Barack Obama, The Former 44th President of the United States, is one of the most loved presidents and the first African American to hold office. Besides his presidency, Barack Obama is an excellent husband, father, person, and more importantly for our article, he is also a great reader. Hence we will discuss his top 13 book recommendations in this article.
Most of you know that Barack Obama is also a writer. His recent book “A Promised Land” is humorous, compelling, and beautifully written. But very few people realize that he credits his writing skill to the hundreds of books he read in the past decades. So Each year, Barack Obama Shares the annual reading list of his favorite books he will read.
“there’s nothing quite like sitting down with a great book in the summer.”
Barack Obama said following the release of his summer reading lists of 2021.
We have explored his lists and handpicked thirteen such books that you should indeed read. So without any further ado, let’s hop to the exciting 13 books recommended by Barack Obama.
Top 13 Barack Obama Recommendations
Here are the top 13 books from Barack Obama’s reading listed below.
1. Truth Decay by Michael D. Rich
The book was published in 2018 by Jennifer Kavanagh and Michael D. Rich. The book discloses the shrinking role of facts and analysis of the public life of Americans.
The book talks about four matters, which tend to be a threat to the democracy of America.
- Increase in differences about the facts and analytical interpretation of facts and data.
- Blurring of the lines between opinions and facts.
- An intense volume of opinions threatens potent facts.
- Lowered trust in the expertise and institution and once-respected source of factual information.
The book promoted studies and panel discussions worldwide.
2. Why Liberalism Failed by Patrick J. Deneen
This Book was Published in 2018. Why Liberalism Failed is a political philosophy book written by Patrick J. Deneen.
The book talks about the three political ideologies that were followed throughout the world in the twentieth century. These ideologies were liberalism, communism, and fascism.
The author argues that liberalism has failed humans as it was successful and “won” out against the three main ideologies. Liberalism made humans more autonomous and allowed the state to control many areas of society rather than smaller groups and civic society.
The book remark that liberalism has exhausted itself. Leading to Income Inequality, cultural decline, corroding of freedom, and growth of powerful, centralized bureaucracy.
Elections provide the appearance of self-governance but mainly function to satiate any residual civic impulse before we return to our lives as employees and consumers.
3. Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir
This novel can be seen on the Former U.S President Barack Obama reading list of summer 2021.
Project Hail Mary was published in May 2021. This Science Fiction Novel is the Latest From the author Andy Weir.
The story cast Ryland Grace, a biologist, turned middle school teacher. He is the sole survivor of a desperate mission to save the world from destruction. However, the only problem is that he is waking up with no memory of who he is, where he is, and what he is meant to be doing.
Human beings have a remarkable ability to accept the abnormal and make it normal.
4. The Anarchy by William Dalrymple
The anarchy tells history’s most phenomenal stories of―How the Mughal Empire dominated the world trade, manufacturing and possessed the almost infinite resource―fell apart by the corporation based thousands of miles overseas, answerable to the shareholder who had never seen India and had no ideas about the country whose wealth was providing their dividents.
The book was published in September 2019. The author tells the story of the East India Company as it has never been heard before and provides a picture of the disastrous results from the abuse of corporal power.
This book is a must-read book from Barack Obama’s reading list of 2019.
5. A House of Mr. Biswas by V.S. Naipaul
A House of Mr. Biswas is a novel published in 1961 by V.S. Naipaul. A Nobel prize winner in 2001 in literature “for having united perceptive narrative and incorruptible scrutiny in works that compel people to see the presence of suppressed histories.”
It’s the story of Mr. Biswas, born in Trinidad and Tobago in a Hindu family. From the day he was born, he has been told that misfortune will follow him and so it has.
S. Naipaul’s work on this masterpiece is said to be one of the finest novels of the twentieth century. A classic novel that involves a man’s quest for autonomy against the backdrop of post-colonial Trinidad.
How ridiculous were the attentions the weak paid one another in the shadow of the strong!
6. The Power by Naomi Alderman
“The Power” was published in October 2016, is one of the books recommended by Barack Obama.
The Power tops Barak Obama’s 2017 reading lists. The Power visualizes the world where young women develop the ability to electrocute men at will.
With the newfound of their power, the women of this world start to lose their fear. The fear of walking alone at night, and with the loss of their fear, they began to remake the world they imagine.
This book is an important feminist classic novel for years to come.
The truth has always been a more complex commodity than the market can easily package and sell.
7. Futureface by Alex Wagner
It’s a story of Alex Wagner, a Daughter of a Burmese mother and a white American father. As growing, Alex Wagner thinks of herself as a “futureface.” An avatar of a mixed-race future when all races would merge into a brown singularity.
Alex Wagner begins a quest and travels from Burma to Luxembourg to answer the ultimate question of who she is and where she belongs.
The book Futureface was published in 2018, and one of the must read from the lists of Barack Obama.
8. Things We Lost to the Water, by Eric Nguyen
“Things we Lost to the Water” is another excellent novel from the reading lists of Barack Obama.
A beautiful novel about a Vietnamese immigrant family who settles in New Orlean: novel cast the story of a woman name Huong who migrates from Vietnam to New Orlean with her two sons.
She is homeless, jobless and worried about her husband, Cong, Who remains in Vietnam. She and her sons settle somehow into life in America. She continues to send letters and tapes back to her husband, hoping she will be reunited and her children will grow up with a father.
9. Intimacies by Katie Kitamura
The book was published in 2021. It portrays an interpreter who left New York City for the Netherland, searching for new life and a place to call home. She finds herself stressed into a series of edgy personal dramas and torn between many truths.
She is on the limit and Facing betrayal and heartbreak. She was forced to decide what she wants from life. The book is a thrilling existential thriller on the meaning of power and morality.
“Whether you’re camped out on the beach or curled up on the couch on a rainy day, there’s nothing quite like sitting down with a great book in the summer.”
Barack Obama said when revealing his summer 2021 reading list.
10. Normal People by Sally Rooney
“Normal people” was published in August 2018. It is the story of mutual interest, friendship, and love. It takes from the first conversation to the year past, in the company of two people who try to stay apart but find they can’t.
The story of two people, Connell and Marianne, who grew up in the same town with no similarities. Connell is popular in the school, but on the other side, Marianne is a loner. They both strike up with an awkward conversation, but rousing leads them to start a new life.
After a year, they both studying at Trinity College in Dublin. Marianne has found herself in a new social group while hanging Connell at the sideline, which led her into self-destruction and struggled to save each other.
11. Men Without Women by Haruki Murakami
“Men Without Women” is a collection of short stories written brilliantly by the internationally acclaimed Haruki Murakami. The book was first published in 1927, and the English version was published in 2017.
Haruki Murakami brings seven tales that spot the lights on the men who find themselves alone in their ways. They lost women in their life, either to other men or to death.
“You are a pastel-colored Persian carpet, and loneliness is a Bordeaux wine stain that won’t come out”
12. Asymmetry by Lisa Halliday
The book was published in 2018 by the 2017 Whiting Award winner Lisa Halliday. Asymmetry is about love, luck, and the difficulties of life. It’s no exception that this novel counts in Barack Obama’s lists of books.
The novel told the story in three distinct and uniquely gripping sections. It explores the imbalances that flash and conserve many of our dramatic human relations: such as inequality in age, talent, wealth, power, fame, justice, and geography.
The novel is a striking debut from a literary star. Asymmetry is an exceptional and original work that will captivate any reader and at the same time posing questions about the nature of fiction.
“for a country is considered the more civilized the more the wisdom and efficiency of its laws hinder a weak man from becoming too weak or a powerful one too powerful.”
13. Girl, Woman, Other by Bernardine Evaristo
Bernardine Evaristo is a great author who is famous for her award-winning books for over two decades. Winning her 2019 Booker prize for “Girl, Women, Other” Set a stage for a whole new readership.
The book talks about the beauty in difference and the diversity that holds a single identity together. The book binds unique Stories of twelve interconnected Black lives in Present-day Britain.
The book was published in 2019, and With Obama’s list of his latest favorite reads, he named “Girl, Woman, Other” is one of the books that made his year “a little brighter for him.”
“gender is one of the biggest lies of our civilization”
Final Words
As I have said earlier, Barack Obama inspires himself and becomes a good writer just by reading books for a decade; books affect us a lot. It doesn’t matter if one is a normal person or a president of the United States. It is necessary to start reading in order to achieve something in our life.
Being a reader of some of these books, I would certainly recommend you to start reading them and share your views in the comment section.
Don’t forget to check out these exceptional recommendations below as well:
