THIS MONTH'S PAGE-TURNERS ON BUSINESS AND BEYOND

With more than 100 selections on our 2022 summer reading guide, it would be too difficult to pick favorites—thankfully, we didn’t have to. Among books on workplace culture, public health, and more, a few recurring recommendations united our contributors’ bookshelves (great minds, and all that). In a year of global challenge, leaders in business and media layered new wisdom on politics and management with the timeless comfort of classic and contemporary literature. See the most popular books and genres, and find out which publishing house dominated this year’s guide. You can also find out what McKinsey global managing partner Bob Sternfels, and senior partners Tracy Francis, Sven Smit, Gautam Kumra, and others had on their reading lists.

Plus, catch a roundup of this month’s Author Talks on entrepreneurship in refugee camps, design thinking for the future, and workplace culture in the remote age. Itching for more good reads? Head to McKinsey on Books for this month’s bestselling business books, prepared exclusively for McKinsey by NPD BookScan, plus more of the latest. To get Readers & Leaders in your inbox monthly, click here to subscribe.

WHO MADE THE TOP 5?

WHO MADE THE TOP FIVE? Which books, publishers, and genres were most popular on our 2022 summer reading list? Make your guesses and check out the rankings below.

Books (in alphabetical order after first place):

Publishers:

Genres:

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT

Melissa Daimler defines the formula for strong company culture: “Why are we in business? Why are we here? Why does it matter? Identifying that is important because we’re dealing with the Great Resignation and the Great Reset. A lot of this is because employees aren’t finding meaning in their jobs—they’re not finding an opportunity to grow. I often hear leaders say, ‘It doesn’t matter, that’s just the soft stuff,’ about culture—but it does.” Watch the full interview. 

Andrew Leon Hanna shares a lucrative opportunity for purpose-based investors: “Refugees contribute about $63 billion in fiscal surplus to the US government. From an economic point of view, from a moral point of view, and really just from a cultural spirit and joy point of view, we’re missing out on quite a bit. Now is a better time than ever to reassess and say, ‘What are we doing to solve these issues?’” Watch the full interview.

Christian Bason and Jens Martin Skibsted aim to future-proof design thinking: “Building stuff for the near future for humans is what got us into this mess in the first point. And so, even though we’re not taking a big bash at design thinking, we are suggesting that we’re at a time now when we really need to go beyond the success of design thinking.” Watch the full interview.

BUSINESS BESTSELLERS TOP

It’s still not too late to squeeze in some summer reading. For more inspiration beyond our 2022 summer reading guide, check out 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 (Penguin Group USA)

BUSINESS HARDCOVER

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

DECISION MAKING

Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking by Malcolm Gladwell (Hachette Book Group)

ECONOMICS

Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything by Steven D. Levitt (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 (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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