Year-end recess does not have to mean “turning the brain off”. For people who decide under pressure – board members, C-level executives, senior managers – the quiet days around the holidays are often the best chance to step back, reflect, and come back to 2026 with sharper tools.
These are seven books I believe every executive should read in 2026 (if they have not already). The list is not about corporate crime in a narrow sense, but about how people in positions of power think, negotiate, protect their reputation, manage family wealth and handle conflict. Some titles are global best-sellers; others are Brazilian books that help understand the environment in which many companies operate and where Brazilian Criminal Law actually applies.
1. Thinking, Fast and Slow – Daniel Kahneman
I start with the foundation: how we decide. In Thinking, Fast and Slow, Nobel laureate Daniel Kahneman explains the two systems we use all the time: fast, intuitive, automatic thinking; and slow, analytical, effortful thinking.
For senior executives, the uncomfortable message is that many strategic decisions are actually driven by shortcuts and biases: overconfidence, loss aversion, anchoring, illusion of control. These patterns show up everywhere – in how a company prices a bid, reacts to a regulatory investigation or answers a provocative e-mail from a public authority.
It is a dense but very readable book. Anyone who sits on an investment committee, an audit committee or a risk committee will recognize situations in which thinking “fast” felt efficient at the time, but proved very costly later. The book is widely available in print and Kindle, and there is also a Spanish edition (Pensar rápido, pensar despacio).
2. Getting to Yes: Negotiating Agreement Without Giving In – Roger Fisher, William Ury, Bruce Patton
Once we understand how we think, the next step is how we negotiate. Getting to Yes is the classic Harvard framework for principled negotiation: focus on interests, use objective criteria, invent options for mutual gain and separate the people from the problem.
For corporate leaders, this is directly relevant to regulatory disputes, conflicts with partners, settlements with authorities and tough conversations with the State. In high-stakes situations, it is common to oscillate between wanting to win at all costs and being tempted to concede too much just to make the problem disappear. The method proposed in this book points to a different route: firm on substance, respectful in form, careful with the written record.
The book is available in English (print and e-book) and has a Portuguese edition (Como chegar ao sim) and a Spanish edition (Obtenga el sí: El arte de negociar sin ceder).
3. Never Split the Difference – Chris Voss
After the Harvard method, it is worth listening to someone who negotiated in literally life-or-death scenarios. In Never Split the Difference, former FBI hostage negotiator Chris Voss translates his experience into tools for business and everyday negotiations.
The connection with corporate life is immediate. The book shows how tactical empathy, calibrated questions and active listening can unlock impossible-looking conversations – from a deadlocked M&A deal to a leniency negotiation or a settlement meeting under media pressure. It is especially helpful for executives who confuse “being tough” with being rigid or aggressive.
The original is in English and widely available in print, audio and Kindle. There are also Brazilian (Negocie como se sua vida dependesse disso) and Spanish (Rompe la barrera del NO) editions.
4. A Era do Escândalo – Mário Rosa (Portuguese)
From individual decisions and negotiations, we move to reputation under fire. A Era do Escândalo (“The Age of the Scandal”) is a Brazilian non-fiction book by crisis-management consultant Mário Rosa. It dissects major media scandals and shows how scandals are manufactured and amplified in contemporary society.
For an executive, the book is a sober reminder that there is no such thing as a purely legal crisis anymore. The way a company communicates – or fails to communicate – during an investigation or a political storm does not just affect reputation: it may influence how regulators, prosecutors and judges perceive conduct and intent.
This is a Brazilian book, available in Portuguese (print and, in some cases, digital), mainly through Brazilian booksellers and Amazon Brazil.
5. Chatô, o Rei do Brasil – Fernando Morais (Portuguese)
Every company operates within an ecosystem of power. Chatô, o Rei do Brasil (“Chatô, the King of Brazil”) is Fernando Morais’ monumental biography of media tycoon Assis Chateaubriand. It follows the rise of a businessman who moved comfortably between press, politics, finance and culture in the 20th century.
For today’s executives, the book is valuable not because it offers a model to imitate, but because it reveals how empires and reputations are built in environments with weak institutional checks – and how easily boundaries between public and private interests can be crossed. Reading it with a 2026 mindset, under a regime of intense scrutiny and Brazilian Criminal Law, is a powerful antidote to naïve views about how things are done.
It is a Brazilian biography, available in Portuguese (print and Kindle) and recommended for readers who can comfortably read in Portuguese or are directly involved with Brazil.
6. Trapaça: saga política no universo paralelo brasileiro – Luís (Lula) Costa Pinto (Portuguese)
If Chatô shows the construction of an empire, Trapaça: saga política no universo paralelo brasileiro (“Scam: political saga in a parallel Brazilian universe”) walks through a political crisis that culminated in the impeachment of President Fernando Collor – but from a very specific angle: the disputes over control of a powerful family-owned conglomerate.
For business leaders, the book is almost a case study in everything that can go wrong when governance, family dynamics and political exposure collide. It shows how family conflicts, if not handled with clear rules and professional advice, can escalate into public crises with criminal consequences for individuals who believed they were just doing business as usual.
This is also a Brazilian book, available in Portuguese, in print and e-book (including Kindle), primarily through Amazon and Brazilian retailers.
7. The Testament – John Grisham
Finally, a legal thriller that feels uncomfortably close to reality. In The Testament, John Grisham tells the story of a billionaire’s death and the conflict between heirs over an eleven-billion-dollar fortune, part of which leads the narrative to Brazil.
Behind the suspense, the novel touches on succession planning, family conflict around wealth, the emotional pressure on lawyers and the difficulty of separating legal advice from personal expectations. For executives involved in family-owned or closely held businesses, it is a reminder that a badly designed succession process can destroy value faster than any market crisis.
The book is widely available in English (print, audio, e-book) and has Portuguese and Spanish editions for those who prefer to read it in their own language.
Why these 7 books for 2026?
More than holiday entertainment, these seven books speak to very concrete issues that appear in corporate criminal practice and high-stakes advisory work: quality of decision-making under pressure, negotiation in hostile environments, crisis communication, governance in family-owned groups, wealth succession and the thin line between calculated risk and criminal exposure.
Reading them with the mindset of someone who is responsible for people, assets and reputation is a way to arrive in 2026 slightly better prepared for the unexpected.
Choose one, or several, that resonate with your reality, set aside a few quiet days, and let the stories and ideas work in the background while you rest.
Happy 2026.
