Gary Pinkus

Senior Partner, McKinsey

The Empire of the Senses
by Alexis Landau

I just finished The Empire of the Senses, which was written by Alexis Landau, an alum from my high school (Harvard Westlake). It’s a well-written first novel capturing the period from World War I through the beginning of the Second World War from the vantage point of a family of Germans. Arguably, it should have been a trilogy, since they more or less jump through World War II, but still quite interesting voyage through a particular family and point in time.

Disunited Nations: The Scramble for Power in an Ungoverned World
by Peter Zeihan

Here’s one book I plan to read for my discussion group shortly.

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Acknowledgments

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.

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