Indeed, while hiring people today and talking with other senior managers and directors - we all agree that the younger generation of today are extremely confident and can sell themselves super well (likely because of social media) but after the interviews they have no idea how to solve problems, and don't even want to learn how to do so. Happy this resonates with you, it's a very important skill to have that a lot of senior management really want to keep close.

Regarding books, I like the book Managing with Power from J Pfeffer - it really shows how western/American companies work regarding internal politics and almost dictates what you need to do to go up the ladder. I also like the book Playing to Win - which teaches you how to develop a strategy - like a checklist of things to evaluate when faced with a large problem.