Read Like a President With Barack Obama's Favorite Books
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Katie Couric Media December 19, 2025 at 9:22 PM
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Read Like a President With Barack Obama's Favorite Books
What does one do after leaving the White House? Well, if you're Barack Obama, you write a critically acclaimed memoir, work on your presidential center, take spectacular vacations with A-list celebrities, and find plenty of time to curl up with a batch of really good books.
Obama's known as a prolific reader, and he's also known as one of our coolest presidents in recent memory. So when he praises a title he's loved, libraries everywhere must prepare themselves for an avalanche of requests from curious bookworms eager to devour whatever's on the former commander-in-chief's shelves. Lucky for us, Obama loves sharing — he posts annual lists of his favorite books, movies, and music, and they're a yearly source of inspiration for entertainment lovers around the country.
We've rounded up a list of his favorites from the last few years. Obama's tastes run the gamut, so you'll find gripping fiction and eye-opening non-fiction (and, because he's a dreamily devoted partner to his wife, there are a couple of works by Michelle Obama, too). No matter what sort of read you're looking for, you're guaranteed to find at least a few well-reviewed options among Obama's recommendations.
Obama's favorite books of 2025
Book cover for Paper Girl by Beth Macy -
Paper Girl by Beth Macy
Flashlight by Susan Choi
We the People by Jill Lepore (Check out Katie's interview with Lepore right here)
The Wilderness by Angela Flournoy
There is No Place for Us by Brian Goldstone
North Sun by Ethan Rutherford
1929 by Andrew Ross Sorkin (Check out Katie's interview with Sorkin right here)
The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny by Kiran Desai
Dead and Alive by Zadie Smith
What We Can Know by Ian McEwan
The Look by Michelle Obama ("Obviously I'm biased," the former president adds)
Obama's favorite books of 2024
The Anxious Generation by Jonathan Haidt (Check out Katie's interview with Haidt right here)
Intermezzo by Sally Rooney
Patriot by Alexei Navalny
Orbital by Samantha Harvey
The Anthropologists by Ayşegül Savaş
Stolen Pride by Arlie Russell Hochschild (Check out Katie's interview with Hochschild right here)
In Ascension by Martin MacInnes
Growth by Daniel Susskind
Someone Like Us by Dinaw Mengestu
The Work of Art by Adam Moss
Obama's favorite books of 2023
The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store by James McBride
The MANIAC by Benjamin Labatut
Poverty, By America by Matthew Desmond
How to Say Babylon by Safiya Sinclair
The Wager by David Grann
Chip War by Chris Miller
The Vaster Wilds by Lauren Groff
Humanly Possible by Sarah Bakewell
King: A Life by Jonathan Eig
The Covenant of Water by Abraham Verghese
The Best Minds by Jonathan Rosen
All the Sinners Bleed by S.A. Cosby
The Kingdom, the Power, and the Glory by Tim Alberta
Some People Need Killing by Patricia Evangelista
This Other Eden by Paul Harding
Obama's favorite books of 2022
The Light We Carry by Michelle Obama
Sea of Tranquility by Emily St. John Mandel
Trust by Hernan Diaz
The Revolutionary: Samuel Adams by Stacy Schiff
The Furrows by Namwali Serpell
South to America: A Journey Below the Mason-Dixon to Understand the Soul of a Nation by Imani Perry
The School for Good Mothers by Jessamine Chan
Black Cake by Charmaine Wilkerson
Ducks: Two Years in the Oil Sands by Kate Beaton
An Immense World: How Animal Senses Reveal the Hidden Realms Around Us by Ed Yong
Liberation Day by George Saunders
The Candy House by Jennifer Egan
Afterlives by Abdulrazak Gurnah
Obama's favorite books of 2021
Matrix by Lauren Groff
How the Word Is Passed by Clint Smith
The Final Revival of Opal & Nev by Dawnie Walton
The Lincoln Highway by Amor Towles
Invisible Child: Poverty, Survival & Hope in an American City by Andrea Elliott
Harlem Shuffle by Colson Whitehead
Cloud Cuckoo Land by Anthony Doerr
These Precious Days by Ann Patchett
Crying in H Mart by Michelle Zauner
Aftershocks by Nadia Owusu
Crossroads by Jonathan Franzen
The Love Songs of W.E.B. Du Bois by Honorée Fanonne Jeffers
Beautiful Country by Qian Julie Wang
Obama's favorite books of 2020
Homeland Elegies by Ayad Akhtar
Jack by Marilynne Robinson
Caste by Isabel Wilkerson
The Splendid and the Vile by Erik Larson
Luster by Raven Leilani
How Much Of These Hills Is Gold by C Pam Zhang
Long Bright River by Liz Moore
Memorial Drive by Natasha Trethewey
Twilight of Democracy by Anne Applebaum
Deacon King Kong by James McBride
The Undocumented Americans by Karla Cornejo Villavicencio
The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett
The Glass Hotel by Emily St. John Mandel
Hidden Valley Road by Robert Kolker
The Ministry for the Future by Kim Stanley Robinson
Sharks in the Time of Saviors by Kawai Strong Washburn
Missionaries by Phil Klay
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Source: “AOL Entertainment”
