British-Cambodian author and editor Kaliane Bradley The Ministry of Time (Sceptre Books/ Avid Reader Press/ Simon & Schuster) was named to Barack Obama’s summer reading list, which includes 14 fiction and nonfiction books. Percival Everett’s James (Mantle/ Knopf Doubleday) and Kaveh Akbar’s Martyr! (Picador/Knopf Doubleday) also made it into the round this year.
In a post on X (formerly Twitter), the former US president said: “I’ve read some great books over the last few months and wanted to share some of my favourites. Let me know if you have any recommendations for books I should check out!” The list also includes books like Lisa Kos Souvenir (Dialogue Books/Riverhead Books) and Rita Bullwinkels Headshot (Daunt Books Publishing/Viking).
Other novels recommended by Obama include Zach Williams’ short story collection, Beautiful days (Hamish Hamilton/Doubleday), Liz Moores The God of the Forest (The Borough Press/Riverhead Books) and Job offers by Adelle Waldman (Serpent’s Tail/WW Norton & Company).
In the non-fiction section There is always this year by Hanif Abdurraqib (Allen Lane/ Random House) and Everyone who is gone is here by Jonathan Blitzer (Penguin Press) are both top picks, as are Reading Genesis by Marilynne Robinson (Virago/ Farrar, Straus and Giroux) and The wide sea by Hampton Sides (Michael Joseph/ Doubleday). Other titles in this genre that made it onto the list are Of boys and men by Richard Reeves (Swift Press/Brookings Institution Press) and When the clock broke by John Ganz (Farrar, Straus and Giroux).
