Wall Street attracts a certain breed of individual. If you like brands maybe you work at P&G. If you like apparel maybe you’ll go to Nike or Under Armour. If you like software, there’s Silicon Valley.

And so who goes to Wall Street? People who want to make money and lots of it. Succeeding there requires a special type of person. Excess is not uncommon. All of that creates a rich environment for stories, as the following best books on Wall Street bear out.

This is our second in the series on great business books. In the first installment we listed great investing books. Here we list great books on Wall Street. Our final list will be great general books about business.

Best books about Wall Street

“Liar’s Poker” by Michael Lewis, 1989

Nearly thirty years later, it’s still a must read. This book—which kind of came out of nowhere—not only launched the career of Michael Lewis, it also presaged the fall of Salomon Brothers and engendered a rocky episode for Warren Buffett. No small things there. “Liar’s” is a semi-autobiographical account of a clueless Lewis leaving Princeton, going to work on Wall Street, finding it to be a rat’s nest and then decamping to become a writer. All manner of people have tried to tell this kind of story over the years, but Lewis succeeded because of his great eye, his storytelling (which some find excessive) and his turn of phrase. Of course Lewis has gone on to become one of the most prominent non-fiction business writers of our time. (See also “The Big Short,” and “Moneyball” among others.)

View photos Michael Lewis. (Photo by T.J. Kirkpatrick/Getty Images) More

“Greed and Glory on Wall Street: The Fall of the House of Lehman” by Ken Auletta, 1986

“Transcends its Genre,” wrote one reviewer back then, and it’s true. Ken Auletta, another lion of a writer, tells of the rise and fall of Lehman 1.0. Not only is this book a great history/snapshot of Wall Street, but it also introduces us to the likes of Pete Peterson, Steve Schwarzman, Eric Gleacher, Roger Altman, Dick Fuld and many others. “Greed and Glory” is a classic struggle between old and new Wall Street—a tug of war that would be repeated dozens of times over the years. (See Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, etc.) In this narrative Lehman basically died—and was later reborn—only to expire again in 2008. Will Lehman rise one more time? Don’t bet against it. (See also “Three Blind Mice: How the TV networks lost their way.”)

“Den of Thieves,” by Jim Stewart, 1992

Pulitzer Prize-winning author Jim Stewart—like Auletta and Lewis—almost deserves his own category he’s written so many epic business books, but this book stands out because it covers so much ground and does it so expertly. “Den” is the definitive work about the 1980s insider trading scandals (Ivan Boesky) and excesses and rise and fall of Drexel Burnham Lambert. I remember not being able to put it down. (See also “Disney War.”)

“Reminiscences of a Stock Operator” by Edwin Lefèvre, 1923

While “Reminiscences of a Stock Operator” was originally published almost a century ago, it’s amazing how relevant it is today. The book is a thinly veiled biography of Jesse Livermore, a renowned trader who began his career speculating in bucket shops at the start of the 20th century. As entertaining as it is educational, Lefèvre’s work of historical fiction showcases the nuances of the stock market and the psychology of trading and offers timeless advice on the markets. —Justine Underhill, Yahoo Finance reporter

View photos Billionaire investor George Soros. (Photo by Sean Gallup/Getty Images) More

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