Barack Obama Releases His Summer Reading List for 2024

As has been tradition every year, Barack Obama shared his summer reading list on social media this week. The list showcases his usual mix of fiction and nonfiction, and it shows off an interest in both books that have been popular and some that are lesser-known. His 2024 list is one of the longer reading lists in recent years, and it includes a twist on an American literary classic, a memoir about growing up and loving basketball, a twisty mystery that several big book clubs have selected to read, and more.

When it comes to fiction, we still see Obama’s preference for literary realism–though he does include a genre-bendy work of time travel, romance, and spy thriller. His preferences for nonfiction include politics and history, as well as memoir and a book by a giant of American literature that explores the book of Genesis.