Here’s what President Obama is reading on his summer vacation
President Obama has unveiled his reading list for his two-week vacation in Martha’s Vineyard, and his chosen books are far from traditional beach reading.
The five books on the list include “The Underground Railroad” by Colson Whitehead, a new novel about a runaway teenage slave, “Barbarian Days: A Surfing Life,” a memoir of author William Finnegan’s childhood in California and Hawaii, and Paula Hawkins’ psychological thriller “The Girl on the Train.”
Also making the cut are “H is for Hawk” by Helen Macdonald and “Seveneves” by Neal Stephenson. “Hawk” is a highly praised memoir from a British falconer on coping with the loss of her father, while “Seveneves” is an award-winning sci-fi novel about space explorers returning to Earth after a catastrophic meteor shower.
Last summer, the president enjoyed Anthony Doerr’s “All the Light We Cannot See” and Ta-Nehisi Coates’ “Between the World and Me,” in between rounds of golf on the Massachusetts vacation enclave.
The president will have plenty of music to enjoy while he peruses the books on his list. The White House released the president’s summer playlists on Thursday via Spotify. The two playlists, with one each for daytime and evening listening, include a diverse set of songs, with artists ranging from Aaron Neville and Chance the Rapper to Nina Simone and the Beach Boys.
