16 Books That Top CEOs Think You Should Read

In previous posts, I've provided reading lists from Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, Elon Musk, and Warren Buffett. However, there are plenty of CEOs in the world with their own ideas of what people should be reading.

Facebook recently asked for reading suggestions from various luminaries from the worlds of business, politics, and the military. I combed through the exhaustive list to bring you these 16 great books, recommended by 16 great CEOs. Enjoy!

1. Alexander Hamilton

Author: Ron Chernow

One Sentence Summary: A new biography describing Hamilton's rise from an illegitimate, largely self-taught orphan from the Caribbean to a leader in the American Revolution and then the first Treasury Secretary of the United States.

Recommended by: Adena Friedman, president of Nasdaq

2. Chinese Politics in the Xi Jinping Era

Subtitle: Reassessing Collective Leadership

Author: Cheng Li

One Sentence Summary: A description of the political climate in today's China, how it's changed over the past few years, and a biographical roadmap of the country's political leaders.

Recommended by: Doug McMillon, CEO of Walmart

3. Delivering Happiness

Subtitle: A Path to Profits, Passion, and Purpose

Author: Tony Hsieh

One Sentence Summary: The CEO of Zappos explains how he created a corporate culture based upon the concept that there is value to happiness, both for employees and customers.

Recommended by: Chris Nassetta, CEO of Hilton Worldwide,

4. Freakonomics

Subtitle: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything

Authors: Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner

One Sentence Summary: A set of amusing case studies illustrating that economics is the study of how people get what they want or need, especially when other people want or need the same thing.

Recommended by: Jeremiah Owyang, CEO of Crowd Companies

5. Judo Strategy

Subtitle: Turning Your Competitors' Strength to Your Advantage

Authors: David B. Yoffie and Mary Kwak

One Sentence Summary: This book applies martial arts strategy to business situations, building the case that, rather than oppose strength to strength, successful challengers use their opponents' size and power to bring them down.

Recommended by: Matt Salzberg, CEO of Blue Apron

6. Lincoln and the Power of the Press

Subtitle: The War for Public Opinion

Author: Harold Holzer

One Sentence Summary: Lincoln's life as viewed through the journalists who covered him from his start through to the night of his assassination, and how the president used the press to speak directly to the people and shape the nation.

Recommended by: Richard Edelman, CEO of Edelman

7. Strong Is the New Beautiful

Subtitle: Embrace Your Natural Beauty, Eat Clean, and Harness Your Power

Author: Lindsey Vonn

One Sentence Summary: The Olympic gold medalist provides a fitness program and advice on what to eat and how to work out, as well as how to bolster self-confidence and build a better body image.

Recommended by: Bobbi Brown, CEO of Bobbi Brown Cosmetics

8. Montana 1948: A Novel

Author: Larry Watson

One Sentence Summary: A young boy learns that truth is not what one believes it to be, that power can be abused, and that it is sometimes necessary to choose between family loyalty and justice.

Recommended by: Dan Schulman, CEO of PayPal

9. Seveneves

Author: Neal Stephenson

One Sentence Summary: A novel describing the efforts to preserve human society in the wake of apocalyptic events on Earth following the unexplained disintegration of the Moon.

Recommended by: Ian Bremmer, president of the Eurasia Group

10. Technology as a Service Playbook

Subtitle: How to Grow a Profitable Subscription Business

Authors: Thomas Lah and J.B. Wood

One Sentence Summary: A guide to decision making and execution around the "as-a-service" model, with the intent of putting a company on a path to profitable growth by changing how "offers" are designed, built, marketed, sold, and serviced.

Recommended by: Stephanie Newby, CEO of Crimson Hexagon

11. The Art of Happiness

Subtitle: A Handbook for Living

Author: The Dalai Lama

One Sentence Summary: Through conversations, stories, and meditations, the Tibetan spiritual leader shows how to defeat day-to-day anxiety, insecurity, anger, and discouragement.

Recommend by: Yves Guillemot, CEO of Ubisoft

12. The Girls of Atomic City

Subtitle: The Untold Story of the Women Who Helped Win World War II

Author: Denise Kiernan

One Sentence Summary: The true story of the top-secret World War II town of Oak Ridge, Tennessee and the young women brought there unknowingly to help build the atomic bomb.

Recommended by: Jean Case, CEO of the Case Foundation

13. The Invention of Nature

Subtitle: Alexander von Humboldt's New World

Author: Andrea Wulf

One Sentence Summary: The forgotten life of a visionary German naturalist whose ideas changed the way we see the natural world and created modern environmentalism.

Recommended by: Mark Tercek, CEO of the Nature Conservancy

14. The Sixth Extinction

Subtitle: An Unnatural History

Author: Elizabeth Kolbert

One Sentence Summary: A description of how humans are creating the most devastating extinction event since the asteroid impact that wiped out the dinosaurs.

Recommended by: Michelle Nunn, CEO of the nonprofit CARE

15. Travels With Charley in Search of America

Author: John Steinbeck

One Sentence Summary: A famous novelist drives the interstates and country roads and reflects on the American character, racial hostility, American loneliness, and the unexpected kindness of strangers.

Recommended by: Richard Branson, CEO of Virgin

16. Woo, Wow, and Win

Subtitle: Service Design, Strategy, and the Art of Customer Delight

Authors: Thomas A. Stewart and Patricia O'Connell

One Sentence Summary: This book promotes the concept of designing your company around service and offers strategies based on the idea that the design of services is different from manufacturing.