In January 2026, the final open meeting of the Book Club of graduates and participants of master’s programs of the UCU Business School took place. We would like to share the results with you:
- In 2025, we held 8 meetings;
- The club meetings were attended by 97 people, 32 of whom became club members;
- We introduced membership fees for the first time and started recording the Alumni Talks podcast powered by UCU Business School;
- We released 15 episodes, gained over 5,000 subscribers, and received approximately 300,000 views.
At the same time, we have selected books to read next year and companies to discuss. Below is a list of books for 2026. You are welcome to purchase and read them in advance.
Ayn Rand, The Virtue of Selfishness
The Virtue of Selfishness is a provocative title, but a conceptually coherent collection of nineteen essays by Ayn Rand, written in collaboration with psychologist Nathaniel Brendan, in which the authors rethink the concept of selfishness, freeing it from its traditional negative connotations: instead of evil or ruthless behavior, it appears as conscious concern for one’s own interests. The book analyzes complex ethical issues, the ideas of objectivism, the critique of the cult of moral mediocrity, and racism and morality more generally.
Peter Senge’s The Fifth Discipline is an updated edition of the influential bestseller, based on many years of practical experience, that argues that in today’s world, the decisive advantage for organizations is the ability to learn faster than others. The author criticizes outdated management models that ignore collective intelligence and shows how leaders, by overcoming stereotypes and introducing a culture of shared learning, help teams achieve high results.
Dan Ariely’s Brilliant Decisions is a witty and insightful comic book about everyday choices, centered on the character Adam, who is constantly confused between social and market norms that work differently in different situations. The book explains the principles of behavioral economics in an easy and engaging way and helps develop useful skills for business, communication, and everyday life.
Good Premonitions by Bohdan Kolomiychuk
Good Premonitions is a collection of short prose by Bohdan Kolomiychuk, written during his service in the Armed Forces of Ukraine in 2022–2025, in which war is seen through the eyes of a civilian and writer from within the combat experience. Without excessive pathos, but with great sincerity, the author tells how war breaks and changes a person, fills life with fear and uncertainty, erases memories, but is unable to destroy hope and faith in a bright future.
“Hemingway Knows Nothing” by Arthur Dron
This collection of short prose is a soldier’s testimony of his experience in the Great War. Faith on the front lines, brotherhood among soldiers, fear and hope, death and love. The author works through his own traumatic memories, but the text can be therapeutic not only for him but also for readers. It tells the story of people of great love, on whom everything depends.
Erin Meyer’s book shows how cultural differences affect business communication. What sounds like a polite compliment to some may mean the exact opposite to others — and this often leads to misunderstandings, conflicts, and even broken deals.
The author uses real-life examples to explain how people from different countries think and communicate, why typical mistakes occur, and how to learn to see situations through the eyes of partners from other cultures.
Stephen Bartlett, The Diary of a CEO: 33 Laws for Business and Life
This is a motivational book by Stephen Bartlett, a successful entrepreneur and author of the podcast The Diary of a CEO. The author highlights the key principles underlying success and failure and explains how they work in life and business. These ideas are based on psychology, behavioral science, and real stories of people who have achieved significant results.
Metropolitan Boris Gudziak, Living Victoriously: The School of Patriarch Josyf Slipyj
This book is based on speeches given by Archbishop Boris Gudziak in 2017 in Kyiv and Lviv on the occasion of the 125th anniversary of the birth of Patriarch Josyf Slipyj. It combines personal memories of meetings with the Patriarch, reflections on his character and legacy, and an understanding of his figure in the context of contemporary challenges. Josyf Slipyj emerges not only as a spiritual leader and martyr of the Soviet regime, but also as a visionary leader capable of building institutions, uniting people, and creating projects that continued to develop after his death.
“Where is your treasure?” Conversations between Bishop Lubomyr Husar and entrepreneurs
This book is a collection of Patriarch Lubomyr Husar’s answers to questions posed by entrepreneurs during meetings of the “Business Credo” discussion club, organized by the UCU Business School. The conversations focused on moral values in business, personal life, and society as a whole. We invite you to watch a recording of one of Lubomyr Husar’s meetings with entrepreneurs, organized by the UCU Business School. Patriarch Lubomyr Husar’s answers — short, wise, and sometimes humorous — are presented in the context of Metropolitan Andrey Sheptytsky’s spiritual legacy and his ideas about responsible society building. The book was published by the UCU Business School at the Ukrainian Catholic University Press in 2016.
After the collapse of the USSR, Ukraine inherited one of the largest nuclear arsenals in the world, but with it came a difficult political choice. Mariana Budzherin’s book The Bomb as Inheritance explores why the country renounced nuclear weapons, finding itself caught between economic crisis, internal instability, and strong pressure from the US and Russia. Drawing on archives, eyewitness accounts, and international documents, the author reconstructs the negotiations surrounding nuclear disarmament and explains how the decision to denuclearize and sign the Budapest Memorandum was made.
Dr. Richard F. Mollica, Healing Invisible Wounds
Richard F. Mollica’s book, published by UCU Press, was written by a psychiatrist who has worked for many years with trauma survivors in various countries around the world — from war zones and genocide to New York after the September 11 terrorist attacks. Drawing on his own experience, the author shares real stories from his practice and offers understandable, effective approaches to helping those in distress, showing how trauma affects not only individuals but also society as a whole, and how the consequences of violence can be overcome.
The order of discussion of the books will be determined gradually as experts or authors are invited to meetings, and each meeting will take place in the company of graduates. We try to align the book’s theme with the company we are visiting’s work.
You can find out how Book Club meetings are held by reading the Memorandum.
Graduates and participants of UCU Business School master’s programs can become members of the UCU Business School Alumni Book Club, or you can become a guest of club members. To apply, please contact the contact person.
Read books, follow event announcements, and register for meetings.
Contact person: Tetiana Novolodska,
tnovolodska@ucu.edu.ua
+38 (063) 861 93 92.
