THIS MONTH'S PAGE-TURNERS ON BUSINESS AND BEYOND

Last month, we asked for a glance at your bookshelves, and you delivered: a guide to giving away power, insights into the human mind, and more nonfiction reads. Check out our selection of your contributed picks, and keep an eye out for the main event in August: McKinsey’s annual summer reading list, featuring book recommendations from corporate leaders, media leaders, authors, and more.

In the meantime, catch up on this month’s Author Talks on the regenerative power of silence, the fast-growing longevity economy, and how to lead with collaboration rather than competition—plus this month’s bestselling business books, prepared exclusively for McKinsey by NPD BookScan. Itching for more good reads? Check out McKinsey on Books for the latest.

SUMMER READING … ALMOST

Before we reveal our summer reading list, it’s time to reveal yours. Thank you to all our readers for taking the time to send in book recommendations. Here are five of our favorites.

Nudge: The Final Edition by Richard H. Thaler and Cass R. Sunstein
–R.N. (Boston, Massachusetts)

Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman
–V.G. (Hesse, Germany)

CEO Excellence: The Six Mindsets that Distinguish the Best Leaders from the Rest by Carolyn Dewar, Scott Keller, and Vikram Malhotra
–C.P. (Los Angeles, California)

The Power of Fun: How to Feel Alive Again by Catherine Price
–K.E.K. (Oslo, Norway)

The Power of Giving Away Power: How the Best Leaders Learn to Let Go by Matthew Barzun
–J.B. (Bowling Green, Kentucky)

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT

Justin Zorn and Leigh Marz seek solace in silence: “The world is louder than it’s ever been. It’s not just a little bit more auditory noise—there is a mass proliferation of mental stimulation in our world today.” Watch the full interview.

Susan Wilner Golden says companies that don’t market to the 60-plus crowd are missing out on a $22 trillion opportunity: “Traditionally, people always looked at aging as a frailty, or as a declining stage of life, but in fact, older adults are living much greater lives with longer health spans (the healthy periods of a person’s life), which enables them to be productive and to contribute to society.” Watch the full interview.

Dalia Feldheim brings the #LikeAGirl message to the corporate C-suite: “There’s no such thing as a masculine brain or a feminine brain; we all have within us both masculine traits and feminine traits. … The issue we’re seeing is that the business world is collapsing to what they call the ‘wounded masculine’—a world of competition over collaboration and power over people, versus power with people.” Watch the full interview.

BUSINESS BESTSELLERS TOP

Getting temperature warnings on all your devices? Leave the e-reader indoors and grab a good old-fashioned paperback from this month’s selection of the top business bestsellers in eight categories, prepared exclusively for McKinsey by NPD BookScan. Explore the full lists on McKinsey on Books.

BUSINESS OVERALL

Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way To Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones by James Clear (Avery Publishing Group)

BUSINESS HARDCOVER

Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way To Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones by James Clear (Avery Publishing Group)

DECISION MAKING

How Minds Change: The Surprising Science of Belief, Opinion, and Persuasion by David McRaney (Penguin Group USA)

ECONOMICS

Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything by Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner (HarperCollins Publishers)

ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOR

Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way To Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones by James Clear (Penguin Group USA)

WORKPLACE CULTURE

Who Moved My Cheese?: An Amazing Way to Deal with Change in Your Work and in Your Life by Spencer Johnson (Penguin Group USA)

DIVERSITY & INCLUSION

Caste (Oprah’s Book Club): The Origins of Our Discontents by Isabel Wilkerson (Random House)

SUSTAINABILITY

Net Positive: How Courageous Companies Thrive by Giving More Than They Take by Paul Polman and Andrew Winston (Harvard Business Review Press)

BOOKMARK THIS

If you’d like to propose a book or author for #McKAuthorTalks, please email us at Author_Talks@Mckinsey.com. Due to the high volume of requests, we will respond only to those being considered.

—Edited by Molly Liebergall, a digial editor in McKinsey’s New York office

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