Picture this: you wake up every morning with the weight of millions of people on your shoulders. At work, you dash from important meeting to important meeting, completing a non-stop high-wire act where every decision must be the right decision. There are stubborn foreign diplomats to negotiate with, uncooperative party members, and an entire world watching your every move. Faced with so much pressure, how would you relax at the end of the day?
For former POTUS Barack Obama, the answer has always been a good book. It’s funny to imagine a powerful leader burying his nose in The Girl on the Train or Harry Potter—but that’s exactly what Obama did (and for an hour every night, at that). He may have held our country’s highest office, but as our most bookish president since Lincoln, Obama has always been an advocate for the power of the written word.
Obama reads widely and with empathy, turning to thrillers for escape or Pulitzer Prize winners for knowledge and perspective. He reads to gain greater insight into the human condition, gravitating toward the diverse and global voices of past and present. And as he once told the New York Times, “the role of stories to unify … is more important than ever.” Thus, his bookshelves display lives both similar to and different from his own, which allows him to bridge gaps of misunderstanding and feel a sense of collective belonging. Below, you'll find a list of the books he's recommended over the years so that you, too, can read like Barack Obama.
(This list was last updated on 8/21/2018.)
Related: What Are Joe Biden's Favorite Books?
For the book clubber who's drawn to bestsellers, award-winners, and critically acclaimed authors:
With their masterful prose, edge-of-your-seat thrills, and unforgettable characters, these books have earned more than golden seals and movie deals. They have Obama’s stamp of approval.
An American Marriage, Tayari Jones
Warlight, by Michael Ondaatje
The Girl on the Train, Paula Hawkins
The Underground Railroad, Colson Whitehead
All the Light We Cannot See, Anthony Doerr
Gilead, Marilynne Robinson
Fates and Furies, Lauren Groff
Purity, Jonathan Franzen
Gone Girl, Gillian Flynn
H is for Hawk, Helen Macdonald
The Narrow Road to the Deep North, Richard Flanagan
All That Is, James Salter
Lush Life, Richard Price
The Laughing Monsters, Denis Johnson
Two Years Eight Months and Twenty-Eight Nights, Salman Rushdie
For the bookworm who's looking to add to their literary bucket list (or, y'know, just wants to look impressive on Goodreads):
Here are some of Obama’s favorite classics that everyone should read before they die.
A House for Mr. Biswas, V.S. Naipaul
The Naked and the Dead, Norman Mailer
One Hundred Years of Solitude, Gabriel García Márquez
Heart of Darkness, Joseph Conrad
Moby Dick, Herman Melville
The Power and the Glory, Graham Greene
The Quiet American, Graham Greene
A Bend in the River, V.S. Naipaul
The Golden Notebook, Doris Lessing
Cancer Ward, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
In Dubious Battle, John Steinbeck
Collected Poems, Derek Walcott
All the King’s Men, Robert Penn Warren
The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald
Related: Why the Lost Generation Writers Still Resonate With Us
For the adult who enjoys passing along childhood favorites—or simply reconnecting with their own inner kid:
These nine chapter books, illustrated novels, and Newbury honorees are sure to please the littles ones and your big kid self. (Malia and Sasha agree!)
Brown Girl Dreaming, Jacqueline Woodson
Cartwheeling in Thunderstorms, Katherine Rundell
Redwall series, Brian Jacques
Junie B. Jones series, Barbara Park
Nuts to You, Lynn Rae Perkins
Treasure Island, Robert Louis Stevenson
Where the Wild Things Are, Maurice Sendak
Of Mice and Men, John Steinbeck
Harry Potter series , J.K. Rowling
For the POTUS of tomorrow:
Calling the future leaders of the world! Check out these anecdotes and words of wisdom from yesterday and today’s biggest movers and shakers.
Andy Grove: The Life and Times of an American, Richard S. Tedlow
Washington: A Life, Ron Chernow
Self-Reliance, Ralph Waldo Emerson
The Federalist, Alexander Hamilton
The Story of My Experiments with Truth, Gandhi
Theory of Moral Sentiments, Adam Smith
Wealth of Nations, Adam Smith
The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt, Edmund Morris
John Adams, David McCullough
Lincoln: The Biography of a Writer, Fred Kaplan
Defining Moment: FDR’s Hundred Days and the Triumph of Hope, Jonathan Alter
FDR, Jean Edward Smith
Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln, Doris Kearns Goodwin
The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln
Related: 10 Books for Fans of Hamilton
For the modern guy or gal who wants to get informed:
Take a look at these searing political commentaries on race, class, gender, and more to see where we’ve come from and what more needs to be done.
Between the World and Me, Ta-Nehisi Coates
Parting the Waters, Taylor Branch
Souls of Black Folk, W.E.B. Du Bois
Invisible Man, Ralph Ellison
Unequal Democracy: The Political Economy and the New Gilded Age, Larry Bartels
A Kind and Just Parent, William Ayers
The Fire Next Time, James Baldwin
Song of Solomon, Toni Morrison
Moral Man and Immoral Society, Reinhold Niebuhr
Related: Must-Read Books by Black Authors
For anyone who has felt like an outside or underdog:
Whether they explore the modern immigrant experience, the rigors of family life, or globe-trotting adventures, these stories of self-discovery are here to remind you that you aren’t alone.
Educated, by Tara Westover
The Lowland, Jhumpa Lahiri
Working, Studs Terkel
Cutting for Stone, Abraham Verghese
To the End of the Land, David Grossman
Netherland, Joseph O’Neill
Plainsong, Kent Haruf
The Way Home, George Pelecanos
What is the What, Dave Eggers
The Woman Warrior, Maxine Hong Kingston
Behind the Beautiful Forevers: Life, Death, and Hope in a Mumbai Undercity, Katherine Boo
Barbarian Days: A Surfing Life, William Finnegan
Nora Webster, Colm Tóibín
For the knowledge-hungry:
Blow your mind with Obama’s eye-opening, "I’ve-never-thought-about-it-like-that" must-reads.
Factfulness, Hans Rosling
Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters in the End, Dr. Atul Gawande
The Sixth Extinction, Elizabeth Kolbert
Hot, Flat, and Crowded: Why We Need a Green Revolution—and How It Can Renew America, Thomas L. Friedman
Thinking, Fast and Slow, Daniel Kahneman
Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind, Yuval Noah Harari
Philosophy & Literature, Peter S. Thomspon
For the history buff—or the aspiring time traveler:
This collection of fiction and nonfiction titles will take you around the world—and to times, events, and places of the present, present, and future.
Age of Ambition: Chasing Fortune, Truth and Faith in the New China, Evan Osnos
Best and the Brightest, David Halberstam
Redeployment, Phil Klay
The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the Fall of New York, Robert A. Caro
The Post-American World, Fareed Zakaria
Lessons in Disaster, Gordon Goldstein
The Three-Body Problem, Lui Cixin
Seveneves, Neal Stephenson
Featured image courtesy of Wikipedia
