Bill Bratton's Reading List

A fan of crime novels, the former police commissioner and the author, with Peter Knobler, of a new memoir, "The Profession," loves Michael Connelly's hero Harry Bosch — but adds, "I don't have a favorite villain."

Open in WellRead Daily app →

By the Book: Bill Bratton (2021)

NYT By the Book column (2021-06-10).

Source: www.nytimes.com

1939: A People's History

Frederick Taylor · Buy on Amazon

"The intimacy of its day-by-day investigation of what led up to World War II gave me an entirely new perspective on how the war came about."

For Whom the Bell Tolls

Ernest Hemingway · Buy on Amazon

"What a complicated man he was."

The Commissioner

Richard Dougherty · Buy on Amazon

"The Commissioner, by Richard Dougherty, is the best book I've ever read about policing. I read it the year it was published, 1962, when I was 15, and it started me thinking about becoming New York's police commissioner."

Good to Great

Jim Collins · 2001 · Buy on Amazon

"I refer to Jim Collins's leadership book Good to Great frequently when I speak publicly. There can be no better advice for someone leading an organization."

The Tipping Point

Malcolm Gladwell · 2000 · Buy on Amazon

"I read all the books of Thomas Friedman and Malcolm Gladwell, whose The Tipping Point was based in part on the turnaround of crime and disorder on my watch in New York."

Wolf Hall

Hilary Mantel · 2009 · Buy on Amazon

"The story of Henry VIII and his chief minister, Thomas Cromwell; the country's breaking away from the papacy, and the creation of the Church of England."

Team of Rivals

Doris Kearns Goodwin · 2005 · Buy on Amazon

"I would also recommend Doris Kearns Goodwin's Team of Rivals, about Lincoln's predilection for surrounding himself with advisers of diverse outlooks."

The Power Broker

Robert Caro · 1974 · Buy on Amazon

"I'm about to start Robert Caro's Robert Moses epic, The Power Broker."

Suggest an update?