Year's best: These books meant business in 2008

— -- Biographiess, histories and books about marketing, management and investing were popular as always this year. But selections on Wall Street's meltdown took a special place on bookshelves as readers struggled to fathom what went wrong. USA TODAY Books Editor Gary H. Rawlins picks the best of the year:

Business biography/history

•The Snowball: Warren Buffett and the Business of Life by Alice Schroeder. (Bantam, $35): Pries open the world of the Oracle of Omaha, whose life until now was nobody's business. Reveals a man of unimaginable personal complexity, who facilitates complete access to family, friends and business associates.

•Eccentric Billionaire: John D. MacArthur — Empire Builder, Reluctant Philanthropist, Relentless Adversary by Nancy Kriplen. (Amacom, $24): How the name of a miserly self-made billionaire with dubious business ethics became synonymous with philanthropy.

•The Man Who Owns the News: Inside the Secret World of Rupert Murdoch by Michael Wolff (Broadway, $29.95): What marriage can do to change a conservative media baron politically. Murdoch's "life is now largely spent around people for whom Fox News (one of his media properties) is a vulgarity and a joke," the author writes. The catalyst: the 1999 marriage to third wife Wendi Deng, 38 years his junior.

•The First Billion Is the Hardest: Reflections on a Life of Comebacks and America's Energy Future by T. Boone Pickens (Crown Business, $26.95): A mishmash of his philosophy on effective corporate leadership, revelations about his personal life and countrified wisdom that Pickens calls "Booneisms."

•Call Me Tedby Ted Turner with Bill Burke (Grand Central Publishing, $30): Covers the Mouth of the South's successes and setbacks in television, movies, professional sports, championship sailing and marriage.

Management/leadership

•Inside Steve's Brain by Leander Kahney (Portfolio, $23.95): Offers insightful nuggets on Steve Jobs, who helped create personal computers and digital music while moonlighting as a modern-day Walt Disney at animation studio Pixar.