The 12 best business books of the year, according to Stanford Business School

BUY quality bulk Yahoo Twitter Hotmail Google Voice Facebook Accounts
BrwnEydGrl75 36yo Federal Way, Washington, United States

reading subway matteo.merzi / Flickr

A good book is like food for the soul. When you want to curl up by the fire with a truly great one, look no further than this list furnished by members of the Stanford Graduate School of Business.

If you've got an entrepreneur or two in your life, these might make good holiday gifts, too:

1. Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap and Others Don't, by Jim Collins

Amazon

Collins and his team did a rigorous study of businesses that excelled as compared to those that stayed mediocre. In his words, "Some of the key concepts discerned in the study fly in the face of our modern business culture and will, quite frankly, upset some people."

2. The Hard Thing About Hard Things: Building a Business When There Are No Easy Answers, by Ben Horowitz

Amazon

Cofounder of VC firm Andreessen Horowitz keeps it real in this practical book that draws heavily on his own experiences in the Valley. It lives up to its description as "wisdom for managing the toughest problems business school doesn't cover."

3. Big Science: Ernest Lawrence and the Invention That Launched the Military-Industrial Complex, by Michael Hiltzik

Amazon

Don't let the title fool you—this book is more entertaining than it seems. Part biography, part adventure story, part history book, it really is, "[t]he epic story of how science went 'big'."

See the rest of the story at Business Insider