How the Word Is Passed: A Reckoning with the History of Slavery Across America
by Clint Smith
The Engagement: America’s Quarter-Century Struggle Over Same-Sex Marriage
by Sasha Issenberg
Empire of Pain: The Secret History of the Sackler Dynasty
by Patrick Radden Keefe
The Premonition: A Pandemic Story
by Michael Lewis
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)
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.