curated list

books recommended by US presidents

The reading lists of US presidents past and present — Barack Obama's annual summer picks, George W. Bush's reading habits, Bill Clinton's recommendations, Jimmy Carter's published lists, and more.

Aggregated across 6 people we track · 60 books ranked by how many on this list have publicly recommended each one.

most recommended books on this list

2 people
An American Marriage: A Novel (Oprah's Book Club 2018 Selection)
Tayari Jones · 2018
2 recommenders
Amazon Bookshop
2 people
Educated: A Memoir
Tara Westover · 2018
2 recommenders
Amazon Bookshop
2 people
Exit West: A Novel
Mohsin Hamid · 2017
2 recommenders
Amazon Bookshop
2 people
Finding My Voice
Valerie Jarrett · 2019
2 recommenders
Amazon Bookshop
2 people
Goodnight Moon
Margaret Wise Brown · 2007
2 recommenders
Amazon Bookshop
2 people
Grant
Ron Chernow · 2017
2 recommenders
Amazon Bookshop
2 people
Holy Bible
- · 2018
2 recommenders
Amazon Bookshop
2 people
Life Of Pi
Yann Martel · 2000
2 recommenders
Amazon Bookshop
2 people
One Hundred Years of Solitude
Gabriel García Márquez, translated by Gregory Rabassa · 2003
2 recommenders
Amazon Bookshop
2 people
Song of Solomon: A Novel
Toni Morrison · 2004
2 recommenders
Amazon Bookshop
2 people
The Girl on the Train
Paula Hawkins · 2015
2 recommenders
Amazon Bookshop
2 people
The Word Collector
Peter H. Reynolds · 2018
2 recommenders
Amazon Bookshop
1 person
1929: Inside the Greatest Crash in Wall Street History--and How It Shattered a Nation
Andrew Ross Sorkin · 2025
1 recommender
Amazon Bookshop
1 person
A Different Way to Win
Jim Rooney · 2019
1 recommender
Amazon Bookshop
1 person
A Gentleman in Moscow
Amor Towles · 2019
1 recommender
Amazon Bookshop
1 person
A Grain of Wheat
Ngugi wa Thiong'o · 1994
1 recommender
Amazon Bookshop
1 person
A House for Mr. Biswas
V. S. Naipaul · 2003
1 recommender
Amazon Bookshop
1 person
A Marriage at Sea
Sophie Elmhirst · 2026
1 recommender
Amazon Bookshop
1 person
A Promised Land
Barack Obama · 2020
1 recommender
Amazon Bookshop
1 person
A Suitable Boy
Vikram Seth · 2005
1 recommender
Amazon Bookshop
1 person
Abraham Lincoln
Abraham Lincoln · 1992
1 recommender
Amazon Bookshop
1 person
Abraham Lincoln
John Hay & John Nicolay · 1890
1 recommender
Amazon Bookshop
1 person
Abundance: How We Build a Better Future
Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson · 2025
1 recommender
Amazon Bookshop
1 person
After the Fall
Ben Rhodes · 2021
1 recommender
Amazon Bookshop
1 person
After the Music Stopped
Alan S. Blinder · 2013
1 recommender
Amazon Bookshop
1 person
Afterlives
Abdulrazak Gurnah · 2020
1 recommender
Amazon Bookshop
1 person
Aftershocks
Nadia Owusu · 2021
1 recommender
Amazon Bookshop
1 person
Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day
Judith Viorst · 1987
1 recommender
Amazon Bookshop
1 person
All Quiet on the Western Front
Erich Maria Remarque · 1987
1 recommender
Amazon Bookshop
1 person
All the Light We Cannot See
Anthony Doerr · 2014
1 recommender
Amazon Bookshop
1 person
All the Sinners Bleed
S.A. Cosby · 2023
1 recommender
Amazon Bookshop
1 person
American Crusade
Pete Hegseth · 2020
1 recommender
Amazon Bookshop
1 person
American Prison
Shane Bauer · 2018
1 recommender
Amazon Bookshop
1 person
American Spy
Lauren Wilkinson · 2019
1 recommender
Amazon Bookshop
1 person
Americanah
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie · 2013
1 recommender
Amazon Bookshop
1 person
An Immense World: How Animal Senses Reveal the Hidden Realms Around Us
Ed Yong · 2022
1 recommender
Amazon Bookshop
1 person
Anything Is Possible
Elizabeth Strout · 2017
1 recommender
Amazon Bookshop
1 person
Arthur Ashe
Raymond Arsenault · 2018
1 recommender
Amazon Bookshop
1 person
Asymmetry
Lisa Halliday · 2018
1 recommender
Amazon Bookshop
1 person
At Night All Blood Is Black
David Diop, translated by Anna Moschovakis · 2020
1 recommender
Amazon Bookshop
1 person
Audition: A Novel
Katie Kitamura · 2025
1 recommender
Amazon Bookshop
1 person
Babar
Jean de Brunhoff · 1933
1 recommender
Amazon Bookshop
1 person
Ball of Collusion
Andrew C. McCarthy · 2019
1 recommender
Amazon Bookshop
1 person
Barbarian Days: A Surfing Life
William Finnegan · 2015
1 recommender
Amazon Bookshop
1 person
Basketball
Shea Serrano · 2017
1 recommender
Amazon Bookshop
1 person
Battling the Big Lie
Dan Pfeiffer · 2022
1 recommender
Amazon Bookshop
1 person
Beautiful Country
Qian Julie Wang · 2021
1 recommender
Amazon Bookshop
1 person
Beautiful Days
Zach Williams · 2024
1 recommender
Amazon Bookshop
1 person
Becoming
Michelle Obama · 2018
1 recommender
Amazon Bookshop
1 person
Between the World and Me
Ta-Nehisi Coates · 2015
1 recommender
Amazon Bookshop
1 person
Beyond Charlottesville: Taking a Stand Against White Nationalism
Terry McAuliffe · 2019
1 recommender
Amazon Bookshop
1 person
Big Friendship: How We Keep Each Other Close
Aminatou Sow · 2020
1 recommender
Amazon Bookshop
1 person
Black Cake
Charmaine Wilkerson · 2022
1 recommender
Amazon Bookshop
1 person
Blitz: Trump Will Smash the Left and Win
David Horowitz · 2020
1 recommender
Amazon Bookshop
1 person
Both/And: A Memoir
Huma Abedin · 2021
1 recommender
Amazon Bookshop
1 person
Brief Answers To The Big Questions
Stephen Hawking · 2018
1 recommender
Amazon Bookshop
1 person
Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?
Bill Martin & Eric Carle · 1967
1 recommender
Amazon Bookshop
1 person
Camp Confidential
Melissa J. Morgan · 2006
1 recommender
Amazon Bookshop
1 person
Carried Away: A Selection of Stories (Everyman's Library)
Alice Munro · 2006
1 recommender
Amazon Bookshop
1 person
Caste
Isabel Wilkerson · 2020
1 recommender
Amazon Bookshop

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