Barack Obama took to social media on the weekend to share his favorite reads of 2019 – a scholarly list that shows the former U.S. president remains very much a bookworm.
The now traditional yearly list ranges across history, economics and award-winning literature and even singles out a couple of recommendations for sports fans.
“As we wind down 2019, I wanted to share with you my annual list of favorites that made the last year a little brighter,” Obama said in a post on Twitter. “We’ll start with books today – movies and music coming soon. I hope you enjoy these as much as I did.”
During his eight years in the Oval Office, Obama was renowned as a voracious reader and regularly espoused the delights and benefits of the written word. In a longer post on Instagram, he said the list had become a “fun little tradition.”
“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,” he wrote. “They’re the fabric that helps make up a life.”
These are Obama’s choices:
• “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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