Whether you're considering buying your first home or are working off that monthly mortgage payment, this must-read will give you the complete picture of home ownership, even in a troubled real-estate market. Arranged in "chronological" order (from before-you-buy to free-and-clear home ownership), this book can be read straight through, or dipped into at the part of the cycle relevant to you. Can owning a home save--or even earn--you money? Read author David Crook's book to help you figure out whether the biggest purchase of most people's lifetimes is a sensible one for you to make.

Ever wonder what miraculous financial strategies allow people to live in America's wealthiest neighborhoods? Journalist Ryan D'Agostino did--enough to knock on doors and actually ask the people who answered what their secrets were. While not everybody was willing to talk to him, about 50 homeowners were. Through his conversations with them, D'Agostino was able to come up with five significant observations, including that luck plays into financial success far less than focus and street smarts. For more, give this book, which Booklist calls "sharp, bright, and engaging," a try.

If you've watched Donny Deutsch's CNBC television show, The Big Idea, you're probably familiar with his stories of ordinary men and women who have made it big by following through on ideas they believed in. In this book, Deutsch's second, he offers up profiles of the entrepreneurs from his show and shares what he's learned from their successes. He also gives practical advice and suggests resources for others wanting to start or build a business.

Reincarnated from editorials and speeches, these essays from editor James Grant of Grant's Interest Rate Observer, are "remarkable for their prescience," says Publishers Weekly, who notes that he was ahead of his time in terms of forecasting the dangers of subprime mortgages and lending standards. In addition, Grant speaks about such topics as the failures of financial leadership, bubbles, and the dollar in sections that address federal interest rates, home buying, and securities. At more than 400 pages, Mr. Money Miscalculates is a pretty hefty read, but it's also relevant, straightforward, and readable.

In The Tyranny of Dead Ideas, author and Fortune columnist Matt Miller argues that key misconceptions and wrong-headed beliefs are significantly hindering America's economic progress. Calling these misguided policies "dead ideas," he argues against such beliefs as "taxes hurt the economy" and "free trade is always good." Chances are, his arguments--and the ideas he proposes as alternatives--will provoke some disagreement, but they might also provide a plausible path forward.

If the current financial meltdown worries you, you might take some comfort in learning about financial disasters of the past. Devil Take the Hindmost, which looks at speculation in all its many forms (including tulip mania in the Dutch Republic in 1630), was first published in 1999, so there's a distinct lack of information when it comes to what led to the dotcom crash or anything that came after that. Nevertheless, this readable examination of stock market speculation since the 17th century is "cautionary armchair reading for the modern investor" (Kirkus Reviews).

Manias, Panics, and Crashes was originally published in 1978, but the addition of chapters addressing the European stock market bubble in the 1980s, the financial troubles in Asia at the end of the 20th century, and the dotcom boom and bust freshened it up for its republication in 2005. In all, this solid book explores financial crises that had large and international effects--economics professor and author Charles Kindleberger died in 2003, but one can't help wondering what he'd have to say about today's financial downturn.

For a different and perhaps controversial take on the connection between capitalism and disasters of all sorts, try Naomi Klein's The Shock Doctrine, which introduces the concept of "disaster capitalism," or the idea that crises (whether natural disasters or man-made problems like hyperinflation or war) offer some individuals and corporations the opportunity for huge profits. Tackling the downsizing of the public sector in favor of the private, Klein points out the connections between the war in Iraq and its damaged economy, and looks at the political and financial consequences of Hurricane Katrina, the collapse of the Soviet Union, and Tiananmen Square. Publishers Weekly calls The Shock Doctrine a "powerful populist indictment of economic orthodoxy."

Published in the spring of 2008, Bad Money examines the role of America's financial sector in compromising the nation's global future. A lot has changed since its publication (including the collapses of many of America's largest financial institutions and the fall in the price of oil), but author Kevin Phillips presciently examines the sources of America's financial troubles and makes sobering predictions about America's future in the world. If you're looking for an explanation of how the financial sector in the U.S. came to be where it is today, give Bad Money a try, but follow it up with some more recent writings as well.

In The New Paradigm for Financial Markets, financial speculator and philanthropist George Soros tackles the origins of the current financial crisis and explores the implications it has for the future, both within the U.S. and globally. In the midst of what Soros calls ''the worst financial crisis since the 1930s," he uses his knowledge of financial markets to explain the credit crisis and to suggest some solutions, but most importantly he shares his philosophy on how markets operate. For those of you familiar with the weaknesses of the efficient markets theory, Soros' ideas--developed decades ago--will be of much interest.