Barack Obama's favourite books of 2021

Former President of the United States of America, Barack Obama is an avid reader. Each year Obama shares a list of his favourite books which he read recently. Checkout Barack Obama's eclectic mix of 24 favourite books of 2021 here.

Photo: Barack Obama/ Instagram

Lauren Groff's fourth novel 'Matrix' is a historical fiction book which was released in September 2021. The Observer described the novel as "a strange and poetic piece of historical fiction set in a dreamlike abbey, the fictional biography of a 12th-century mystic."

Photo: William Heinemann

In this 2021 non-fiction book, author Clint Smith takes the readers on an unforgettable trip of monuments and landmark places that tell an inter-generational story of how slavery has shaped America's history and people.

Photo: Little, Brown and Company

Dawnie Walton's new contemporary fiction 'The Final Revival Of Opal & Nev' is an story about the rise of an iconic inter-racial rock duo, Opal and Nev, in the 1970s; their shocking breakup, and the dark secrets that surface when they reunite decades later for a tour.

Photo: Quercus

Set in 1950s America, Amor Towles 'The Lincoln Highway' follows the story of Emmett Watson as he navigates through the sudden turn of events in his life. After serving 15 months in the juvenile work farm, 18-year-old Emmett Watson is driven to his home in Nebraska by the warden. Emmett has lost both his parents and he now plans to restart his life with his eight-year-old brother Billy in California. But when two of his friends stow away in the warden's car, the four of them are now taken on a very different journey to New York City instead.

Photo: Hutchinson

"By turns heartbreaking and inspiring, 'Invisible Child' tells an astonishing story about the power of resilience, the importance of family, and the cost of inequality. Based on nearly a decade of reporting, 'Invisible Child' illuminates some of the most critical issues in contemporary America through the life of one remarkable girl," reads the book's blurb.

Photo: Random House

Two-time winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, author Colson Whitehead's new novel 'Harlem Shuffle' is "a family saga masquerading as a crime novel, a hilarious morality play, a social novel about race and power, and ultimately a love letter to Harlem," reads the book's blurb.

Photo: Fleet

International bestselling author of ‘All the Light We Cannot See’, Anthony Doerr is back with a new novel in 2021 titled 'Cloud Cuckoo Land'. This is a magical story about an ancient Greek manuscript that connects the past, present and the future of humanity.

Photo: Fourth Estate

Author Ann Patchett 'These Precious Days' is a deeply personal essay collection on the themes of family, home, friendship and writing.

Photo: HarperLuxe

Michelle Zauner's new book 'Crying In H Mart' is a heart-touching memoir "about growing up mixed-race, Korean food, losing her Korean mother, and forging her own identity in the wake of her loss, which brought her to reclaim the gifts of taste, language, and history her mother had given her," according to the book's blurb.

Photo: Picador

'Aftershocks' is Nadia Owusu's deeply moving and timely memoir that portrays "globalisation from the inside in a fractured world in crisis".

Photo: Sceptre

International bestselling author Jonathan Franzen's new book 'Crossroads' is the first book in his 'A Key to All Mythologies' trilogy. The story follows the Hildebrandt family as they navigate the social and political crosscurrents of roughly the last 50 years.

Photo: Fourth Estate

Award-winning poet Honoree Fanonne Jeffers' debut novel 'The Love Songs of W.E.B. Du Bois' chronicles the journey of different generations of an American family, as they struggle and survive through the colonial slave trade to the Civil War to the uncertainities of the present times. The novel was also recommended by Oprah's book club.

Photo: Fourth Estate

Qian Julie Wang's memoir 'Beautiful Country' is a deeply moving account of what it means to be an immigrant in the United States, to live under constant threat of being deported and the hope and determination to survive in a new country. "Told from a child's perspective, in a voice that is intimate, poignant and startlingly lyrical, 'Beautiful Country' is the story of a girl who learns first to live - and then escape - an invisible life," reads the book's blurb.

Apart from these 13 books, Obama also shared a list of 11 books which he had recommended earlier this year. They are:

Photo: Viking

David Diop won the Booker Prize in 2021 for his second novel 'At Night All Blood Is Blood'. This is a powerful story that explores what happens to men who are sent to war-- to kill others and to be killed.

Photo: Pushkin Press

'The Land of Big Numbers' is a collection of stories that highlight the realities of modern day China. "With virtuosic brilliance, Te-ping Chen sheds light on a country much talked about but little understood", reads the book's blurb. The book was selected in Barack Obama's summer reading list 2021.

Photo: Scribner UK

Patrick Radden Keefe's 'Empire of Pain' won the Baillie Gifford Prize for Non-Fiction in 2021. This is a "gripping and shocking story of three generations of the Sackler family and their roles in the stories of Valium, Oxycontin and the opioid crisis," reads the book's blurb.

Photo: Picador

Andy Weir's new science fiction novel 'Project Hail Mary' follows Ryland Grace, a lone astronaut, as he struggles to save the Earth from a deadly disaster. Also recommended by Bill Gates in his annual reading list.

Photo: Del Rey

In 'When We Cease to Understand the World', Benjamin Labatut shows us through fiction how great minds- scientists and mathematicians of our time- strike into dangerous, uncertain territories in life. The book was also shortlisted for the International Booker Prize 2021.

Photo: Pushkin Press

In this book, Pulitzer Prize winning author Elizabeth Kolbert explores humanity's impact on our environment and asks if we can change and save nature after all the damage? The book was also selected by Bill Gates in his 2021 summer reading list.

Photo: Bodley Head

Eric Nguyen's stunning debut novel 'Things We Lost To The Water' follows the story of an immigrant Vietnamese family as they settle in New Orleans. With all the sudden changes in their lives, they struggle to stay connected to each other.

Photo: Knopf

'Leave The World Behind' by Rumaan Alam is "A magnetic novel about two families, strangers to each other, who are forced together on a long weekend gone terribly wrong," reads the book's blurb.

Photo: Bloomsbury Publishing

'Klara And The Sun' is Kazuo Ishiguro's first novel after winning the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2017. This is Klara's story-- who is an Artificial Friend with great observational qualities. From her place in a store, Klara observes people-- those who browse the store and those who walk on the streets outside. All this while, she is hopeful that someday a customer will soon choose her too. This book is also recommended by Bill Gates in his annual reading list.

Photo: Faber & Faber

Nathan Harris' debut novel 'The Sweetness of Water' is a thought-provoking story about mixed feelings, imperfect relationships, and hope. Set during the end of the American Civil War, the story follows two brothers Landry and Prentiss who are newly freed. They soon start working for George Walker, who lost his son in the war. But when people of the nearby town get to know about them, they're furious at these alliances...

Photo: Tinder Press

Katie Kitamura's 'Intimacies' is "a taut and electrifying story about a woman caught between many truths", reads the book's blurb.

Photo: Vintage Digital