(Bloomberg) – 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 posting 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 posting 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.”
As we wind down 2019, I wanted to share with you my annual list of favorites that made the last year a little brighter. We’ll start with books today — movies and music coming soon. I hope you enjoy these as much as I did. pic.twitter.com/l5qTGkAPok
— Barack Obama (@BarackObama) December 28, 2019
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
