A memoir by former Canadian Auto Workers president Buzz Hargrove is one of five 2010 nominees for the National Business Book Award.A memoir by former Canadian Auto Workers president Buzz Hargrove is one of five 2010 nominees for the National Business Book Award. (Dave Chidley/Canadian Press)A memoir from former Canadian Auto Workers union president Buzz Hargrove and economist Jeff Rubin's examination of the rising cost of oil will vie for this year's National Business Book Award.

The annual prize, worth $20,000, celebrates outstanding Canadian books about business-related topics. Sponsored by PricewaterhouseCoopers, the BMO Financial Group and the Globe and Mail, it is open to books published in English or in French.

Hargrove, who retired from the CAW in 2008, is a contender for Laying It on the Line: Driving a Hard Bargain in Challenging Times.

Rubin, chief economist at CIBC World Markets until 2009, is nominated for his bestseller Why Your World is About to Get a Whole Lot Smaller: Oil and the End of Globalization.

Also nominated are:

  • Journalist John DeMont for Coal Black Heart: The Story of Coal and the Lives it Ruled.
  • Economics professor Wendy Dobson for Gravity Shift: How Asia's New Economic Powerhouses Will Shape the Twenty-First Century.
  • Author Rod McQueen for Manulife: How Dominic D'Alessandro Built a Global Giant and Fought to Save It.

CBC News chief anchor Peter Mansbridge and Senator Pamela Wallin are among the jurors who will decide this year's winner, to be announced at a Toronto luncheon on June. 9.

Past winners have included Wrong Way: The Fall of Conrad Black by Jacquie McNish and Sinclair Stewart, Naomi Klein's No Logo: Taking Aim at the Brand Bullies and Gordon Pitt's Stampede! The Rise of the West and Canada's New Power Elite.

With files from The Associated Press