. To help, here’s our annual list of good books that were published during 2023. As always, some books are more serious, and others are just for fun. All have digital and audio versions available, which makes giving them to friends and loved ones that much easier. We wish all of our readers the very best holiday season!

1. Outlive: The Science and Art of Longevity by Peter Attia. A groundbreaking manifesto on living better and longer that challenges the conventional medical thinking on aging and reveals a new approach to preventing chronic disease and extending long-term health, from a visionary physician and leading longevity expert. “Peter Attia is among the most brilliant people I’ve ever met, and he’s succeeded in packing a life’s worth of insights into this book. It promises to be one of the most important books you’ll ever read.”—Steven D. Levitt, author of Freakonomics. “There comes a point where we need to stop just pulling people out of the river. We need to go upstream and find out why they’re falling in.” —Bishop Desmond Tutu
2. Generations: The Real Differences Between Gen Z, Millennials, Gen X, Boomers, and Silents by Jean M. Twenge, PhD.  A groundbreaking, revelatory portrait of the six generations…and how they connect, conflict, and compete with one another. “Twenge shows not just how we all differ from our parents and children, but why. It’s not mostly because of major events; it's a far more interesting story about technology and the slowing down of childhood development. Generations is vital reading for parents, teachers, managers, and anyone else who works across the generation gaps.” —Jonathan Haidt NYU—Stern School of Business.
3. Digital Empires: The Global Battle to Regulate Technology by Anu Bradford. The global battle among the three dominant digital powers-- the United States, China, and the European Union--is intensifying. All three regimes are racing to regulate tech companies, with each advancing a competing vision for the digital economy while attempting to expand its sphere of influence in the digital world. In Digital Empires, her provocative follow-up to The Brussels Effect, Anu Bradford explores a rivalry that will shape the world in the decades to come. "Anu Bradford's Digital Empires is an essential read for anyone who wants to understand the regulatory choices confronting governments that seek to reign in big tech….Bradford's voice is clear and reasonable and this book is a tour de force." -- Joseph E. Stiglitz, Nobel laureate 2001
4. The Wager: A Tale of Shipwreck, Mutiny and Murder by David Grann. A Best Book of the Year: The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, TIME, NPR, Esquire, BookPage. The Wager is a grand tale of human behavior at the extremes told by one of our greatest nonfiction writers.   “A story of mayhem and murder, adventure, and reckless ambition on the high seas…..Grann brilliantly retells the story of the Wager—a British boat bound for South America on a secret mission during the Imperial War with Spain. The fate of the captain and crew was not to be one of conquest or fortune… The personalities aboard this 18th-century ship are made for the history books, and Grann has written an epic narrative that is both shocking and utterly absorbing.” —Al Woodworth, Amazon Editor
5. Going Infinite: The Rise and Fall of a New Tycoon by Michael Lewis. When Michael Lewis first met him, Sam Bankman-Fried was the world’s youngest billionaire and crypto’s Gatsby. CEOs, celebrities, and leaders of small countries all vied for his time and cash after he catapulted, practically overnight, onto the Forbes billionaire list. Who was this rumpled guy in cargo shorts and limp white socks, whose eyes twitched across Zoom meetings as he played video games on the side? "Going Infinite is wildly entertaining…but it adds up to a sad story, even a tragedy, for its central character and for all the people who lost so much thanks to his actions." —John Lanchester, London Review of Books
6. Sparks: China's Underground Historians and their Battle for the Future. By Ian Johnson. The past is a battleground in many countries, but in China it is crucial to political power….Based on years of first-hand research in Xi Jinping's China, Sparks challenges stereotypes of a China where the state has quashed all free thought, revealing instead a country engaged in one of humanity's great struggles of memory against forgetting—a battle that will shape the China that emerges in the mid-21st century. Ian Johnson is a Pulitzer Prize-winning writer who has spent twenty years in China writing for The New York Review of Books, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, as well as serving for five years on the editorial board of The Journal of Asian Studies. "A brave book about inspiring people, underlining the value of freedom, independence, and courage." -- Kirkus Reviews
7. Anansi's Gold: The Man Who Looted the West, Outfoxed Washington, and Swindled the World By Yepoka Yeebo. The astounding, never-before-told story of how an audacious Ghanaian con artist pulled off one of the 20th century’s longest-running and most spectacular frauds. “Oh, my. I have never attacked a 400-page book with such energy, fascination, and curiosity. I saw “Anansi’s Gold” at a bookstore recently, and the bookstore owner had placed a note by the book: “The best non-fiction I’ve read since opening the store!” I can’t stop talking about it this page-turner.” –John W. Pierson, Top Amazon Review
8. Material World. By Ed Conway.  Sand, salt, iron, copper, oil, and lithium. These fundamental materials have created empires, razed civilizations, and fed our ingenuity and greed for thousands of years. Without them, our modern world would not exist, and the battle to control them will determine our future …We dug more stuff out of the earth in 2017 than in all of human history before 1950….A celebration of the little-known companies that combine to turn raw materials into things of wonder. This is the story of human civilization from an entirely new perspective: the ground up. “Lucidly shows the scale of the environmental problem and the irony of new demand created by efforts to wean ourselves off oil onto batteries." —John Gapper, Financial Times
9. Plunder: Private Equity’s Plan to Pillage America by Brendan Ballou. In Plunder, Brendan Ballou (Special Counsel for Private Equity in the Justice Department's Antitrust Division) vividly illustrates how many private equity firms buy up retailers, medical practices, prison services, nursing-home chains, and mobile-home parks, among other businesses, using little of their own money to do it and avoiding debt and liability for their actions. Forced to take on huge debts and pay extractive fees, companies purchased by private equity firms are often left bankrupt, or shells of their former selves, with consequences to communities that long depended on them. “Want to know what destroyed all the stores you used to frequent at the malls of your youth? Read this. Want to know why you're afraid to leave grandma in a nursing home? Read on. Want to know why home rentals are out of reach for so many families now? You'll discover part of that answer here too.” -- myty nsb, Top Amazon Review
10. The Art Thief: A True Story of Love, Crime, and a Dangerous Obsession by Michael Finkel. One of the most remarkable true-crime narratives of the twenty-first century: the story of the world’s most prolific art thief, Stéphane Breitwieser….This is a riveting story of art, crime, love, and an insatiable hunger to possess beauty at any cost. "A mesmerizing true-crime psychological thriller… The final outcome is a shock. Mr. Finkel tells an enthralling story. From start to finish, this book is hard to put down." —Moira Hodgson, The Wall Street Journal

About Creveling & Creveling Private Wealth Advisory

Creveling & Creveling is a private wealth advisory firm specializing in helping expatriates living in Thailand and throughout Southeast Asia build and preserve their wealth. The firm is a Registered Investment Adviser with the U.S. SEC and is licensed and regulated by the Thai SEC. Through a unique, integrated consulting approach, Creveling & Creveling is dedicated to helping clients cut through the financial intricacies of expat life, make better decisions with their money, and take the steps necessary to provide a more secure future.

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