Explore all of former United States President Barack Obama’s reading lists for Summer and beyond, all the way back from his first year in the Oval Office, 2009, until the present. Plus, get a printable PDF checklist to download and track your reading at the end of the post.
“Reading is the gateway skill that makes all other learning possible.”
– Barack Obama
President Obama’s book list started in 2009 as a Summer book list, often disclosed as he was on his own annual Martha’s Vineyard vacation (where I go each Summer too!), but it has since evolved into a mix that sometimes also includes yearly “best of” Obama book recommendations or, in a few cases, no list of books Obama read at all. As you may imagine, the former president recommends far more books now that he is “retired.”
Barack Obama’s favorite books are something I have eagerly anticipated for years now. In fact, I was quoted in Esquire’s article, Behind the Scenes of Barack Obama’s Reading Lists, as follows:
“For some, Obama’s recommendations have become highly anticipated. Julianne Buonocore, founder of the book and lifestyle blog The Literary Lifestyle, said that she and her 800,000+ monthly readers eagerly await Obama’s book list each year. ‘First, it’s exciting to see which books you’ve read that a former president has read too, and second, he always offers an array of diverse reads, so you know you’re also bound to find something new and impactful to read next,’ Buonocore said.”
– article by Sophie Vershbow
So, I have compiled (as best I could) all of President Barack Obama’s book lists from 2009 until the present below, in reverse chronological order. I used his own social media pages for most of my sourcing, then filled in the gaps with trustworthy resources I cited. I did not include book recommendations outside of the “official” lists, such as interviews where influential books in his life were discussed.
Where possible, I have also annotated specific titles on Barack Obama’s Summer reading lists and favorite books lists with my personal star ratings (on a scale of 1-5 stars) and accolades like awards and whether they were a celebrity book club pick, in order to further help you pick your next great read recommended by a former United States president.
Guide to Barack Obama’s Reading Lists for Summer & Beyond
Barack Obama’s Reading List of 2023
Former President Obama announced his 2023 list on July 20, 2023. He also announced his support in The Banned Book Club and, a few days earlier, issued a letter to the librarians of America:
Poverty, By America by Matthew Desmond
Small Mercies by Dennis Lehan
King: A Life by Jonathan Eig
Hello Beautiful by Ann Napolitano (Oprah’s Book Club; my review: 5 stars)
All the Sinners Bleed by S.A. Cosby
Birnam Wood by Eleanor Catton
What Napoleon Could Not Do by DK Nnuro
The Wager by David Grann
Blue Hour by Tiffany Clarke Harrison
(See what books made Obama’s list of favorite books of the year.)
Barack Obama’s Reading List of 2022
Favorite Books:
Aouth to America: A Journey Below the Mason-Dixon to Understand the Soul of a Nation by Imani Perry
Afterlives by Abdulrazak Gurnah (Winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature)
Black Cake by Charmaine Wilkerson (Read with Jenna book club; my review: 5 stars)
Ducks: Two Years in the Oil Sands by Kate Beaton (Winner of Canada Reads 2023)
The Furrows: A Novel by Namwali Serpell (Finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award; Longlisted for the Joyce Carol Oates Prize)
An Immense World: How Animal Senses Reveal the Hidden Realms Around Us by Ed Yong
Liberation Day by George Saunders
The Light We Carry by Michelle Obama
The Revolutionary: Samuel Adams by Stacy Schiff
The School for Good Mothers by Jessamine Chane (Read with Jenna book club; Longlisted for the PEN/Hemingway Award for Debut Novel; Longlisted for the 2023 Carnegie Medal for Excellence; Shortlisted for The Center for Fiction 2022 First Novel Prize; Longlisted for the PEN/Hemingway Award for Debut Novel; Longlisted for the 2023 Carnegie Medal for Excellence; Shortlisted for The Center for Fiction 2022 First Novel Prize)
Sea of Tranquility by Emily St. John Mandel
Trust by Hernan Diaz (Longlisted for the 2022 Booker Prize)
(Source)
Summer Reading List:
Black Cake by Charmaine Wilkerson (Read with Jenna book club; my review: 5 stars)
Blood in the Garden: The Flagrant History of the 1990s New York Knicks by Chris Herring
The Candy House by Jennifer Egan
The Family Chao by Lan Samantha Chang
The Great Experiment: Why Diverse Democracies Fall Apart and How They Can Endure by Yascha Mounk
A Little Devil in America: In Praise of Black Performance by Hanif Abdurraqib (National Book Award Finalist)
Mouth to Mouth by Antoine Wilson
Razorblade Tears by S.A. Cosby
The School for Good Mothers by Jessamine Chan (Read with Jenna book club; Longlisted for the PEN/Hemingway Award for Debut Novel; Longlisted for the 2023 Carnegie Medal for Excellence; Shortlisted for The Center for Fiction 2022 First Novel Prize; Longlisted for the PEN/Hemingway Award for Debut Novel; Longlisted for the 2023 Carnegie Medal for Excellence; Shortlisted for The Center for Fiction 2022 First Novel Prize)
Sea of Tranquility by Emily St. John Mandel
Silverview by John le Carre
To Paradise by Hanya Yanagihara
Velvet Was the Night by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
Why We’re Polarized by Ezra Klein
(Source)
Barack Obama’s Reading List of 2021
Favorite Books:
Aftershocks by Nadia Owuso
Beautiful Country by Qian Julie Wang (Read with Jenna book club; my review: 3 stars)
Cloud Cuckoo Land by Anthony Doerr
Crossroads by Jonathan Franzen
Crying in H Mart by Michelle Zauner (my review: 5 stars)
The Final Revival of Opal & Nev by Dawnie Walton (my review: 3 stars; 2022 Fiction Audie Award Winner)
Harlem Shuffle by Colson Whitehead
How the Word is Passed by Clint Smith
Invisible Child: Poverty, Survival & Hope in An American City by Andrea Elliott (Winner of the Pulitzer Prize)
The Lincoln Highway by Amor Towles (Read with Jenna book club; my review: 3 stars)
The Love Songs of W.E.B. Du Bois by Honoree Fanonne Jeffers (Oprah’s Book Club; Longlisted for the National Book Award for Fiction; Finalist for the Kirkus Prize for Fiction; Shortlisted for the Center for Fiction First Novel Prize; Longlisted for the Aspen Words Literary Prize)
Matrix by Lauren Groff (Winner of the 2022 Joyce Carol Oates Prize; Finalist for the 2021 National Book Award for Fiction)
These Precious Days by Ann Patchett (my review: 4 stars)
(Source)
Summer Reading List:
At Night All Blood is Black by David Diop (Winner of the 2021 International Booker Prize; Winner of the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for fiction; Shortlisted for the 2022 DUBLIN Literary Award)
Intimacies by Katie Kitamura (Longlisted for the 2021 National Book Award in Fiction)
Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro (GMA Book Club)
Empire of Pain by Patrick Radden Keefe (National Book Critics Circle Nominee)
Land of Big Numbers by Te-Ping Chen
Leave the World Behind by Rumaan Alam (Read with Jenna book club; Finalist for the 2020 National Book Award)
Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir (Winner of the 2022 Audie Awards’ Audiobook of the Year)
The Sweetness of Water by Nathan Harris (Oprah’s Book Club)
Things We Lost to the Water by Eric Nguyen
Under a White Sky: The Nature of the Future by Elizabeth Kolbert
When We Cease to Understand the World by Benjamin Labatut
(Source)
Barack Obama’s Reading List of 2020
Favorite Books:
Caste by Isabel Wilkerson (Oprah’s Book Club; my review: 5 stars; Winner of the Los Angeles Times Book Prize; National Book Critics Circle Award Finalist; Dayton Literary Peace Prize Finalist; PEN/John Kenneth Galbraith Award for Nonfiction Finalist; PEN/Jean Stein Book Award Longlist)
Deacon King Kong by James McBride (Oprah’s Book Club; Winner of the Anisfield-Wolf Book Award for Fiction; Winner of the Gotham Book Prize)
Hidden Valley Road by Robert Kolker (Oprah’s Book Club)
Homeland Elegies by Ayad Akhtar (Finalist for the 2021 Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction)
How Much of These Hills is Gold by C. Pam Zhang (Named a Best Book of 2020 by NPR; Longlisted for the 2020 Booker Prize; Finalist for the 2020 Center for Fiction First Novel Prize)
The Glass Hotel by Emily St. John Mandel
Jack by Marilynne Robinson (Oprah’s Book Club)
Long Bright River by Liz Moore (GMA Book Club; my review: 5 stars)
Luster by Raven Leilani
Memorial Drive by Natasha Trethewey
The Ministry for the Future by Kim Stanley Robinson
Missionaries by Phil Klay
Sharks in the Time of Saviors by Kawai Strong Washburn
The Splendid and the Vile by Erik Larsson
Twilight of Democrazy by Anne Applebaum
The Undocumented Americans by Karla Cornejo Villavicencio (National Book Award Finalist)
The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett (GMA Book Club; my review: 5 stars; 2021 Women’s Prize Finalist)
(Source)
Barack Obama’s Reading List of 2019
Favorite Books:
The Age of Surveillance Capitalism: The Fight for a Human Future at the New Frontier of Power by Shoshanna Zuboff
The Anarchy: The Relentless Rise of the East India Company by William Dalrymple
A Different Way to Win: Dan Rooney’s Story from the Super Bowl to the Rooney Rule by Jim Rooney
Furious Hours: Murder, Fraud, and the Last Trial of Harper Lee by Casey Cep
Girl, Woman, Other by Bernardine Evaristo
The Heartbeat of Woulnded Knee: Native America from 1890 to the Present by David Treur (Finalist for the 2019 National Book Award; Longlisted for the 2020 Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence)
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 (my review: 5 stars)
The Orphan Master’s Son by Adam Johnson (Winner of the Pulitzer Prize)
The Yellow House by Sarah H. Broom (Winner of the 2019 National Book Award for Nonfiction)
Say Nothing: A True Story of Murder and Memory in Northern Ireland by Patrick Radden Keefe
The Sixth Man by Andre Iguodala
Solitary by Albert Woodfox
The Topeka School by Ben Lerner (Finalist for the Pulitzer Prize; Winner of the Los Angeles Times Book Prize)
Trick Mirror: Reflections on Self-Delusion by Jia Tolentino (Finalist for the National Book Critics Circle’s John Leonard Prize for Best Fiction Book)
Trust Exercise by Susan Choi (Winner of the 2019 Book Award for Fiction)
We Live in Water: Stories by Jess Walter
(Source)
Summer Reading:
The collected works of Toni Morrison
The Nickel Boys by Colson Whitehead (my review: 4 stars; Winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction)
Exhalation by Ted Chiang
Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel (Winner of the 2009 Man Booker Prize; Winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award for Fiction)
Men Without Women by Haruki Murakami
American Spy by Lauren Wilkinson
The Shallows by Nicholas Carr
Lab Girl by Hope Jahren (National Book Critics Circle Award Winner, Autobiography, 2016)
Inland by Tea Obreht
How to Read the Air by Dinaw Mengestu
Maid by Stephanie Land
(Source)
Barack Obama’s Reading List of 2018
Favorite Books:
Becoming by Michelle Obama (Oprah’s Book Club; my review: 5 stars; NAACP Image Award Winner)
An American Marriage by Tayari Jones (Oprah’s Book Club; my review: 3 stars)
Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
American Prison by Shane Bauer (Winner of the 2019 J. Anthony Lukas Book Prize; Winner of the Helen Bernstein Book Award for Excellence in Journalism; Winner of the 2019 RFK Book and Journalism Award)
Arthur Ashe: A Life by Raymond Arsenault
Asymmetry by Lisa Haliday
The Broken Ladder: How Inequality Affects the Way We Think, Live, and Die by Keith Payne
Educated by Tara Westover (my review: 5 stars; Finalist for the National Book Critics Circle’s Award in Autobiography; Finalist for the National Book Critics Circle’s John Leonard Prize for Best First Book; Finalist for the PEN/Jean Stein Book Award; Finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize)
Factfulness by Hans Rosling
Feel Free by Zadie Smith
Florida by Lauren Groff (Finalist for the National Book Award; Winner of the Story Prize)
Frederick Douglass: Prophet of Freedom by David W. Blight (Winner of the Pulitzer Prize in History)
Futureface: A Family Mystery, an Epic Quest, and the Secret to Belonging by Alex Wagner
A Grain of Wheat by Ngugi was Thiong’o
A House for Mr. Biswas by V.S. Naipaul (Winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature)
How Democracies Die by Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt (Winner of the Goldsmith Book Prize; Shortlisted for the Lionel Gelber Prize)
Immigrant, Montana by Amitava Kumar
In the Shadow of Statues: A White Southerner Confronts History by Mitch Landrieu
The Largesse of the Sea Maiden by Denis Johnson
Life 3.0: Being Human in the Age of Artificial Intelligence by Max Tegmark
Long Walk to Freedom by Nelson Mandela
The New Geography of Jobs by Enrico Moretti
There There by Tommy Orange (Pulitzer Prize Finalist; my review: 4 stars)
The Truth by Hisham Matar (Winner of the Pulitzer Prize)
Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe
Warlight by Michael Ondaatje (Booker Prize Finalist)
Washington Black by Esi Edugyan
Why Liberalism Failed by Patrick Deneen
The World As It Is by Ben Rhodes
(Source)
Summer Reading:
An American Marriage by Tayari Jones (Oprah’s Book Club)
Educated by Tara Westover (my review: 5 stars; Finalist for the National Book Critics Circle’s Award in Autobiography; Finalist for the National Book Critics Circle’s John Leonard Prize for Best First Book; Finalist for the PEN/Jean Stein Book Award; Finalist for the Los Angeles Book Prize)
Factfulness by Hans Rosling
A House for Mr. Biswas by V.S. Naipaul
Warlight by Michael Ondaatje (Booker Prize Finalist)
(Source)
Barack Obama’s Reading List of 2017
Favorite Books:
Anything Is Possible by Elizabeth Strout (Winner of The Story Prize)
Coach Wooden and Me by Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Basketball (and Other Things) by Shea Serrano
Dying: A Memoir by Cory Taylor
Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City by Matthew Desmond (Winner of the Pulitzer Prize)
Exit West by Mohsin Hamid (Finalist for the Booker Prize; Winner of the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Fiction; The Aspen Words Literary Prize)
Five-Carat Soul by James McBride
A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles (my review: 5 stars)
Grant by Ron Chernow
Janesville: An American Story by Amy Goldstein (Winner of the 2017 Financial Times; McKinsey Business Book of the Year Award)
The Power by Naomi Alderman
Sing, Unburied, Sing by Jesmyn Ward (Winner of the National Book Award for Fiction; Finalist for the Kirkus Prize; Finalist for the Andrew Carnegie Medal)
(Source)
Barack Obama’s Reading List of 2016
Summer Reading:
Barbarian Days: A Surfing Life by William Finnegan (Winner of the Pulitzer Prize)
The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins (my review: 5 stars)
H Is for Hawk by Helen Macdonald (Winner of the Samuel Johnson Prize; Costa Book of the Year)
Seveneves by Neal Stephenson
The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead (Oprah’s Book Club; my review: 4 stars; Winner of the Pulitzer Prize; Winner of the National Book Award)
(Source)
Barack Obama’s Reading List of 2015
Summer Reading:
All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr (my review: 3 stars; Winner of the Pulitzer Prize; Winner of the National Book Award)
All That Is by James Salter
Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates (Winner of the National Book Award; Pulitzer Prize Finalist; National Book Critics Circle Award Finalist)
The Lowland by Jhumpa Lahiri (National Book Award Finalist; Shortlisted for the 2013 Man Booker Prize)
The Sixth Extinction by Elizabeth Kolber (Winner of the Pulitzer Prize)
Washington: A Life by Ron Chernow (Winner of the Pulitzer Prize)
(Source)
Barack Obama’s Reading List of 2014
Summer Reading:
Age of Ambition: Chasing Fortune, Truth and Faith in the New China by Evan Osnos (Pulitzer Prize in General Nonfiction finalist; Winner of the 2014 National Book Award in nonfiction)
Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters in the End by Dr. Atul Gawande (my review: 5 stars)
A Constellation of Vital Phenomena by Anthony Marra (Winner of the National Book Critics Circle’s John Leonard Award; Longlisted for the National Book Award)
The Laughing Monsters by Denis Johnson
The Narrow Road to the Deep North by Richard Flanagan (Winner of the Man Booker Prize)
Nora Webster by Colm Toibin
(Source)
Barack Obama’s Reading List of 2013
President Obama did not share a list this year.
Barack Obama’s Reading List of 2012
President Obama did not share a list this year.
Barack Obama’s Reading List of 2011
Summer Reading:
The Bayou Trilogy by Daniel Woodrell
Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese
Rodin’s Debutante by Ward Just
To the End of the Land by David Grossman
The Warmth of Other Suns by Isabel Wilkerson (Winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award Winner)
(Source)
Barack Obama’s Reading List of 2010
Summer Reading:
Freedom by Jonathan Franzen (Oprah’s Book Club)
Tinkers by Paul Harding (Winner of the Pulitzer Prize)
A Few Corrections by Brad Leithauser
President Reagan: The Role of a Lifetime by Lou Cannon
(Source: DC Library)
Barack Obama’s Reading List of 2009
Summer Reading:
Hot, Flat, and Crowded by Tom Friedman
John Adams by David McCullough (Winner of the Pulitzer Prize)
Lush Life by Richard Price
Plainsong by Kent Haruf
The Way Home by George Pelecanos
(Source)
Printable PDF of Barack Obama’s Reading Lists
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Conclusion
That concludes all of former United States President Barack Obama’s reading lists for Summer and beyond, all the way back from his first year in the Oval Office, 2009, until the present. They include lots of award winners, diverse reads, and book club picks that make an impact.
To recap and help you decide what to read first or next, my top picks from Obama’s reading lists that I also read and gave 5 out of 5 stars are:
- Becoming by Michelle Obama
- Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters in the End by Dr. Atul Gawande
- Caste by Isabel Wilkerson
- Crying in H Mart by Michelle Zauner
- Educated by Tara Westover
- A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles
- The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins
- Hello Beautiful by Ann Napolitano
- Long Bright River by Liz Moore
- Normal People by Sally Rooney
- The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett
Do you offer a PDF printable list of all Obama’s reading lists, similar to your Oprah’s book club full list? I would really like to have one! Thanks!
If you do, how to we access it?
I do not right now, but I will consider making one soon, as I know this is such a popular topic with readers. Thanks for requesting it!
@Jules Buono, Thank you! I love PDF reading lists I can print out. At 66, I’m pretty old fashioned about paper lists, lol. Although I do use Goodreads now to keep track of what I’ve read.
You’re welcome, Mary! I have now added the printable PDF to this post.
Send the lists to my e-mail address. I would like to read them.