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Barack Obama Reveals His Favourite Books of 2018

Since leaving the White House in 2017, Barack Obama has occasionally taken to social media to share books, films, and music that he has enjoyed. In late December, Obama took to Facebook to list off the best art that he’s read, watched, and listened to over the past year. Books included in his list consists of Long Walk to Freedom by Nelson Mandela, Why Liberalism Failed by Patrick Deneen, and (of course) Becoming by Michelle Obama.

In his post, the former President wrote: “As 2018 draws to a close, I’m continuing a favorite tradition of mine and sharing my year-end lists. It gives me a moment to pause and reflect on the year through the books, movies, and music that I found most thought-provoking, inspiring, or just plain loved. It also gives me a chance to highlight talented authors, artists, and storytellers – some who are household names and others who you may not have heard of before. Here’s my best of 2018 list – I hope you enjoy reading, watching, and listening.

Here’s a reminder of the books that I read this year that appeared on earlier lists:

Becoming by Michelle Obama (obviously my favorite!) (Buy)
An American Marriage by Tayari Jones (Buy)
Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (Buy)
The Broken Ladder: How Inequality Affects the Way We Think, Live, and Die by Keith Payne (Buy)
Educated by Tara Westover (Buy)
Factfulness by Hans Rosling (Buy)
Futureface: A Family Mystery, an Epic Quest, and the Secret to Belonging by Alex Wagner (Buy)
A Grain of Wheat by Ngugi wa Thiong’o (Buy)
A House for Mr Biswas by V.S. Naipaul (Buy)
How Democracies Die by Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt (Buy)
In the Shadow of Statues: A White Southerner Confronts History by Mitch Landrieu (Buy)
Long Walk to Freedom by Nelson Mandela (Buy)
The New Geography of Jobs by Enrico Moretti (Buy)
The Return by Hisham Matar (Buy)
Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe (Buy)
Warlight by Michael Ondaatje (Buy)
Why Liberalism Failed by Patrick Deneen (Buy)
The World As It Is by Ben Rhodes (Buy)

Here are my other favorite books of 2018:

American Prison by Shane Bauer (Buy)
Arthur Ashe: A Life by Raymond Arsenault (Buy)
Asymmetry by Lisa Halliday (Buy)
Feel Free by Zadie Smith (Buy)
Florida by Lauren Groff (Buy)
Frederick Douglass: Prophet of Freedom by David W. Blight (Buy)
Immigrant, Montana by Amitava Kumar (Buy)
The Largesse of the Sea Maiden by Denis Johnson (Buy)
Life 3.0: Being Human in the Age of Artificial Intelligence by Max Tegmark (Buy)
There There by Tommy Orange (Buy)
Washington Black by Esi Edugyan” (Buy)

For those interested, Obama’s favourite films of 2018 were:

Annihilation
Black Panther
BlacKkKlansman
Blindspotting
Burning
The Death of Stalin
Eighth Grade
If Beale Street Could Talk
Leave No Trace
Minding the Gap
The Rider
Roma
Shoplifters
Support the Girls
Won’t You Be My Neighbor

His favourite new tracks of 2018 consisted of:

Apes••t by The Carters
Bad Bad News by Leon Bridges
Could’ve Been by H.E.R. (feat. Bryson Tiller)
Disco Yes by Tom Misch (feat. Poppy Ajudha)
Ekombe by Jupiter & Okwess
Every Time I Hear That Song by Brandi Carlile
Girl Goin’ Nowhere by Ashley McBryde
Historia De Un Amor by Tonina (feat. Javier Limón and Tali Rubinstein)
I Like It by Cardi B (feat. Bad Bunny and J Balvin)
Kevin’s Heart by J. Cole
King For A Day by Anderson East
Love Lies by Khalid & Normani
Make Me Feel by Janelle Monáe
Mary Don’t You Weep (Piano & A Microphone 1983 Version) by Prince
My Own Thing by Chance the Rapper (feat. Joey Purp)
Need a Little Time by Courtney Barnett
Nina Cried Power by Hozier (feat. Mavis Staples)
Nterini by Fatoumata Diawara
One Trick Ponies by Kurt Vile
Turnin’ Me Up by BJ the Chicago Kid
Wait by the River by Lord Huron
Wow Freestyle by Jay Rock (feat. Kendrick Lamar)

And in honor of one of the great jazz singers of all time, who died this year, a classic album: The Great American Songbook by Nancy Wilson



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