8 classic novels that will make you a better leader

But according to Scotty McLennan, a lecturer in political economy at Stanford Graduate School of Business, and the school's former dean of religious life, limiting ourselves to manuals and biographies and case studies means we're missing something big. Because some of the most valuable insights into the heart of leadership don't come from the business aisle. They come from the literary classics.

Unlike traditional business books, literature allows you access to the inner lives of its characters. "You see them not only in their work environment, and in decision-making moments, but in their larger life," McLennan explains in a video produced by Stanford GBS. Literature can "show you reality in a way that case studies and biographies and other things that are supposedly about reality can't touch," he says. He even teaches a course on the topic for MBA students: "The Business World: Moral and Spiritual Inquiry through Literature."

Writing for Insights by Stanford Business, Beth Rimbey outlines some of McLennan's favorites. Using that list (and McLennan's talk, which you can watch here), we put together what might be the most thought-provoking - and most beautiful - summer business reading list of all time.