Dead and Alive by Zadie Smith (Hamish Hamilton) and What We Can Know by Ian McEwan (Jonathan Cape) are among Barack Obama’s top books of 2025.
On his Substack, the former US president – continuing the annual tradition of sharing his favourite books, movies and music, which began when he was in the White House – also included Paper Girl by Beth Macy (Penguin Press) and We the People: A History of the US Constitution by Jill Lepore (John Murray).
Booker Prize shortlistees Flashlight by Susan Choi (Jonathan Cape) and The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny by Kiran Desai (Hamish Hamilton) also made the list, alongside: The Wilderness by Angela Flournoy (VERVE Books); There Is No Place For Us: Working and Homeless in America by Brian Goldstone (Crown Publishing Group); North Sun by Ethan Rutherford (A Strange Object); and 1929: The Story of the Greatest Crash in Wall Street History by Andrew Ross Sorkin (Allen Lane).
He concluded the list by saying: “And obviously I’m biased, The Look by Michelle Obama.” The Look was published in the UK on 5th November 2025 by Mitchell Beazley, and charts Michelle Obama’s “style evolution”.
Earlier in the year, Obama also shared his summer reading recommendations, which included books by Katie Kitamura and Stephen Graham Jones. The full list can be found here.
