From the frontlines of storytelling, journalism, and analysis, media and press leaders have their finger on the cultural and business conversations shaping our world. For “What to read next: McKinsey’s 2025 annual book recommendations,” they suggested ten titles that capture the spirit of today—spanning memoir, fiction, business, and AI. These selections speak to a common search for clarity, meaning, and connection while probing the questions leaders are asking about the past, present, and future. Dive into these ten reads, and then check out the full collection by filtering for Media contributors to explore more.
Dinosaurs by Lydia Millet
Recommended by: Jamie Heller, Editor in chief, Business Insider
Mark Twain by Ron Chernow
Recommended by: Gillian Tett, Columnist and member of the editorial board, Financial Times; provost, King’s College, Cambridge
Orbital by Samantha Harvey
Recommended by: Ellen Desmarais, Co-president, Harvard Business Publishing
Some People Need Killing: A Memoir of Murder in My Country by Patricia Evangelista
Recommended by: Rebecca Blumenstein, President of Editorial, NBC News
The God of the Woods by Liz Moore
Recommended by: Julia Beizer, COO, Bloomberg Media
The Light Eaters: How the Unseen World of Plant Intelligence Offers a New Understanding of Life on Earth by Zoë Schlanger
Recommended by: Kat Downs Mulder, Senior vice president and general manager, Yahoo News
The Personal Librarian by Marie Benedict and Victoria Christopher Murray
Recommended by: Amy Brand, Director and publisher, MIT Press
The Thinking Machine: Jensen Huang, Nvidia, and the World’s Most Coveted Microchip by Stephen Witt
Recommended by: Alan Murray, President, WSJ Leadership Institute
Unforgiving Places: The Unexpected Origins of American Gun Violence by Jens Ludwig
Recommended by: Malcolm Gladwell, Author; host, Revisionist History podcast
Why Nothing Works: Who Killed Progress—and How to Bring It Back by Marc J. Dunkelman
Recommended by: Nicholas Kristof, Columnist, New York Times