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.
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"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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