Barack Obama has revealed his list of his 15 favorite books of 2023.
The former president and avid reader has made his book list an annual tradition over the past several years. He posted this year’s edition on X, formerly known as Twitter.
Among the works of fiction he loved this year was Lauren Groff’s The Vaster Wilds. Obama previously named Groff’s Fates and Furies as his favorite book of 2015, and her Matrix made his list of the best books he read in 2021.
James McBride’s Kirkus Prize–winning The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store made Obama’s newest list, along with Abraham Verghese’s The Covenant of Water, a recent Oprah’s Book Club pick. Other novels to make his list included Benjamín Labatut’s The Maniac, S.A. Cosby’s All the Sinners Bleed, and Paul Harding’s This Other Eden.
Jonathan Eig’s biography of Martin Luther King, Jr., King: A Life, was one of the nonfiction books Obama recommended, as was The Wager, the latest from Killers of the Flower Moon author David Grann, and Safiya Sinclair’s Kirkus Prize finalist memoir How To Say Babylon.
Other nonfiction books the former president loved this year included Matthew Desmond’s Poverty, by America; Chris Miller’s Chip War; Sarah Bakewell’s Humanly Possible; Jonathan Rosen’s The Best Minds; Tim Alberta’s The Kingdom, the Power, and the Glory; and Patricia Evangelista’s Some People Need Killing.
“If you’re looking for a new book over the holidays, give one of them a try,” Obama wrote in his post announcing the list. “And if you can, shop at an independent bookstore or check them out at your local library.”
Michael Schaub is a contributing writer.
