We still know what you’re reading this summer

Gary Pinkus

Senior Partner, McKinsey

The Empire of the Senses
by Alexis Landau

I just finished The Empire of the Senses, which was written by Alexis Landau, an alum from my high school (Harvard Westlake). It’s a well-written first novel capturing the period from World War I through the beginning of the Second World War from the vantage point of a family of Germans. Arguably, it should have been a trilogy, since they more or less jump through World War II, but still quite interesting voyage through a particular family and point in time.

Disunited Nations: The Scramble for Power in an Ungoverned World
by Peter Zeihan

Here’s one book I plan to read for my discussion group shortly.

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MCKINSEY LEADERS

Bob Sternfels

Tracy Francis

Pierre Gentin

Homayoun Hatami

Eric Kutcher

James Manyika

Gary Pinkus

Liz Hilton Segel

Sven Smit

Magnus Tyreman

Rodney Zemmel

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Other 2021 reading lists you might want to explore

McKinsey Global Publishing’s top 25 picks

Summer books of 2021: Business (Financial Times)

Summer is coming. Bring a book. (New York Times)

Barack Obama: My summer 2021 lists (Medium)

The Harvard Business School faculty summer reader 2021 (Harvard Business School)

The books of summer (Wall Street Journal)

Summer reading: The 50 hottest new books everyone should read (Guardian)

Summer reading: 10 of the best art books of the past year (Christie’s)

5 ideas for summer reading (Bill Gates)

Summer reads 2021: What are Princeton professors reading—and listening to—this summer? (Princeton University)

What politicos are reading this summer (Politico)

Summer reading book list (reading adventures for babies, kids, and teens) (New York Public Library)

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Acknowledgments

It takes a village to curate amazing lists from this rather busy group of leaders from all over the world. We would like to thank Kris Coratti, Chantal De Soto, Rimjhim Dey, Melanie Newman, Joellen Perry, and Jayne Rosefield for their help.

Within McKinsey Global Publishing, Eleni Kostopoulos led the effort to make this year’s list come alive, with collaboration and support from Mike Borruso, Nancy Cohn, Victor Cuevas, Torea Frey, Mary Halpin, Drew Holzfeind, Kathleen O'Leary, LaShon Malone, Philip Mathew, Janet Michaud, Kanika Punwani, Sarah Thuerk, Duane Tomaszewski, Petra Vincent, and Nathan Wilson.

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

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