The CEO summer reading list

By Alex Konrad, contributor


FORTUNE -- Summer is in full swing. For most people, this means hitting the beach, firing up the barbecue, and relaxing poolside -- or at least daydreaming about it from the office. For CEOs, it may mean retreating to a Tuscan villa, docking the yacht in a remote island, or putting out fires in the boardroom. Regardless of their destination, C-suite executives are using a little downtime to catch up on their reading.

Fortune polled a number of executives to find out what's on their reading list. They're diving into everything from the glut of books about the financial crisis, to the latest management self-help books, to tomes on history's great leaders. A few execs are even getting lost in works of fiction by Stieg Larsson, Tom Wolfe and Fyodor Dostoevsky.

Brad Alford, Chairman and CEO, Nestlé USA
1776, by David McCullough
Drive, by Daniel Pink
A paperback spy or mystery novel from the airport

Mary Erdoes, CEO, JP Morgan Asset Management
The Facebook Effect: The Inside Story of the Company that is Connecting the World, by David Kirkpatrick
On the Brink: Inside the Race to Stop the Collapse of the Global Financial System, by Henry M. Paulson

Jim O'Donnell, President, BMW
North America Crash Course: The American Automobile Industry's Road from Glory to Disaster, by Paul Ingrassia
Jenkins at the Majors: Sixty Years of the World's Best Golf Writing, from Hogan to Tiger, by Dan Jenkins

Marc Cenedella, founder and CEO, The Ladders
The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine, by Michael Lewis
Churchill's Empire: The World That Made Him and the World He Made, by Richard Toye
Slaughterhouse Five, by Kurt Vonnegut

Alan Miller, CEO, Universal Health (UHS, Fortune 500)
Churchill's Empire: The World That Made Him and the World He Made, by Richard Toye
The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine, by Michael Lewis
Presidential Leadership: 15 Decisions that Changed the Nation, by Nick Ragone

Greg Sebasky, CEO, Philips Electronics North America
Dynamics of Taking Charge, by John Gabarro
Good to Great, by Jim Collins Food Rules (Kindle edition), by Michael Pollan This Time Is Different (Kindle edition), by Carmen Reinhart and Kenneth Rogoff

Lisa Stone, CEO, BlogHer
Designing the Obvious: A Common Sense Approach to Web Application Design, MobiPocket (Kindle Edition), by Robert Hoeckman
Bite Me: A Love Story, by Christopher Moore

Tom Wilson, CEO, Allstate (ALL, Fortune 500)
Conspirata: A Novel of Ancient Rome, by Robert Harris
The Brothers Karamazov, by Fyodor Dostoevsky
The Fifth Discipline, by Peter Senge

Gilbert Harrison, Chairman, Financo, Inc.
The Sigma Protocol, by Robert Ludlum
The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest (Millennium III), by Stieg Larsson
Start-Up Nation: The Story of Israel's Economic Miracle, by Dan Senor and Saul Singer
The Snowball: Warren Buffett and the Business of Life, by Alice Schroeder

George Barrett, CEO, Cardinal Health (CAH, Fortune 500)
A River Runs Through It, by Norman Maclean
Open, by Andre Agassi
Chaos and Organization in Health Care, by Thomas H. Lee, MD and James J. Mongan, MD

Heath Golden, CEO, Hampshire Group (HAMP)
The Snowball: Warren Buffett and the Business of Life, by Alice Schroeder
The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine, by Michael Lewis

Christine Jacobs, CEO and President, Theragenics Corporation (TGX)
A Man in Full, by Tom Wolfe
Enough, by John C. Bogle

Les Berglass, Chairman, Berglass and Associates
China in the 21st Century, by Jeffrey Wasserstrom
Last Stand, by Nathaniel Philbrick
Nomad, by Ayaan Hirsi Ali

Jim Greenwood, CEO, Concentra
Why Is Everyone Smiling, by Paul Spiegelman
47 Ways to Make Your Organization Exceptional, by John Miller

Stephen Wiehe, CEO, SciQuest
61 Hours
, by Lee Childs  To top of page

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