Looking for your next book? Each year, McKinsey seeks out the best books in business, technology, workplace culture, and more. Here’s our 2024 list, recommended by CEOs, founders, editors in chief, and other global leaders.

As publishers of insights, we believe that reading books can be a powerful tool for learning, growing, and navigating the landscape of today’s complex business environment. And books can both illuminate and provide moments of respite from the demands of daily life. McKinsey Global Publishing leader Raju Narisetti returns with McKinsey’s 2024 annual book recommendations list—a McKinsey Global Publishing tradition—featuring suggestions from 50-plus CEOs and global leaders in media, nonprofit, and other organizations, as well as several McKinsey leaders.

This year’s contributors spanned six continents and shared more than 90 books across ten genres. Fiction emerged as the most popular genre recommendation, followed by personal development. The standout favorite among our contributors? Outlive: The Science & Art of Longevity was endorsed by five leaders. Technology was also a popular category, with AI as a major focal point—a mirror of the technological zeitgeist shaping our era. Dive in to find your next great read, and scroll to the bottom of the page to download the full list.

Books stacked on a bookshelf to spell out "What to read next"

What to read next: McKinsey’s 2024 annual book recommendations

Download the full list

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Comments and opinions expressed by interviewees are their own and do not represent or reflect the opinions, policies, or positions of McKinsey & Company or have its endorsement.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

It takes a village to curate amazing lists from a busy group of leaders from all over the world. We wish to thank Alan Alper, Aria Finger, Ashley Huston, Deron Triff, the Forum of Young Global Leaders at the World Economic Forum, Mariana Fischbach, Preeti Wali, Rebecca Lowell Edwards, Rimjhim Dey, Silvia Wiesner, and Vinay Sridhar for their contributions to this publication.

Special thanks to McKinsey Global Publishing colleagues Amanda Soto, Dan Spector, Diane Rice, Eleni Kostopoulos, Emily Adeyanju, Janet Michaud, Kanika Punwani, Martine Louis, Mary Gayen, Mike Borruso, Nathan Wilson, Pamela Norton, Philip Mathew, Sean Conrad, Stephen Landau, and Victor Cuevas for making this list come alive.

And thank you to the contributors and their organizations for providing McKinsey Global Publishing with their photographs and permission to use them.

We hope you have enjoyed our annual reading list. Please let us know how we could have made it even more enjoyable or useful for you: drop us a note at NewIdeas@McKinsey.com.