obama’s summer book club

Some great read­ing rec­om­men­da­tions and won­der­ful words from our last think­ing pres­i­dent.
 

post from barack oba­ma
13 July 2018

This week, I’m trav­el­ing to Africa for the first time since I left of­fice – a con­ti­nent of won­der­ful di­ver­si­ty, thriv­ing cul­ture, and re­mark­able sto­ries.

I was proud to vis­it sub-Sa­ha­ran Africa more times than any oth­er sit­ting Pres­i­dent, and I’ll re­turn this week to vis­it Kenya and South Africa. In South Africa, the Oba­ma Foun­da­tion will con­vene 200 ex­tra­or­di­nary young lead­ers from across the con­ti­nent and I’ll de­liv­er a speech to mark the 100th an­niver­sary of Nel­son Mandela’s birth. Kenya, of course, is the Oba­ma an­ces­tral home. I vis­it­ed for the first time when I was in my twen­ties and I was pro­found­ly in­flu­enced by my ex­pe­ri­ences – a jour­ney I wrote about in my first book, Dreams from My Fa­ther.

Over the years since, I’ve of­ten drawn in­spi­ra­tion from Africa’s ex­tra­or­di­nary lit­er­ary tra­di­tion. As I pre­pare for this trip, I want­ed to share a list of books that I’d rec­om­mend for sum­mer read­ing, in­clud­ing some from a num­ber of Africa’s best writ­ers and thinkers – each of whom il­lu­mi­nate our world in pow­er­ful and unique ways.

Things Fall Apart by Chin­ua Achebe
FIND IN LI­BRARY    BUY    AU­THOR
A true clas­sic of world lit­er­a­ture, this nov­el paints a pic­ture of tra­di­tion­al so­ci­ety wrestling with the ar­rival of for­eign in­flu­ence, from Chris­t­ian mis­sion­ar­ies to British colo­nial­ism. A mas­ter­piece that has in­spired gen­er­a­tions of writ­ers in Nige­ria, across Africa, and around the world.

A Grain of Wheat by Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o
FIND IN LI­BRARY    BUY    AU­THOR
A chron­i­cle of the events lead­ing up to Kenya’s in­de­pen­dence, and a com­pelling sto­ry of how the trans­for­ma­tive events of his­to­ry weigh on in­di­vid­ual lives and re­la­tion­ships.

Long Walk to Free­dom by Nel­son Man­dela
FIND IN LI­BRARY    BUY    AU­THOR
Mandela’s life was one of the epic sto­ries of the 20th cen­tu­ry. This de­fin­i­tive mem­oir traces the arc of his life from a small vil­lage, to his years as a rev­o­lu­tion­ary, to his long im­pris­on­ment, and ul­ti­mate­ly his as­cen­sion to uni­fy­ing Pres­i­dent, leader, and glob­al icon. Es­sen­tial read­ing for any­one who wants to un­der­stand his­to­ry – and then go out and change it.

Amer­i­canah by Chi­ma­man­da Ngozi Adichie
FIND IN LI­BRARY    BUY    AU­THOR
From one of the world’s great con­tem­po­rary writ­ers comes the sto­ry of two Nige­ri­ans mak­ing their way in the U.S. and the UK, rais­ing uni­ver­sal ques­tions of race and be­long­ing, the over­seas ex­pe­ri­ence for the African di­as­po­ra, and the search for iden­ti­ty and a home.

The Re­turn by Hisham Matar
FIND IN LI­BRARY    BUY    AU­THOR
A beau­ti­ful­ly-writ­ten mem­oir that skill­ful­ly bal­ances a grace­ful guide through Libya’s re­cent his­to­ry with the author’s dogged quest to find his fa­ther who dis­ap­peared in Gaddafi’s pris­ons.

The World As It Is by Ben Rhodes
FIND IN LI­BRARY    BUY    AU­THOR
It’s true, Ben does not have African blood run­ning through his veins. But few oth­ers so close­ly see the world through my eyes like he can. Ben’s one of the few who’ve been with me since that first pres­i­den­tial cam­paign. His mem­oir is one of the smartest re­flec­tions I’ve seen as to how we ap­proached for­eign pol­i­cy, and one of the most com­pelling sto­ries I’ve seen about what it’s ac­tu­al­ly like to serve the Amer­i­can peo­ple for eight years in the White House.
 
 

—kim­ber­ly a. morales

Flom­mist Kim­ber­ly A. Morales is a food and well­ness blog­ger, and pa­tron saint of cats. Copy­right © 2018 Kim­ber­ly A. Morales.

Pic­tured: Emma Roberts NOT read­ing one of the books from this list, but pro­mot­ing Bel­letrist – feat. logo de­signed by a gen­uine Flom­mist. Wan­na get into read­ing? Bel­letrist is just one of a bunch of cool books clubs worth ex­plor­ing. Also: Don’t blame Oba­ma. WE BOLD­FACE STOLE THE PHO­TO. IT was US, not HIM.

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