Want to read like a former president? Barack Obama has you covered.
The 44th president of the U.S. released his annual list of summer book recommendations July 20. The nine books include nonfiction, novels and a strong selection of thrillers.
The former president published his first summer reading list in 2009, and has released a list every year since then, with the exception of 2012 and 2013.
Obama posted this year's list on Instagram.
"Here’s some books that I’m reading this summer," he wrote in the caption. "Check them out and let me know what I should be reading next."
Read on for President Obama's entire list of summer reading recommendations.
- "Poverty, By America" by Matthew Desmond is a 2023 nonfiction book that analyzes the sociological roots of poverty in the United States.
- "Small Mercies" is a sweltering summer thriller set in '70s Boston from the author of "Mystic River," Dennis Lehane.
- "King: A Life" by Jonathan Eig is a biography of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. A New York Times Bestseller, the book was was deemed "the new definitive biography" of King by the newspaper.
- "Hello Beautiful" by Ann Napolitano chronicles the lives of an Italian-American family. The novel is also an Oprah's Book Club pick.
- "All the Sinners Bleed" by S.A. Cosby is a serial killer thriller set in the South.
- "Birnam Wood" by Booker Prize-winning author Eleanor Catton is an eco-thriller about a guerilla gardening group.
- "What Napoleon Could Not Do" by DK Nnuro is a novel that dives into the tension between African and American identities.
- "The Wager: A Tale of Shipwreck, Mutiny and Murder" by David Grann is a nonfiction book about the 18th-century Wager Mutiny. Grann is also the author of "Killers of the Flower Moon," which has been adapted into an upcoming film.
- "Blue Hour" by Tiffany Clarke Harrison was described by Kirkus Reviews as "a poetic novel that dances on the edge of hope and despair."
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