6
FROM THE SHELF
AUG. 10�17, 2022
CHECKING OUT THE
WORLD OF BOOKS
Which titles made Barack Obama’s summer reading list
By Christi Carras
Los Angeles Times
Would it really be summer without
Barack Obama’s summer reading list?
The former president has released his
2022 picks for the summer season.
“I’ve read a couple of great books this
year and wanted to share some of my
favorites so far,” Obama wrote on Insta-
gram. “What have you been reading this
summer?”
Among the titles on Obama’s summer
reading list is Silvia Moreno-Garcia’s
“Velvet Was the Night,” a noir set in
1970s Mexico City that was nominated
for the 2021 Los Angeles Times Book
Prize in the mystery-thriller category.
Earlier this month, Moreno-Garcia spoke
with the L.A. Times about her ability to
write across various genres, from fan-
tasy and mystery to horror and science
fi ction.
“What I’m asking readers is to follow
me into the forest,” Moreno-Garcia told
the L.A. Times. “You won’t get lost, hold
my hand, and I’ll tell you a story.”
On Tuesday, Moreno-Garcia shared
Obama’s reading list on Twitter and gave
a shoutout to her “friend and fellow crime
writer” S.A. Cosby, whose novel about
two formerly incarcerated men seeking
to avenge their sons’ deaths, “Razorblade
Tears,” also made the cut.
“I can’t speak...there are no words,”
Cosby tweeted on Tuesday. “I’m crying
OBAMA’S SUMMER
READING LIST
“Sea of Tranquility” by Emily St. John
Mandel
“Why We’re Polarized” by Ezra Klein
“The Candy House” by Jennifer Egan
“A Little Devil in America: In Praise
of Black Performance” by Hanif
Abdurraqib
“To Paradise” by Hanya Yanagihara
“Silverview” by John le Carre
“Black Cake” by Charmaine Wilkerson
“The Family Chao” by Lan Samantha
Chang
“Velvet Was the Night” by Silvia
Moreno-Garcia
“Mouth to Mouth” by Antoine Wilson
“The Great Experiment: Why Diverse
Democracies Fall Apart and How
They Can Endure” by Yascha Mounk
“The School for Good Mothers” by
Jessamine Chan
“Razorblade Tears” by S.A. Cosby
“Blood in the Garden: The Flagrant
History of the 1990s New York
Knicks” by Chris Herring
Chris Sweda/Chicago Tribune/TNS
Former President Barack Obama gestures
during a conference at the University of
Chicago on April 6, 2022, in Chicago.
right now, not Razorblade Tears but Tears
of joy All Things Are Possible!!!”
Also “insanely happy” to be on
Obama’s literary radar was Jennifer Egan,
whose novel “The Candy House,” a belat-
ed sequel to her Pulitzer Prize-winning “A
Visit from the Good Squad,” centers on a
tech mogul who invents a way to access a
person’s entire memory.
Another noted author, Emily St. John
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Mandel, has been having a good year. In
addition to Obama’s pick, the bestselling
“Sea of Tranquility,” Mandel has seen the
new novel’s prequel-of-sorts, “Station
Eleven,” soak up high praise and popular
adulation as an HBO Max miniseries nom-
inated for seven Emmys.
Other writers who reacted excitedly
Tuesday to Obama’s list include Jessa-
mine Chan, author of “The School for
Good Mothers.”
“The very best surprise,” she wrote
on Instagram. “Thank you to my fellow
Chicagoan and birthday twin @baracko-
bama for this early present. I want to write
something coherent here, but I haven’t
had enough caff eine yet, and I’m just
happily losing my mind. What incredible
company!”
Another notable novel on Obama’s list:
“Silverview,” the fi nal work by legendary
spy novelist John le Carre, who died in
December 2020 at age 89.
Yascha Mounk, author of “The Great
Experiment: Why Diverse Democracies
Fall Apart and How They Can Endure,”
also shared his enthusiasm. “Barack
Obama is the American politician I most
admire,” Mounk tweeted. “I’m ... giddy with
excitement to learn that he has read and
enjoyed The Great Experiment (and de-
cided to include it in his summer reading
list)! Rarely at a loss for words but...”
Obama listed one more work of
political nonfi ction, Ezra Klein’s “Why
We’re Polarized.” Both selections
refl ected the former president’s
centrist-leaning, coalition-building
brand of liberalism — rounding out a list
that seems to run, at least among the
bookish, solidly down the middle.
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