Annual Reading List Is Back—Reimagined for This Pandemic Year

We know what you’re reading this summer

McKinsey’s annual reading list is back—reimagined for this pandemic year.

August 2020 See the full list of responses below. Glenn Kelman, CEO, Redfin

— Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982, Cho Nam-Joo Business leaders John Visentin, CEO, Xerox Bob Iger, Executive chairman, The Walt Disney Company — Scotty, Ken Dryden — Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents, — Ride of a Lifetime: Lessons Learned From 15 Isabel Wilkerson Years as CEO of The Walt Disney Company, Bob Iger — The Splendid and the Vile, Erik Larson

David Gibbs, CEO, Yum! Brands Oscar Munoz, Executive chairman, United Airlines Holdings, Inc. — David and Goliath: Underdogs, Misfits, and the Art of Battling Giants, Malcolm Gladwell — Separated: Inside an American Tragedy, Jacob Soboroff Nandan Nilekani, Chairman and cofounder, Infosys Kenneth M. Jacobs, Chairman and CEO, Lazard — What It Takes: Lessons in the Pursuit of Excellence, Steve Schwarzman — The Splendid and the Vile, Erik Larson

— Capitalism in America: An Economic History — Slavery by Another Name: The Re-Enslavement of the United States, Alan Greenspan and of Black Americans from the Civil War to World Adrian Woolridge War II, Douglas A. Blackmon

— Naoroji: Pioneer of Indian Nationalism, — Twilight of Democracy: The Seductive Lure of Dinyar Patel Authoritarianism, Anne Applebaum

Peter Chapman, President and CEO, IonQ Laxman Narasimhan, CEO, Reckitt Benckiser

— The Ride of a Lifetime: Lessons Learned from — The Great Influenza: The Story of the Deadliest 15 Years as CEO of the Walt Disney Company, Pandemic in History, John M. Barry Bob Iger — Wherever You Go, There You Are: Mindfulness — That Will Never Work: The Birth of Netflix and Meditation in Everyday Life, Jon Kabat-Zinn the Amazing Life of an Idea, Marc Randolph — Leadership: In Turbulent Times, Serge Saxonov, Cofounder and CEO, 10x Genomics Doris Kearns Goodwin

— The Billion Dollar Molecule: The Quest for Katherine Garrett-Cox, CEO, the Perfect Drug, Barry Werth Gulf International Bank (UK)

— Reamde: A Novel, Neal Stephenson — The Future We Choose: Surviving the Climate Crisis, Christiana Figueres and — The Fabric of Reality: The Sciences of Parallel Tom Rivett-Carnac Universes—and Its Implications, David Deutsch

2 We know what you’re reading this summer Thomas S. Gayner, Co-CEO, Markel Technologists/entrepreneurs/ philanthropists — The Power of Bad: How the Negativity Effect Craig Newmark, Founder, Craigslist and Craig Rules Us and How We Can Rule It, John Tierney Newmark Philanthropies and Roy Baumeister Ghosting the News: Local Journalism and the Crisis — Love Your Enemies: How Decent People Can of American Democracy, Margaret Sullivan Save America from the Culture of Contempt, Arthur C. Brooks The Mirror & the Light, Hilary Mantel

— Days of Grace: A Memoir, Arthur Ashe and The City We Became: A Novel, N. K. Jemisin Arnold Rampersad Yoky Matsuoka, CEO of the Lifestyle Business Strategy Division, Panasonic; former CTO of Google Global leaders Nest and a cofounder of Google X François-Philippe Champagne, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Government of Canada A New Earth: Awakening to Your Life’s Purpose, Eckhart Tolle — Hell and Other Destinations: A 21st-Century Memoir, Madeleine Albright Sebastian Thrun, CEO, Kitty Hawk, and chairman, Udacity — Seven Lessons for Leading in Crisis, Bill George — Einstein: His Life and Universe, Walter Isaacson Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General, World Health Organization — Never Split the Difference: Negotiating As If Your Life Depended on It, Chris Voss with Tahl Raz — Inside Change: Transforming Your Organization with Emotional Intelligence, Joshua Freedman — Crossing the Chasm: Marketing and Selling and Massimiliano Ghini MBA Disruptive Products to Mainstream Customers, Geoffrey A. Moore — A World of Three Zeros: The New Economics of Zero Poverty, Zero Unemployment, and Zero Net Debbie Sterling, Founder and CEO, GoldieBlox Carbon Emissions, Muhammad Yunus — American Pastoral, Philip Roth Joseph E. Stiglitz, Professor, Columbia Business School; 2001 recipient, Nobel Memorial Prize in — American Dirt, Jeanine Cummins Economic Sciences — Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption, — Mapmaker’s Wife, Robert Whittaker Bryan Stevenson

— The Great Influenza, John M. Barry — This Could Be Our Future: A Manifesto for a More Generous World, Yancey Strickler — Heavy, Kiese Laymon

— Too Much and Never Enough: How my Family Created the World’s Most Dangerous Man, Mary L. Trump

We know what you’re reading this summer 3 Alberto Ibargüen, President and CEO, John S. and Angela Duckworth, Founder and CEO, Character James L. Knight Foundation Lab at University of Pennsylvania

— The Twilight of Democracy: The Seductive Lure — Peak: Secrets from the New Science of of Authoritarianism, Anne Applebaum Expertise, Anders Ericsson

— The Coddling of the American Mind, Greg Lukianoff and Jonathan Haidt Business media Matt Murray, Editor in Chief, Wall Street Journal — Self-Portrait in Black and White, Thomas Chatterton Williams — The Revolt of the Elites and the Betrayal of Democracy, Christopher Lasch — White Fragility: Why It’s So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism, Robin DiAngelo — The Restless Kings: Henry II, His Sons and the Wars for the Plantagenet Crown, Nick Barratt Mack Gill, COO and board member, Torstone Technology — The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich: A History of Nazi Germany, William L. Shirer — The Gene: An Intimate History, Siddhartha Mukerjee — Eleanor of Aquitaine: A Life, Alison Weir

— Good Economics for Hard Times, Gillian Tett, Chair, editorial board, and Editor at Abhijit V. Banerjee and Esther Duflo Large, US, Financial Times

— The Mirror & the Light, Hilary Mantel — Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents, Isabel Wilkerson Gary Liu, CEO, South China Morning Post Publishers Ltd Alan Murray, CEO, FORTUNE Media

— Factfulness, Hans Rosling — George Marshall: Defender of the Republic, David Roll — The Beautiful Country and the Middle Kingdom, John Pomfret Jessica Lessin, Founder and Editor in Chief, The Information — A History of Scotland, Neil Oliver — Girl, Woman, Other, Bernardine Evaristo Richard Buery, President, Achievement First, a charter-school network with 37 schools in — Golden Gates: Fighting for Housing in America, Connecticut, New York, and Rhode Island Conor Dougherty

— The Fire Next Time, James Baldwin Adi Ignatius, Editor in Chief, Harvard Business Review — Deacon King Kong, James McBride — Eat the Buddha: Life and Death in a Tibetan — Black Software: The Internet and Racial Justice, Town, Barbara Demick from the AfroNet to Black Lives Matter, Charlton D. McIlwain

4 We know what you’re reading this summer Stephanie Mehta, Editor in Chief, Fast Company TV/entertainment Jorge Ramos, Coanchor, “Noticiero Univision,” host, — Antisocial, Andrew Marantz “Al Punto,” and anchor, “Real America”

— Rodham, Curtis Sittenfeld — Intimations, Zadie Smith

— The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, — My Time To Speak: Reclaiming Ancestry and Robert Louis Stevenson Confronting Race, Ilia Calderón

— La Corresponsal, Cristina De Stefano Platforms Dan Roth, Editor in Chief, LinkedIn Dan Lemon, Anchor, “CNN Tonight”

— The Vanishing Half: A Novel, Brit Bennett Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents, Isabel Wilkerson — Citizen Reporters: S.S. McClure, Ida Tarbell, and the Magazine That Rewrote America, Intimations, Zadie Smith Stephanie Gorton The Beauty in Breaking: A Memoir, Michele Harper — The Deficit Myth: Modern Monetary Theory and the Birth of the People’s Economy, The Vanishing Half: A Novel, Brit Bennett Stephanie Kelton Utopia Avenue: A Novel, David Mitchell Katherine Maher, CEO and executive director, Wikimedia Foundation Finding Freedom: Harry and Meghan and the Making of a Modern Royal Family, Omid Scobie and — All We Can Save: Truth, Courage, and Solutions Carolyn Durand for the Climate Crisis, edited by Ayana Elizabeth Johnson and Katharine Keeble Wilkinson Ali Velshi, Host, “Velshi,” on MSNBC

— Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents, Isabel — The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of Wilkerson America’s Great Migration, Isabel Wilkerson

— The History of White People, Nell Irvin Painter — For the Love of Men: A New Vision for Mindful Masculinity, Liz Plank Richard Gingras, Vice president, News, Google — Begin Again: James Baldwin’s America and Its — Catherine the Great: Portrait of a Woman, Urgent Lessons for Our Own, Eddie S. Glaude Jr. Robert K. Massie Poorna Jagannathan, Actor; producer, Nirbhaya — The Overstory: A Novel, Richard Powers (winner of the 2013 Amnesty International Award)

— The Big Goodnight: Chinatown and the Last — See No Stranger: A Memoir and Manifesto of Years of Hollywood, Sam Wassan Revolutionary Love, Valerie Kaur

— Cadillac Desert: The American West and Its Disappearing Water, Marc Reisner

— Wolf Hall Trilogy, Hilary Mantel

We know what you’re reading this summer 5 Adam Sharp, President and CEO, National Jameel Jaffer, Executive director, Knight First Academy of Television Arts & Sciences, which Amendment Institute at Columbia University oversees the Emmys — In Hoffa’s Shadow: A Stepfather, a — The Hardest Job in the World: The American Disappearance in Detroit, and My Search Presidency, John Dickerson for the Truth, Jack Goldsmith

— Action Park: Fast Times, Wild Rides, — The Lehman Trilogy: A Novel, Stefano Massini and the Untold Story of America’s Most Dangerous Amusement Park, Andy Mulvihill — Feel Free: Essays, Zadie Smith and Jake Rossen Suzanne Nossel, CEO, PEN America, and author, — Forever: A Novel, Pete Hamill Dare to Speak: Defending Free Speech for All

Ilia Calderón, News anchor and cohost, — She Said: Breaking the Sexual Harassment “Noticiero Univision” and “Aquí y Ahora” Story that Helped Ignite a Movement, Jodi Kantor and Meghan Twohey — Say It Louder, Tiffany D. Cross — Intimations, Zadie Smith — Little Leaders, Vashti Harrison — The Room Where It Happened, John Bolton — Three Women, Lisa Taddeo

Diversity/inclusion activists Civil rights/freedom of expression Ellen Pao, Cofounder and CEO, Project Include, Anthony D. Romero, Executive director, ACLU and author, Reset: My Fight for Inclusion and Lasting Change — Manifesto for a Moral Revolution, Jacqueline Novogratz — So You Want To Talk About Race, Ijeoma Oluo

— American Sonnets for My Past and Future — Big Friendship: How We Keep Each Other Close, Assassin, Terrance Hayes Aminatou Sow and Ann Friedman

— The End of Policing, Alex S. Vitale — Race After Technology: Abolitionist Tools for the New Jim Code, Ruha Benjamin — The Human Stain, Philip Roth Marley Dias, Founder, #1000BlackGirlBooks, — Five Days: The Fiery Reckoning of an activist, and author, Marley Dias Gets It Done American City, Wes Moore And So Can You!

— Democracy If We Can Keep It, Ellis Cose — Harbor Me, Jacqueline Woodson

— Men in the Off Hours, Anne Carson — Modern HERstory, Blair Imani

— Caravaggio, Howard Hibbard — Living Lively, Haile Thomas

6 We know what you’re reading this summer Reshma Saujani, Founder and CEO, Girls Who Emily Ramshaw, Cofounder and CEO, The 19th Code, and author, Brave Not Perfect: How Celebrating Imperfection Helps You Live Your Best, — The Women’s Hour: The Great Fight to Win Most Joyful Life the Vote, Elaine Weiss

— The Vanishing Half: A Novel, Brit Bennett Nabiha Syed, President, The Markup

— A Burning: A Novel, Megha Majumdar Other media — Seeing Like a State: How Certain Schemes Radhika Jones, Editor in Chief, Vanity Fair to Improve the Human Condition Have Failed, James C. Scott — A Burning, Megha Majumdar

— Overcomplicated: Technology at the Limits of — The Last Samurai, Helen DeWitt Comprehension, Samuel Arbesman — Transcendent Kingdom, Yaa Gyasi

Edward Felsenthal, Editor in Chief and CEO of Time Teachers/experts Dan Ariely, James B. Duke Professor of psychology — Indian Summer: The Secret History of the End of and behavioral economics, Duke University An Empire, Alex von Tunzelmann — How to Change Your Mind, Michael Pollan — The Last Trial, Scott Turow — Oryx and Crake, Margaret Atwood Mina Al-Oraibi, Editor in Chief, The National, and World Economic Forum Young Global Leader Ram Charan, Business adviser, author, speaker

— The Nature of Nature, Enric Sala — The Third Pillar: How Markets and the State Leave the Community Behind, Raghuram Rajan — Divided: Why We Are Living in an Age of Walls, Tim Marshall Arturo Condo, President, EARTH University

Danielle Belton, Editor in Chief, The Root — Manifesto for a Moral Revolution, Jacqueline Novogratz — Too Much and Never Enough: How my Family Created the World’s Most Dangerous Man, — The Future We Choose: Surviving the Mary L. Trump Climate Crisis, Christiana Figueres and Tom Rivett-Carnac — Drink: The Intimate Relationship Between Women and Alcohol, Ann Dowsett Johnson — La Peste, Albert Camus

— The Hero With A Thousand Faces, — Cien años de soledad, Gabriel García Márquez Joseph Campbell

— The Writer’s Journey: Mythic Structure for Writers, Christopher Vogler

We know what you’re reading this summer 7 McKinsey leaders Pierre Gentin, partner and general counsel, New York Liz Hilton Segel, senior partner, New York, and managing partner for McKinsey in North America — Zelda Fitzgerald: Her Voice in Paradise, Sally Cline — The World: A Brief Introduction, Richard Haass

— Tender is the Night, F. Scott Fitzgerald Kevin Sneader, global managing partner, Hong Kong — Black Box, Amos Oz

— The Lehman Trilogy: A Novel, Stefano Massini — Lives Like Loaded Guns: Emily Dickinson and Her Family’s Feuds, Lyndall Gordon — 1968: The Year That Rocked the World, Mark Kurlansky Lareina Yee, senior partner, San Francisco

— Ordinary Grace, William Kent Krueger — Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City, Matthew Desmond Pal Erik Sjatil, senior partner, Paris, and managing partner for McKinsey in Europe — Exhalation: Stories, Ted Chiang

— The Second World War, Antony Beevor — All the Light We Cannot See, Anthony Doerr

Acha Leke, senior partner, Johannesburg

— Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind, Yuval Noah Harari

8 We know what you’re reading this summer