A decade's worth of reading: Barack Obama's must-reads

Another summer, another list of summer reads from Barack Obama.

The 44th US president recommended dozens of books during his two terms, but Obama only started sharing summer reading lists—often alongside his annual Martha’s Vineyard vacation—in 2009. The latest list was released Thursday (15 August) on Instagram.

In honor of nearly a decade of spectacular book recommendations, we’re looking back at all of Obama’s summer-reading recommendations. Even though it’s already August, the former president’s idea of a “light read”—The Sixth Extinction?—is one that works in any season.

2009

The Way Home, by George Pelecanos

Hot, Flat, and Crowded, by Tom Friedman

Lush Life, by Richard Price

Plainsong, by Kent Haruf

John Adams, by David McCullough

2010

Freedom, by Jonathan Franzen

Tinkers, by Paul Harding

A Few Corrections, by Brad Leithauser

2011

The Warmth of Other Suns, by Isabel Wilkerson

Cutting for Stone, by Abraham Verghese

Rodin’s Debutante, by Ward Just

To the End of the Land, by David Grossman

The Bayou Trilogy, by Daniel Woodrell

2012 – A busy year—reading list not disclosed.

2013 – Another busy year! No time for books.

2014

A Constellation of Vital Phenomena, by Anthony Marra

The Narrow Road to the Deep North,by Richard Flanagan

The Laughing Monsters,by Denis Johnson

Nora Webster, by Colm Toibin

Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters in the End, by Atul Gawande

Age of Ambition: Chasing Fortune, Truth and Faith in the New China, by Evan Osnos

2015

The Sixth Extinction, by Elizabeth Kolber

Between the World and Me, by Ta-Nehisi Coates

All That Is,by James Salter

The Lowland, by Jhumpa Lahiri

All the Light We Cannot See,by Anthony Doerr

Washington: A Life, by Ron Chernow

2016

Barbarian Days: A Surfing Life, by William Finnegan

H Is for Hawk, by Helen Macdonald

The Girl on the Train, by Paula Hawkins

Seveneves,by Neal Stephenson

The Underground Railroad, by Colson Whitehead

2017 (Note: This was a year-end round-up, so not explicitly for summer. But as a bonus, Obama also released a playlist this year.)

The Power, by Naomi Alderman

Grant,by Ron Chernow

Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City, by Matthew Desmond

Janesville: An American Story,by Amy Goldstein

Exit West, by Mohsin Hamid

Five-Carat Soul,by James McBride

Anything Is Possible,by Elizabeth Strout

Dying: A Memoir,by Cory Taylor

A Gentleman in Moscow,by Amor Towles

Sing, Unburied, Sing,by Jesmyn Ward

Coach Wooden and Me, by Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

Basketball (and Other Things), by Shea Serrano

2018

Educated, by Tara Westover

Warlight, by Michael Ondaatje

A House for Mr. Biswas, by V.S. Naipaul

An American Marriage, by Tayari Jones

Factfulness, by Hans Rosling

2019

The collected works of Toni Morrison

The Nickel Boys, by Colson Whitehead

Exhalation, by Ted Chiang

Wolf Hall,by Hillary Mantel

Men Without Women, by Haruki Murakami

American Spy, by Lauren Wilkinson

The Shallows, by Nicholas Carr

Lab Girl, by Hope

JahrenInland, by Téa Obreht

How to Read the Air, by Dinaw Mengestu

Maid, by Stephanie Land