If at first you don't succeed, keep reading

The Life: With summer heating up and many residents either traveling or with more time off at home, the need for a good business book is all the more important. Here are some top picks.

Adapt: Why Success Always Starts With Failfure, by Tim Harford (Farrar, Straus & Giroux/Little, Brown)

Q&A: Fatal Risk: A Cautionary Tale of AIG’s Corporate Suicide.

So what does AIG stand for? American International Group.

And what exactly does the company do? It's a global insurance and financial services business that operates in about 130 countries.

What's the big deal about the firm? It was considered a very sound institution with a "triple-A" credit rating until it took on too much risk and ended up getting bailed out by the US government in the fall of 2008.

So what went wrong? Boyd argues that AIG's former chief executive, Hank Greenberg, was obsessed with minimising risk at the firm. However, once he was fired from AIG, the company quickly went on a subprime-mortgage binge and took on far too much risk

With summer in full swing, there has never been a better time to catch up with your reading. Here are some of the leading business books that have come out this year, according to a recent list compiled by Bloomberg News.

Adapt: Why Success Always Starts With Failure, by Tim Harford (Farrar, Straus & Giroux/Little, Brown)

Harford draws from research in fields such as psychology, physics and economics and argues that people must adapt while tackling challenging issues such as fostering innovation, climate change, financial crises and poverty.

Ugly Beauty, by Ruth Brandon (Harper)

This historical book reconstructs the lives of two tycoons in the beauty industry: Helena Rubinstein, who started a cosmetics brand in Australia, and Eugene Schueller, who founded L'Oreal.

What makes it interesting, according to some book reviewers, is how the author pits the two companies and their founders against one another.

Guaranteed to Fail by Viral V Acharya, Matthew Richardson, Stijn Van Nieuwerburgh

and Lawrence J. White (Princeton)

Four professors from New York University's Stern School of Business explain how Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac got so big and why Americans must help fix them.

The Haves and the Have-Nots by Branko Milanovic (Basic)

Milanovic, the lead economist for the World Bank, presents "a brief and idiosyncratic history" of inequality, from ancient Rome to contemporary London. A review from The New York Times calls it an eclectic book on inequality that attempts to document the long history of coveting by the poor, and the grim consequences of that coveting.

Fatal Risk: A Cautionary Tale of AIG's Corporate Suicide by Roddy Boyd (Wiley)

A review from The Wall Street Journal says this book paints a vivid portrait of the giant insurer at the centre of the 2008 financial crisis, while Bloomberg News recommends it for its engaging reconstruction of how the company came unstuck.

Top 5: best-selling business hardcovers

1 Reckless Endangerment by Gretchen Morgenson and Joshua Rosner

2 Knowing Your Value by Mika Brzezinski

31 Car Guys vs. Bean Counters by Bob Lutz

4 Get Rich Click! by Marc Ostrofsky

5 We First by Simon Mainwaring

Source: The New York Times

The Quote: These steps are taken in the interest of promoting stability in financial markets and limiting damage to the broader economy. Tony Fratto, former White House spokesman, on the bailout of AIG in 2008