President Obama shared his music and book choices as the Obama family hit Martha’s Vineyard for a little summer vacation. The tunes predictably zoomed up Spotify and other lists. The books got a presidential bump, too, of course. But Obama’s five book list includes books that were already doing well, starting off with the 2016 Pulitzer Prize Winner for Autobiography, William Finnegan’s Barbarian Days: A Surfing Life. Here’s the list, accompanied by each book’s most glowing blurb:
Barbarian Days: A Surfing Life by William Finnegan
“A hefty masterpiece.”
—Geoff Dyer, The Guardian
The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead
“The Underground Railroad is an American masterpiece, as much a searing document of a cruel history as a uniquely brilliant work of fiction.”
— Michael Schaub, NPR
H Is for Hawk by Helen Macdonald
“Captivating and beautifully written, it’s a meditation on the bond between beasts and humans and the pain and beauty of being alive.” —People
The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins
“Nothing is more addicting than The Girl on the Train.”—Vanity Fair
Seveneves by Neal Stephenson
“A novel of big ideas, but it’s also a novel of personalities, of heart, and of a particular kind of hope.” (Mr. Obama is presumably drawn to that last part.)
