The Natural History of the Rich

Conniff pulls off something genuinely rare: a social satire that is also rigorously reported. Treating billionaires as a zoological specimen — mapping their dominance displays, territorial rituals, and mating strategies onto the natural world — is not just a clever conceit, it actually illuminates something real about status and power. The wit is consistent and the research is firsthand. The deadpan voice can make it hard to know when you're reading satire versus assertion, but that's a minor tax on a delightful, intelligent book.