Former president and noted literary tastemaker Barack Obama has shared his annual list of favorites, posting a run-down of the books that made 2019 “a little brighter” for him.
Obama shared the list on Instagram, writing, “This has become a fun little tradition for me, and I hope it is for you, too. Because while each of us has plenty that keeps us busy — work and family life, social and volunteer commitments — outlets like literature and art can enhance our day-to-day experiences.”
This year, Obama selected 17 books as well as two he designated as being “for the sports fans.” You can read the full list below.
- The Age of Surveillance Capitalism: The Fight for a Human Future at the New Frontier of Power by Shoshana Zuboff
- The Anarchy: The Relentless Rise of the East India Company by William Dalrymple
- Furious Hours: Murder, Fraud, and the Last Trial of Harper Lee by Casey Cep
- Girl, Woman, Other by Bernardine Evaristo
- The Heartbeat of Wounded Knee: Native America from 1890 to the Present by David Treuer
- How to Do Nothing: Resisting the Attention Economy by Jenny Odell
- Lost Children Archive by Valeria Luiselli
- Lot: Stories by Bryan Washington
- Normal People by Sally Rooney
- The Orphan Master’s Son by Adam Johnson
- The Yellow House by Sarah M. Broom
- Say Nothing: A True Story of Murder and Memory in Northern Ireland by Patrick Radden Keefe
- Solitary by Albert Woodfox
- The Topeka School by Ben Lerner
- Trick Mirror: Reflections on Self-Delusion by Jia Tolentino
- Trust Exercise by Susan Choi
- We Live in Water: Stories by Jess Walter
- A Different Way to Win: Dan Rooney’s Story from the Super Bowl to the Rooney Rule by Jim Rooney
- The Sixth Man by Andre Iguodala
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