Oral history meets documented facts of the Black liberation movement in this story of America. I was fortified by the brave commitment of those with one of the most famous names in contemporary Black history, wearing a ‘scarlet letter’ for the revolution. What’s in a name? So. Very. Much.

Here’s a book I would recommend.

Isaacson provides fascinating insight into Nobel Prize winner Doudna’s groundbreaking contributions and the potential impact of her work on curing genetic diseases.

We’ve all gotten to know our Journal colleague Evan Gershkovich through his family while he’s been in a Russian prison, and we know that prominent among his interests is the Arsenal Football Club. In honor of his fandom, there is no better book to understand the roller-coaster ride of being an English Premier League club supporter than Nick Hornby’s modern classic. Arsenal fans are passionate about many things, and we’re grateful for their support of Evan, including raising ‘Free Evan’ banners during games at Emirates Stadium in north London.

We’ve all gotten to know our Journal colleague Evan Gershkovich through his family while he’s been in a Russian prison, and we know that prominent among his interests is the Arsenal Football Club. In honor of his fandom, there is no better book to understand the roller-coaster ride of being an English Premier League club supporter than Nick Hornby’s modern classic. Arsenal fans are passionate about many things, and we’re grateful for their support of Evan, including raising ‘Free Evan’ banners during games at Emirates Stadium in north London.

The best book I have ever read on grief—dare I say, better than Joan Didion?

Here’s a book I would recommend.

Here’s a book I would recommend.

Here’s a book I would recommend.

This is an unusually formatted catalog of an exhibition at the Guggenheim Museum that opened on May 16, 2024. It has no interpretation, apparently, and looks much like a Jenny Holzer work of art itself. It is a slim volume that I expect to be conducive to quick reading but slow thinking.

We can learn a great deal from remarkable leaders. Sheila Johnson, America’s first Black female billionaire and founder of Salamander Hotels and Resorts, embodies a powerful story of resilience during challenging times.

This short and beautifully designed book provides you with the essential design strategies and tools for making a lasting impact.

Wall Street Journal reporters Joshua Robinson and Jonathan Clegg deliver a riveting page-turner on how Formula 1 not only saved itself from collapse but also conquered America and the world through gutsy reinvention. Backed by intricate research, the book is sports storytelling at its best, in keeping with The Club, in which the authors took us behind the scenes of the creation of the English Premier League. For those who aren’t sports fans, especially those in the world of business, the aptly named The Formula doubles as a tour de force in how to succeed in high-performance environments: it is all about mastering the details.

Here’s a book I would recommend.

I recently met with the founder of inDrive, Arsen Tomsky, and he gave me his book, Inner Drive: From Underdog to Global Company. This is an inspiring and honest story of the birth and growth of a billion-dollar technology company. I recommend it especially to students and young professionals, although it is so inspiring that it can be read by people who are well established in business and management.

I have had a ringside view into the making of this book, written by my colleagues Dana Maor, Kurt Strovink, and Ramesh Srinivasan, with senior partner emeritus Hans-Werner Kaas. Using many intimate stories, the book brings to life the personal inner struggles of CEOs on their way to the top. The book, a worthy companion to McKinsey’s international bestseller

CEO Excellence

, helps leaders hone the psychological, emotional, and, ultimately, human attributes that result in success in today’s most demanding top job. Penguin Random House will publish it on September 10, and I think you will find it well worth your time.

When you are a publisher, you get to work with author-colleagues on books long before they are ready for prime time. The Journey of Leadership makes a compelling case for any of us who want to lead, asking us to first take an inward-facing journey. The book is an in-depth guide on how to hone the attributes that result in being an effective ‘inside-out leader.’ It comes out on September 10 from Penguin Random House.

Having read Ury’s Getting to Yes during my MBA, I was profoundly influenced by his insights. In today’s deeply polarized world, filled with conflicts at every turn, level, and corner, this book offers vital strategies for all of us to thrive together!

This is one book I’ve recently read and highly recommend.

While there are many books on investing and public markets, Pulak Prasad explains value investing using the most unique lens of Darwinian history that makes for an insightful yet fun read.

Here’s a book I would recommend.

I will read the follow-up to 2035, a warning on the perils of singularity—and an easier read!

I highly recommend this recently published book, a fast-paced novel that is based on a fictional ambassador tackling very real challenges, from climate change to dysfunctional geopolitics. Having previously served as an ambassador representing the United Kingdom himself, Fletcher’s characterization of major trends and developments around the world is illuminating. The cast of characters, from a polarizing US president to a conflicted rebel leader, makes this a very good read. However, I would suggest first reading The Ambassador, the initial novel in Fletcher’s Diplomat Thrillers series, to understand the complex storyline.

The ‘Best Books of 2023’ list by the New Yorker mentioned Eleanor Catton as wanting to ‘revive plot as a literary mode.’ I remembered her as the youngest-ever winner of the Booker Prize and so chose it from the list. In addition to the energetic plot, Catton pokes fun at many of the cultural leitmotifs of recent years—generational conflict, environmental activism, bunkers in New Zealand, rare earth metals—in a way that seems natural, almost understated. Overall, a great read if you’re looking to wind your day down with fiction.

I was inspired by Tokarczuk’s brilliant Nobel lecture, ‘The Tender Narrator,’ and went on to read her most ambitious work. It takes place in and around Poland during the turbulent second half of the 18th century, telling about a messiah figure who captivated many, including the Habsburgs. It is a captivating time portal.

I enjoy reading big family novels spread across generations. This is a good example of it. Set in England across the past 80 years, Bournville is a story of several generations of a Birmingham family told through their connection with huge historical events, from VE [Victory in Europe] Day in 1945 and the late queen’s coronation to the death of Princess Diana and the 75th anniversary of the end of the Second World War. I liked this novel as much as I liked Middle England, by the same author, which was one of my favorite novels back in 2019.

This book is a modern take on Charles Dickens’s David Copperfield and a 2023 Pulitzer Prize winner. Also, it is the current book for my book club of amazing women.

Turgenev’s Fathers and Sons illuminates the timeless tension between the stabilizing force of tradition, embodied by the older generation, and the disruptive potential of change, championed by the younger generation—a dynamic that echoes through the ages and resonates strongly in our current moment.

Here’s a book I would recommend.

While on its surface, this is a long-ago murder mystery set on the campus of a northeast US boarding school, the author uses this story to examine far deeper—and unsettling—societal issues about race, the #MeToo movement, and justice. It was particularly eye opening for me to experience the female protagonist’s life journey from 1995 through the current day in the face of tragedy, technology, and social change. It’s well worth reading anything Rebecca Makkai writes!

This book is a magical read about renewal that fuses history with belonging, faith, and love in the context of war and trauma.

This was recommended by my friend, the entrepreneur Leilani Brown. This twist on the classic Huckleberry Finn retells the story in the voice of Jim, the novel’s enslaved runaway. The book touches on themes of race, identity, and societal norms and provokes deeper reflection. I am looking forward to reading this and being transformed by James’s perspective as one whose life was on the line and who I’m sure didn’t consider the journey down the Mississippi an ‘adventure.’

I first encountered Fay Weldon when I was a literature major. To fully understand her influence on me, I must note that it was a time when the internet was still considered a place you visited and then left, so it was the writers I encountered who opened up the world to me. This book is a source of wit and wisdom that stayed with me. I reach for this book to slake a craving—a yearning for something familiar but missed, a clear, principled voice on how culture shapes the world and our places in it. It feels like an old friend, which is what some of the best books we might read are: a consolation for time and an affirmation of parts of ourselves we miss.

While a novel that has something to do with quantum mechanics wouldn’t normally make it to the top of my summer list, the number of people I trust who keep pressing it on me keeps growing. So, it’s now at the top of my to-be-read pile.

I tend to be an impulse reader rather than a planner!

I would recommend The Meursault Investigation, by Kamel Daoud—I just visited Algeria.

This book is about perfection, imperfection, connection, and possibility.

This book was recommended to me as a unique insight into power in the Putin era.

Here’s a book I would recommend.

Here’s a book I would recommend.

I recently read this book. In it, Means explains that nearly every health problem we face can be traced back to how well the cells in our body create and use energy. I honestly never cared much about my health for the past 50 years, but now that I’m getting older, I’ve started thinking more about it and taking steps to improve it.

Should we start thinking that we might live a lot longer?

In My Father’s Brain, Sandeep Jauhar offers a moving saga of a physician’s struggle with his father’s decline. It is a love story inside an immigrant family in America about a condition that one in every ten people over the age of 65 will likely encounter directly—and millions of us will deal with as family caregivers or somewhat-helpless bystanders. As expert science-based memoirs go, Jauhar’s work is up there with Atul Gawande and, at a time when we are likely to live a lot longer than previous generations, is an essential and humane story.

Here’s a book I would recommend.

There’s no fountain of youth, but Dr. Attia’s practical book reinforces that choices we make when we’re young can prolong a healthy life. Read this for a proactive, strategic approach to longevity.

Here’s a book I would recommend.

This book offers practical tips, backed by scientific evidence, to ‘hack’ our way to living longer and healthier lives. A much-needed guide after the pandemic.

I highly recommend this visionary guide to Healthcare 3.0. This book revolutionizes our approach to well-being by considering the whole body—not just physical health, but also mental, financial, and social health. It’s a powerful parallel to the employer–employee relationship, where supporting employees’ comprehensive well-being leads to increased productivity, job satisfaction, and retention. By prioritizing body, mind, wallet, and life, we can build a healthier, happier, and more thriving workforce. Outlive is a ‘must read’ for anyone invested in the future of healthcare and human potential.

This book is a conversation-starting history of women’s health told through the author’s first-person perspective after experiencing a misdiagnosis and medical gaslighting. Through her own research, she writes on the discoveries that perpetuated gender bias in healthcare and why science has long favored the male perspective, which contributes to the severe needs that women experience in their healthcare.

I love reading pop science on vacation. In recent years, I read Why We Sleep and Breath, both of which led me to change some day-to-day habits—for example, getting the amount of sleep I actually need and breathing differently when exercising. I’m interested to see what I learn from this one!

Puchner doesn’t just tell but shows us why preserving cultural products matters, even when we don’t like them, by narrating 17 moments spanning 34 millennia and much of the globe when visionary people created, gathered, or interpreted cultural material to innovate in the present and hold on to hope for a human future.

Here’s a book I would recommend.

Truly fab and a wonderful insight into the ingrained biases around these women by the men around them. The stories weave a wonderful web across political and economic themes at the time, with deeply personal—often tragic—stories.

Having just begun a career in baseball, I’m very excited to dive into how Major League Baseball went from crisis to a golden age and how the events of the 1990s shaped the game and the business we see today.

Read One Fine Day for a look at the world through the lens of the British Empire at its maximum physical spread. I love the holistic look at history, seeing the interlinkages.

Here’s a book I would recommend.

Yergin’s book offers invaluable insights from the oil boom, cautioning us to approach this new frontier with a clear-eyed understanding of its transformative power and the need for responsible stewardship—particularly pertinent to the current AI-related land grab.

The inspiring, untold story of women who worked in radium dial factories during World War I is a tale of empowerment and resilience that should not be forgotten.

Our ancestors were surrounded by omens, fortune-telling, astrology, and every possible kind of magic. How did that work, what did they believe, and how did our view of the world change away from that? We take so much of our theory of knowledge for granted that it’s fascinating to think about people, cleverer than us, who understood knowledge in completely different ways.

The book I plan to read is An Unfinished Love Story, by Doris Kearns Goodwin.

This book combines scientific research, practical advice, and inspirational stories, making it applicable and valuable for both professional and personal growth.

Ros’s book is that rare example of when deep trade knowledge, concise delivery, and useful advice come together to create a work of nonfiction that should go straight into all journalism schools’ reading lists. I’d go even further and say that this book applies to all sectors—as we all need to explain what we do much better. Fantastic achievement.

This book has been on my list for years, and considering how much I entertain, I am embarrassed I still haven’t read it. I am finally crossing it off my list!

Much has been written about the Gen Z–millennial mental health crisis, and so it’s not surprising that one of the bestselling books on the topic comes from someone of that generation. But as good as the book itself is, I’ve paid attention to it because of what its success says about success in 21st-century publishing. Nguyen has made it to the top of the market through the power of his ability as a self-made, solo operator, connecting with hundreds of thousands of readers.

This book offers a compelling exploration into the myriad cognitive biases that cloud our judgment. I recommend it for its insightful analysis that encourages critical thinking and skepticism, essential tools in our increasingly complex world.

For too long, the business world has been led by our brains. It’s time we shift toward a more heart-led approach. I believe we can do this by connecting with, feeling, and loving the children we once were.

This is the next book that I would like to read. It follows the theme of building a coalition to address climate change.

Here’s a book I plan on reading.

Frankl’s profound account of his survival in a concentration camp and his psychological insights into human nature are both uplifting and deeply moving. This is a book I recommend for its enduring lessons on finding purpose in the face of suffering.

A trusted leadership coach has lauded this book for its revolutionary perspective on how our mindset shapes our abilities and outcomes. I am eager to delve into Dweck’s distinctions between fixed and growth mindsets, hoping to apply these principles to both personal and professional growth.

This book is a call to action for ambitious women to move beyond the fear of failing and instead take bold action.

In an era when phrases and language feel fraught with politics and subtext, Anne’s historical investigations and sheer delight in the evolution of words is an important reminder that communicating well with each other can—and should—be a pleasure!

This book is an invitation to radically rethink our exhausting approach to modern work: Who has time to craft their masterpiece when they’re expected to respond to 200 emails and Slack messages a day? The faux frenzy of modern workplaces has not led to great innovations or even everyday work with the biggest impact. Instead, workers feel pushed to the brink by endless meetings, tyrannical email inboxes, nonstop busywork, hostile managers, and in-office mandates that rob them of agency and time for true professional creativity. Burned out by the 24/7 grind of modern work, Newport provides alternative strategies for knowledge workers to do the best work of their lives by taking a slower approach to work that matters.

This is Lamott’s 20th book, another number-one best seller, and a reminder that ‘love is our only hope.’

As I look back at my early career, I’m not sure I factored in the importance of sisterhood when it comes to building and sustaining careers. It can be lonely sometimes as you evolve and grow your ability to make impact in conjunction with changes in your life. This book serves as a reminder that sisterhood and support matter at every stage of your journey—investing in it can lift us all.

Here’s a book I would recommend.

Today’s revolutions in technology and globalization, as well as the disruptions they bring, seem unprecedented. But they are not. This magnificent book provides new perspectives into the past, present, and future of liberalism. It is much needed today.

This is a breathtaking book. In a moment of active military conflicts around the world, Demick’s extraordinary history of Tibetans in China reminds us that conquest and brutality can also happen quietly and methodically, to equally devastating effects.

Chachra’s book invites us to reimagine the very foundations upon which we build our society, challenging us to design systems that prioritize equity, resilience, and the common good.

This is a great book for learning from exceptional historical leaders how to tackle today’s challenges in a world of polycrisis.

I recommend this book, which is an economic and political history of the United States that makes compelling, evidence-based arguments for center-left policies on labor, immigration, crime, and education. It helped me sort through my own ideas on immigration.

Here’s a book I would recommend.

Our colleague Evan Gershkovich’s arrest and detention in Russia was a real body blow to the Wall Street Journal, but we were greatly helped by the advice and perspectives of many people in journalism and elsewhere, including Jason Rezaian. Jason’s experience as a Washington Post reporter and prisoner in Iran provides hugely valuable insights into both what we should be prepared for and the issues raised when nation-states take foreigners, and especially journalists, hostage. And the fact that Jason and his wife, Yegi, were both eventually freed from prison gives us continued hope for Evan’s imminent return.

Our colleague Evan Gershkovich’s arrest and detention in Russia was a real body blow to the Wall Street Journal, but we were greatly helped by the advice and perspectives of many people in journalism and elsewhere, including Jason Rezaian. Jason’s experience as a Washington Post reporter and prisoner in Iran provides hugely valuable insights into both what we should be prepared for and the issues raised when nation-states take foreigners, and especially journalists, hostage. And the fact that Jason and his wife, Yegi, were both eventually freed from prison gives us continued hope for Evan’s imminent return.

Dr. Rosenberg’s book is a provocative piece that chronicles his challenges as a leader of several different higher education institutions. In particular, he focuses on the challenges in bringing change to an institution. He points out that many of the core elements that have been so important to the success of higher education institutions can indeed be some of the same elements that make it difficult to effect change in the institution. This book frames some important issues that all the stakeholders of higher education institutions—students, faculty, staff, and alumni—should consider.

Here’s a book I would recommend.

Here’s a book I’m planning on reading this summer.

I have been reading a lot about climate change—as we continue to see greater and greater effects on the local communities in Papua New Guinea and the Pacific Islands region where I live. I read this book recently upon a friend’s recommendation, and it confirmed my worst fears, based on the impacts we are seeing in the Pacific with rising sea levels and impact on local ecosystems and the Indigenous communities.

Here’s a book I would recommend.

As we look ahead to the intensified demand for GPUs and the incredible processing power required to support AI, it is helpful to look back at the origins of the chip industry and the geopolitical context from which we enter today’s world.

Here’s a book I would recommend.

Here’s a book I would recommend.

This book is required reading for anyone seeking a basis of practical knowledge to understand AI and the coming changes in our world.

Suleyman shares his personal history with DeepMind as part of a small group of technologist pioneers and also raises the challenges and critical questions we as a society must tackle in our century.

This lyrical exploration of emerging technologies combines personal memoir, philosophical speculation, and probing research into the implications of AI on what it means to be human.

I’ll confess, I just skimmed this book when it came out in 2017. I returned to it recently because the lessons on reinventing a culture, embracing a growth mindset, and figuring out how to navigate the future are as timely as ever.

Given the deep uncertainty and wild speculation about the future of AI now, I’m urging business and government leaders to read this book, which is an anthology of 46 classic papers in computer science that effectively set the stage for modern AI. I recommend reading the abstracts and conclusions in order. It’s a good way to understand the foundations of how AI was conceived, how and why it developed, and why we’re still having challenges making ‘machines that think’ today.

A CEO I admire recently gave me a copy of this book. We share an admiration of Bucky Fuller, who was an expansive thinker and prolific inventor. His ideas triggered a new way of thinking about how to responsively use planetary resources for the benefit of everyone.

Here’s a book I would recommend.

Providing well-paying, fulfilling jobs to frontline workers has seemed a quixotic endeavor to many business leaders. Ton’s book demonstrates that good jobs that offer a living wage, dignity, and opportunities for growth, combined with key operational improvements, drive customer loyalty and better business results.

Matt Mayberry delivers an incisive and hands-on blueprint to employee engagement and peak productivity. Increasing employee engagement has long been a cornerstone of any successful strategy. But offering a program or resources is one thing; getting your people to consistently engage in your culture is another. I look forward to reading this book to gather Matt’s insights on what leaders can do to close the gap between the organization and its people.

Here’s a book I would recommend.

This book gave valuable insight into key drivers that make meetings successful and shared actionable strategies to ensure quality. I like how the author relies on both extensive research and real-world applications, and I found the knowledge valuable to transform meetings to be more focused and effective.

I found this book very practical in terms of building an effective company culture.

Here’s a book I would recommend.

Here’s a book I would recommend.