If you haven’t yet gleaned from that annoying workmate who keeps asking if you’ve watched it (guilty), the HBO drama Succession is one of the breakout TV shows of the year. Now on its second season, it’s a slick roller-coaster of corporate intrigue and high-stakes power plays filled with hilariously biting one-liners and Machiavellian family dynamics.

As we prepare to hear the dramatic piano plinks of the show’s opening credits in the season two finale tonight, we take some time to imagine the bookshelves of the Roy clan: what they say they’re reading, what they’re probably actually reading and what books might spur them to become marginally better people (this could never happen).

LOGAN ROY

Logan Roy is the founder and CEO of the media conglomerate Waystar Royco and patriarch of the Roy Family.

Says he is reading: Meditations by Marcus Aurelius. As a self-declared ‘Roman among Greeks’ and the ruler of his own media empire, we’re thinking Logan isn’t above pulling out this classic leadership go-to for the fluffy business magazine profiles.

Actually reading: Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel. We’re making the counter-intuitive call that Logan reads fiction, since he’s powerful enough to have people read any important non-fiction books for him and convey ‘the protein’. And the juicy intrigue in Mantel’s award-winning depiction of the self-made Tudor power broker Thomas Cromwell would flatter his own narcissism.

Should be reading: The Patrick Melrose novels, or Shakespeare’s King Lear, or any book on how a toxic patriarch can poison the happiness of all those around him. As an alternative, maybe he could pick up The Eastern Curlew, take up bird watching and retire, finally.

KENDALL ROY

Kendall Roy is the second son of Logan, and as we open the series, the heir apparent to the Waystar Royco fortune.

Says he is reading: The Laws of Human Nature or Mastery by Robert Greene. This is classic ‘finance bro’ material.

Actually reading: Beastie Boys book. That the series starts with a shot of Kendall in noise-cancelling headphones hyping himself up to the Beastie Boys as he’s chauffeured to his father’s company (with a brief cut to the driver’s pained face) says a lot about this character. His loyalty to his father is paired with a desperate need for approbation from cool subcultures he’ll never be part of. This wide-ranging look at the history of the Beastie Boys is likely to be shelved next to Can’t Stop, Won’t Stop in the ‘Ken-WA failed rap star’ section of his bookcase.

Should be reading: Chris Fleming’s powerful and brutally honest memoir of addiction On Drugs or Tana French’s enthralling novel The Wych Elm to experience how a man of privilege has his eyes opened to the protective nature of that privilege.

SHIV ROY

Shiv (Siobhan) Roy is the youngest member of the Roy children and the only daughter.

Says she is reading: These Truths by Jill Lepore. Savvy, smart, and ostensibly more ‘progressive’ than the rest of her family, Shiv starts the show as a high-powered political consultant, outside of her father’s company. Lepore’s massive undertaking of condensing 500 years of US history into one volume would have been a must-read among her circles.

Actually reading: Fleishman Is In Trouble by Taffy Brodesser-Akner. A delicious rendering of a wealthy, schmuck-like husband, his even wealthier, career-minded wife and the breakdown of their marriage? Hmmmm, what couldn’t she relate to?

Should be reading: She Said by Jodi Kantor and Megan Twohey.

ROMAN ROY

Roman Roy is the third son of Logan Roy.

Says he is reading: N/A

Actually reading: N/A. Rude, brash, prone to abusing his power as a Roy scion and equipped with responsibilities that wildly exceed his capabilities, Roman is not the kind of person who’s going to pretend to be reading anything he’s not. Unless he’s been ordered by Daddy to make small talk with the elite intelligentsia, in which case, he would rather make something up. We look forward to The Electric Circus’ publication announcement any day now.

Should be reading: Anything by Kathy Acker or the SCUM Manifesto by Valerie Solanas. Call us optimistic, but we think he just might find something to like about these two women’s writing.

CONNOR ROY

Connor Roy is Logan’s eldest child, and the only child from Logan’s first marriage. He elects to stay uninvolved in the family business.

Says he is reading: Robert Caro’s four-volume biography of Lyndon Johnson.

Actually reading: The Vanity Fair Diaries by Tina Brown to see if he’s name-dropped anywhere.

Should be reading: Suzanne Collins’ The Hunger Games trilogy for a much-needed dramatisation of the extreme possibilities of entrenched class inequality. Or that classic exploration of empathy, self-awareness and object permanence – Making Faces: A First Book of Emotions.

TOM WAMBSGANS

Tom Wambsgans is married to Shiv Roy and, as of the first season, leads the company’s cruises division.

Says he is reading: The Collected Poems of Robert Frost. Obsequious and obsessed with advancing his own standing, Tom would maintain his self delusion and elect for some classic rugged Americana to maintain an air of ‘cultured relatability’. Plus a nice range of poetry classics would really offset that giant ‘Assad-y’ portrait he wants of himself and Shiv in their living room.

Actually reading: How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie. Truly, the social climber’s bible.

Should be reading: The Age of Surveillance Capitalism by Shoshana Zuboff because ‘We Here for You’.

GREG HIRSCH

Greg – sorry, he prefers Gregory now – is a relatively new addition to the Roy clan and the closest thing to an audience surrogate. The grandson of Logan’s brother, Greg enters the company naive but unafraid to leverage what few connections he has.

Says he is reading: The Art of War by Sun Tzu because Greg is obvious and doesn’t even know that the actual starter book to choose is Ray Dalio’s Principles.

Actually reading: A Song of Ice and Fire series by George R.R. Martin. Honestly a good choice for Greg because Succession is essentially what would happen if you took the medievalist wheeling and dealing of Game of Thrones, brought it into the modern-day real world and made the Lannisters the main characters, with Tywin at the helm.

Should be reading: Bullshit Jobs by David Graeber. Ideally, Graeber’s excoriating look at the broken system of pointless work to finance capital will help Greg realise he needs to get out while he still can. But we fear it’s already too late for dear cousin Gregory.

GERRI KILLMAN

Gerri Killman is the General Counsel at Waystar Royco and extremely efficient at her job.

Says she is reading: Dare to Lead by Brené Brown

Actually reading: Codename Villanelle by Luke Jennings, Ian Fleming’s James Bond novels or Men Explain Things to Me by Rebecca Solnit. Something about Gerri’s tendency to lounge in her hotel room in a glamorous robe with a martini in hand makes us think she wouldn’t mind the thrill and chase of some great crime capers and spy thrillers.

Should be reading: The Testaments by Margaret Atwood for a vision of how women complicit in oppressive authoritarian regimes can still play a part in bringing it all down.

MARCIA ROY

Marcia Roy is Logan Roy’s third wife.

Says she is reading: The Prophet by Kahlil Gibran. Enigmatic and a keeper of secrets, Marcia would know that endorsing a book publicly is to reveal something of herself and that’s why, like her husband, she would go for something innocuous, but classic. Gibran’s poetic and spiritual musings on everyday life are meaningful, but apolitical to the current moment – perfect for the wife of a man loathed for his influence over politics and contemporary discourse.

Actually reading: The Husband Hunters by Anne de Courcy

Should be reading: Living with Logan 24/7 and dealing with his mercurial tempers must be the most taxing thing in the world, so really, Marcia should read whatever she wants. Maybe something epic to escape into like The Eighth Life, an internationally bestselling Georgia saga .