Barack Obama Book Recommendations & Book Mentions

Barack Obama

It's about trees and the relationship of humans to trees... And I started reading it, and it changed how I thought about the Earth and our place in it... It changed how I see things and that's always, for me, a mark of a book worth reading.

Barack Obama

Another thought-provoking analysis, this one about how economic inequality in America isn’t just growing, but self-reinforcing – and what that means for education, health, happiness, even the strength of our democracy.

Barack Obama

A hopeful book about the potential for human progress when we work off facts rather than our inherent biases.

Barack Obama

The title is self-explanatory, but the findings are very interesting. A look at how a selective sorting of facts and evidence isn’t just dishonest, but self-defeating to a society that has always worked best when reasoned debate and practical problem-solving thrive.

Barack Obama

Set after WWII, Warlight by Michael Ondaatje is a meditation on the lingering effects of war on family.

Barack Obama

I've called Melinda an impatient optimist and that's what she delivers here — the urgency to tackle these problems and the unwavering belief that solving them is indeed possible.

Barack Obama

A remarkable memoir of a young woman raised in a survivalist family in Idaho who strives for education while still showing great understanding and love for the world she leaves behind.

Barack Obama

Mitch...[is] grappling with some of the most painful parts of our history and how they still live in the present. It’s an ultimately optimistic take from someone who believes the South will rise again not by reasserting the past, but by transcending it.

Barack Obama

I found this book thought-provoking. I don’t agree with most of the author’s conclusions, but the book offers cogent insights into the loss of meaning and community that many in the West feel, issues that liberal democracies ignore at their own peril.

Barack Obama

A moving portrayal of the effects of a wrongful conviction on a young African-American couple.