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Barack Obama's Reading Lists: Every Book Pick Since his presidency, Barack Obama has shared two annual book lists: a summer reading list (mid-year) and a year-end "favorite books, movies, and music" list. He publishes them on his Medium page and via the Obama Foundation, recommending readers pick them up at independent bookstores or libraries.
112 picks · hosted by Barack Obama · since 2009.
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Start free trial → The Look December 2025
The Look by Michelle Obama
What We Can Know December 2025
What We Can Know by Ian McEwan
Dead and Alive December 2025
Dead and Alive by Zadie Smith
The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny December 2025
The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny by Kiran Desai
1929 December 2025
1929 by Andrew Ross Sorkin
North Sun December 2025
North Sun by Ethan Rutherford
There Is No Place for Us December 2025
There Is No Place for Us by Brian Goldstone
The Wilderness December 2025
The Wilderness by Angela Flournoy
We the People December 2025
We the People by Jill Lepore
Flashlight December 2025
Flashlight by Susan Choi
Paper Girl December 2025
Paper Girl by Beth Macy
Mark Twain Summer 2025
Mark Twain by Ron Chernow
The Book of Records Summer 2025
The Book of Records by Madeleine Thien
King of Ashes Summer 2025
King of Ashes by S.A. Cosby
Abundance Summer 2025
Abundance by Ezra Klein & Derek Thompson
Rosarita Summer 2025
Rosarita by Anita Desai
Audition Summer 2025
Audition by Katie Kitamura
The Buffalo Hunter Hunter Summer 2025
The Buffalo Hunter Hunter by Stephen Graham Jones
A Marriage at Sea Summer 2025
A Marriage at Sea by Sophie Elmhirst
Who Is Government? Summer 2025
Who Is Government? by Michael Lewis
The Sirens' Call Summer 2025
The Sirens' Call by Chris Hayes
The Anxious Generation December 2024
The Anxious Generation by Jonathan Haidt
Intermezzo December 2024
Intermezzo by Sally Rooney
Patriot December 2024
Patriot by Alexei Navalny
Orbital December 2024
Orbital by Samantha Harvey
The Anthropologists December 2024
The Anthropologists by Ayşegül Savaş
Stolen Pride December 2024
Stolen Pride by Arlie Russell Hochschild
In Ascension December 2024
In Ascension by Martin MacInnes
Growth December 2024
Growth by Daniel Susskind
Someone Like Us December 2024
Someone Like Us by Dinaw Mengestu
The Work of Art December 2024
The Work of Art by Adam Moss
James Summer 2024
James by Percival Everett
There's Always This Year: On Basketball and Ascension Summer 2024
There's Always This Year: On Basketball and Ascension by Hanif Abdurraqib
Everyone Who Is Gone Is Here: The United States, Central America, and the Making of a Crisis Summer 2024
Everyone Who Is Gone Is Here: The United States, Central America, and the Making of a Crisis by Jonathan Blitzer
Reading Genesis Summer 2024
Reading Genesis by Marilynne Robinson
Headshot Summer 2024
Headshot by Rita Bullwinkel
The God of the Woods Summer 2024
The God of the Woods by Liz Moore
Beautiful Days: Stories Summer 2024
Beautiful Days: Stories by Zach Williams
Martyr! Summer 2024
Martyr! by Kaveh Akbar
Memory Piece Summer 2024
Memory Piece by Lisa Ko
The Ministry of Time Summer 2024
The Ministry of Time by Kaliane Bradley
When the Clock Broke: Con Men, Conspiracists, and How America Cracked Up in the Early 1990s Summer 2024
When the Clock Broke: Con Men, Conspiracists, and How America Cracked Up in the Early 1990s by John Ganz
Of Boys and Men Summer 2024
Of Boys and Men by Richard V. Reeves
The Wide Wide Sea: Imperial Ambition, First Contact and the Fateful Final Voyage of Captain James Cook Summer 2024
The Wide Wide Sea: Imperial Ambition, First Contact and the Fateful Final Voyage of Captain James Cook by Hampton Sides
Help Wanted Summer 2024
Help Wanted by Adelle Waldman
The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store December 2023
The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store by James McBride
The MANIAC December 2023
The MANIAC by Benjamín Labatut
Poverty, by America December 2023
Poverty, by America by Matthew Desmond
How to Say Babylon December 2023
How to Say Babylon by Safiya Sinclair
The Wager December 2023
The Wager by David Grann
Chip War December 2023
Chip War by Chris Miller
The Vaster Wilds December 2023
The Vaster Wilds by Lauren Groff
Humanly Possible December 2023
Humanly Possible by Sarah Bakewell
King: A Life December 2023
King: A Life by Jonathan Eig
The Covenant of Water December 2023
The Covenant of Water by Abraham Verghese
The Best Minds December 2023
The Best Minds by Jonathan Rosen
All the Sinners Bleed December 2023
All the Sinners Bleed by S.A. Cosby
The Kingdom, the Power, and the Glory December 2023
The Kingdom, the Power, and the Glory by Tim Alberta
Some People Need Killing December 2023
Some People Need Killing by Patricia Evangelista
This Other Eden December 2023
This Other Eden by Paul Harding
Small Mercies Summer 2023
Small Mercies by Dennis Lehane
Hello Beautiful Summer 2023
Hello Beautiful by Ann Napolitano
Birnam Wood Summer 2023
Birnam Wood by Eleanor Catton
What Napoleon Could Not Do Summer 2023
What Napoleon Could Not Do by DK Nnuro
Blue Hour Summer 2023
Blue Hour by Tiffany Clarke Harrison
The Light We Carry December 2022
The Light We Carry by Michelle Obama
Sea of Tranquility December 2022
Sea of Tranquility by Emily St. John Mandel
Trust December 2022
Trust by Hernan Diaz
The Revolutionary: Samuel Adams December 2022
The Revolutionary: Samuel Adams by Stacy Schiff
The Furrows December 2022
The Furrows by Namwali Serpell
South to America: A Journey Below the Mason-Dixon to Understand the Soul of a Nation December 2022
South to America: A Journey Below the Mason-Dixon to Understand the Soul of a Nation by Imani Perry
The School for Good Mothers December 2022
The School for Good Mothers by Jessamine Chan
Black Cake December 2022
Black Cake by Charmaine Wilkerson
Ducks: Two Years in the Oil Sands December 2022
Ducks: Two Years in the Oil Sands by Kate Beaton
An Immense World: How Animal Senses Reveal the Hidden Realms Around Us December 2022
An Immense World: How Animal Senses Reveal the Hidden Realms Around Us by Ed Yong
Liberation Day December 2022
Liberation Day by George Saunders
The Candy House December 2022
The Candy House by Jennifer Egan
Afterlives December 2022
Afterlives by Abdulrazak Gurnah
Why We're Polarized Summer 2022
Why We're Polarized by Ezra Klein
A Little Devil in America: In Praise of Black Performance Summer 2022
A Little Devil in America: In Praise of Black Performance by Hanif Abdurraqib
To Paradise Summer 2022
To Paradise by Hanya Yanagihara
Silverview Summer 2022
Silverview by John le Carré
The Family Chao Summer 2022
The Family Chao by Lan Samantha Chang
Velvet Was the Night Summer 2022
Velvet Was the Night by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
Mouth to Mouth Summer 2022
Mouth to Mouth by Antoine Wilson
The Great Experiment: Why Diverse Democracies Fall Apart and How They Can Endure Summer 2022
The Great Experiment: Why Diverse Democracies Fall Apart and How They Can Endure by Yascha Mounk
Razorblade Tears Summer 2022
Razorblade Tears by S.A. Cosby
Blood in the Garden: The Flagrant History of the 1990s New York Knicks Summer 2022
Blood in the Garden: The Flagrant History of the 1990s New York Knicks by Chris Herring
Matrix December 2021
Matrix by Lauren Groff
How the Word Is Passed December 2021
How the Word Is Passed by Clint Smith
The Final Revival of Opal & Nev December 2021
The Final Revival of Opal & Nev by Dawnie Walton
The Lincoln Highway December 2021
The Lincoln Highway by Amor Towles
Invisible Child: Poverty, Survival & Hope in an American City December 2021
Invisible Child: Poverty, Survival & Hope in an American City by Andrea Elliott
Harlem Shuffle December 2021
Harlem Shuffle by Colson Whitehead
Cloud Cuckoo Land December 2021
Cloud Cuckoo Land by Anthony Doerr
These Precious Days December 2021
These Precious Days by Ann Patchett
Crying in H Mart December 2021
Crying in H Mart by Michelle Zauner
Aftershocks December 2021
Aftershocks by Nadia Owusu
Crossroads December 2021
Crossroads by Jonathan Franzen
The Love Songs of W.E.B. Du Bois December 2021
The Love Songs of W.E.B. Du Bois by Honorée Fanonne Jeffers
Beautiful Country December 2021
Beautiful Country by Qian Julie Wang
At Night All Blood Is Black Summer 2021
At Night All Blood Is Black by David Diop
Land of Big Numbers Summer 2021
Land of Big Numbers by Te-Ping Chen
Empire of Pain Summer 2021
Empire of Pain by Patrick Radden Keefe
Project Hail Mary Summer 2021
Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir
When We Cease to Understand the World Summer 2021
When We Cease to Understand the World by Benjamín Labatut
Under a White Sky: The Nature of the Future Summer 2021
Under a White Sky: The Nature of the Future by Elizabeth Kolbert
Things We Lost to the Water Summer 2021
Things We Lost to the Water by Eric Nguyen
Leave the World Behind Summer 2021
Leave the World Behind by Rumaan Alam
Klara and the Sun Summer 2021
Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro
The Sweetness of Water Summer 2021
The Sweetness of Water by Nathan Harris
Intimacies Summer 2021
Intimacies by Katie Kitamura
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Pick list sourced + verified against Barack Obama's Reading Lists's published selections. View the source list . Last verified 2026-06-29.
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