6 books President Obama is reading on the Vineyard
What the leader of the free world reads in his free time.
If you’re the president, you probably don’t want to be seen lounging on the beach reading 50 Shades of Grey.
So, unsurprisingly, President Obama left for Martha’s Vineyard stocked with popular books that are slightly more fitting for a world leader. The titles (listed below) are a pretty even mix of nonfiction and fiction and span an array of topics—almost as if they were intentionally and artfully selected or something.
From the nonfiction account of the major mass extinctions in history to what it means to raise an African American child in modern America, here are the six books Obama has on his summer reading list, according to the White House.
•Washington: A Life by Ron Chernow
A 2010 biography of our first president, George Washington. Maybe our 44th is looking for some tricks of the trade…
•Between The World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates
Toni Morrison called this book on America’s racial history “required reading.’’
•All The Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr
A French girl’s and German boy’s lives intersect in this best-seller that takes place during World War II.
•The Sixth Extinction by Elizabeth Kolbert
This Pulitzer Prize winning book explores historical mass-extinctions and the ways in which human beings have irrevocably shaped the earth.
•The Lowland by Jhumpa Lahiri
Lahiri’s latest novel is a family saga that spans from the 1960s to the present, from India to the United States.
•All That Is by James Salter
The novel’s protagonist adjusts from the battlefields at Okinawa to the competitive world of New York City publishing.
That’s 2,771 pages to read in his 15-day vacation. So either Obama will have to cool it on the golfing, or maybe nix the 928 page biography of George Washington.
Related Slideshow: Obamas, Clintons, and Kennedys on the Vineyard
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