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The New York Times told us, “Not since Lincoln has there been a president as fundamentally shaped — in his life, convictions and outlook on the world — by reading and writing as Barack Obama.”

Theodore Roosevelt? Woodrow Wilson? Harry S Truman? John F. Kennedy? Heck, even Bush may have read more books during his presidency than Obama did. To say nothing of earlier presidents, like John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison and John Quincy Adams.

[Bookshelf]

Obama’s [2017] book list includes a healthy mix of fiction (The Power, by Naomi Alderman), non-fiction (Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City, by Matthew Desmond) and memoirs (Dying, by Cory Taylor). Here’s the full list:

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
*Bonus for hoops fans: Coach Wooden and Me by Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Basketball (and Other Things) by Shea Serrano