Stanley McChrystal's 6 favorite books

Stanley McChrystal retired in July 2010 as a four-star general in the U.S. Army. His last assignment was as the commander of the International Security Assistance Force and as the commander of U.S. forces in Afghanistan. He had previously served as the direc­tor of the Joint Staff and as the commander of the Joint Special Operations Command. He is currently a senior fellow at Yale University’s Jackson Institute for Global Affairs and the cofounder of the McChrystal Group, a leadership consulting firm.

McChrystal's new book is My Share of the Task: A Memoir.

One of his six favorite books, as told to The Week magazine:

Personal Memoirs by Ulysses S. Grant

In a race against throat cancer, Grant wrote what would become the paragon for a general's memoir. Reading it in the West Point library, I was drawn to his candor, plain leadership lessons, and humility. Grant's tenacity and a lifetime of writing clear orders are evident in his lean phrases, while his bedrock humanity produces rich portraits of a gruesome war.

Read about another book on McChrystal's list.

--Marshal Zeringue