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Steve Jobs biography: Best business book of the year?

One year after Steve Jobs' death, his biography by Walter Isaacson is now a finalist for the annual Financial Times and Goldman Sachs Business Book of the Year award. The book came with Steve Jobs' full cooperation. 

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Paul Sakuma/AP/File
Copies of the book 'Steve Jobs,' by Walter Isaacson are piled high at a book shop in Menlo Park, Calif.
  • By Ned Smith BusinessNewsDaily

Steve Jobs' star power continues to shine in the publishing world even one year after his death. Walter Isaacson's authoritative biography of Apple's late founder, written with his full cooperation before his death, is one of six candidates in the eighth annual Financial Times and Goldman Sachs Business Book of the Year award.

The book is one of six selected by a distinguished panel of judges for its ability to provide compelling and enjoyable insights into modern business issues.

In addition to Isaacson's landmark work, "Steve Jobs: The Exclusive Biography" (Simon & Schuster, 2011), the finalists include "Why Nations Fail: The Origins of Power, Prosperity and Poverty" (Crown Business, 2012) by Daron Acemoglu and James A. Robinson; and "The Hour Between Dog and Wolf: Risk-Taking, Gut Feelings and the Biology of Boom and Bust" (The Penguin Press, 2012) by John Coates.

Completing the list are "Private Empire: ExxonMobil and American Power" (The Penguin Press, 2012) by Steve Coll; "What Money Can't Buy: The Moral Limits of Markets" (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2012) by Michael S. Sandel; and "Volcker: The Triumph of Persistence" (Bloomsbury Press), William L. Silber's study of the role played by Paul Volcker, former chairman of the U.S. Federal Reserve, in American economic history.

The winner, which will be announced in New York City on Nov. 1, will be awarded 30,000 pounds (U.S. $48,749, and each of the remaining shortlisted authors will receive 10,000 pounds.
Previous winners of the award are: Abhijit V. Banerjee and Esther Duflo for "Poor Economics:  A Radical Rethinking of the Way to Fight Global Poverty" (2011); Raghuram Rajan for "Fault Lines"(2010); Liaquat Ahamed for "The Lords of Finance"(2009); Mohamed El-Erian for "When Markets Collide"(2008); William D. Cohan for "The Last Tycoons" (2007); James Kynge for "China Shakes the World"(2006); and Thomas Friedman, inaugural award winner in 2005, for "The World is Flat."

 "The quality of submissions this year was outstanding, and we therefore have a very powerful shortlist," said Lionel Barber, editor of the Financial Times and chairman of the judging panel, which includes Arthur Levitt, former chairman of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. "It has a strong emphasis on leadership and broader institutional and political issues, reflecting the mood of the world today."

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