Barack Obama’s Latest Summer Reading List
August 16, 2016
President Barack Obama shared his 2016 summer reading list in a statement released by The White House.
The Commander in Chief’s list includes a total of five books—fiction and nonfiction—including Barbarian Days: A Surfing Life by William Finnegan, The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead, H is for Hawk by Helen Macdonald, The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins, and Seveneves by Neal Stephenson. Check out his 2015 list.
Obama rarely fails to make literary news; earlier this month, he made headlines when he wrote an essay titled “This Is What a Feminist Looks Like” that was published in Glamour. “[W]e shouldn’t downplay how far we’ve come,” it reads. “That would do a disservice to all those who spent their lives fighting for justice. At the same time, there’s still a lot of work we need to do to improve the prospect of women and girls here and around the world.”
“In fact,” he added, “the most important change may be the toughest of all—and that’s changing ourselves.”
Related reading: Carnegie Mellon Professor Richard Purcell and coeditor Henry Veggian collected a group of essays on Barack Obama’s literary influences: Barack Obama’s Literary Legacy: Readings of ‘Dreams from my Father’
Photo Credit: The White House/Pete Souza.
I almost read The Girl on the Train. Maybe I should consider it again. Also, I am not surprised to see The Underground Railroad on his list. ;) I thing that is on several African American reading lists, as it is getting big press.