--- title: President Obama Summer Reading List 2016 description: President Obama is on Martha's Vineyard for his annual vacation, and he's packed a hearty and diverse book bag for the beach canonical: https://time.com/4450367/president-obama-summer-reading-list-2016/ author: Sarah Begley article:opinion: true article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-08-12T16:35:22.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-26T20:06:26.903Z article:section: Ideas og:title: Here's What President Obama Is Reading This Summer og:description: How does your book bag measure up? og:url: https://time.com/4450367/president-obama-summer-reading-list-2016/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltad19fcdcc838899c/6988a22b524fc09c33df9224/obama-books.jpg?branch=production&width=1120&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1120 og:image:height: 630 og:image:alt: obama-books og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Here's What President Obama Is Reading This Summer twitter:description: How does your book bag measure up? twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltad19fcdcc838899c/6988a22b524fc09c33df9224/obama-books.jpg?branch=production&width=1120&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Here's What President Obama Is Reading This Summer (12 Aug 2016) > Sponsored content. 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Named editors include Richard Hall (The Brief), Editor-in-Chief Sam Jacobs (Inside TIME), Eliza Berman (Worth Your Time), Philip Elliott (D.C. Brief), Justin Worland (Future Proof) and Harry Booth (In the Loop). Health Matters is written by TIME's health desk. #### How do I sign up for a TIME newsletter? Go to time.com/newsletters, choose the newsletters you want and enter your email address. There is no cost and no subscription requirement. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-network-2026q3/newsletters?i=9eaaee31-ec14-445d-8850-83019f410177&cr=time-nl-network-2026q3-v1) by [Sarah Begley](https://time.com/author/sarah-begley/) ## Sarah Begley Aug 12, 2016 4:35 PM UTC  Riverhead; Doubleday; Grove Press by [Sarah Begley](https://time.com/author/sarah-begley/) ## Sarah Begley Aug 12, 2016 4:35 PM UTC President Obama is on Martha’s Vineyard for his annual vacation, and he’s packed a hearty and diverse book bag for the beach. Obama has taken [Oprah’s](http://time.com/4435098/oprah-colson-whitehead-underground-railroad/) advice and picked up Colson Whitehead’s [_The Underground Railroad_](https://www.amazon.com/dp/0385542364/?tag=timecom-20), a new novel that imagines a physical railroad under the ground during American slavery. According to Reuters’ [Jeff Mason](https://twitter.com/jeffmason1/status/764116717006118912), his reading list also includes several memoirs: Helen Macdonald’s [_H is for Hawk_](https://www.amazon.com/dp/0802123414/?tag=timecom-20), about the author deciding to raise a goshawk in the wake of her father’s death, and William Finnegan’s Pulitzer Prize-winning [_Barbarian Days: A Surfing Life_](https://www.amazon.com/dp/1594203474/?tag=timecom-20). The presidential reading list also includes two big page-turners: Neal Stephenson’s [_Seveneves_](https://www.amazon.com/dp/0062334514/?tag=timecom-20), a sci-fi adventure about space explorers returning to a post-apocalyptic planet Earth, and Paula Hawkins’ thriller [_The Girl on the Train_](https://www.amazon.com/dp/1594634025/?tag=timecom-20), new in paperback and soon to appear on the [big screen](http://time.com/4411019/the-girl-on-the-train-second-trailer-emily-blunt/). Altogether, these books tally up to more than 2,000 pages of reading—but if he doesn’t finish them this vacation, he’ll surely find the time in January. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"OpinionNewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4450367/president-obama-summer-reading-list-2016/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4450367/president-obama-summer-reading-list-2016/"},"headline":"Here's What President Obama Is Reading This Summer (12 Aug 2016)","datePublished":"2016-08-12T16:35:22.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-26T20:06:26.903Z","description":"How does your book bag measure up?","url":"https://time.com/4450367/president-obama-summer-reading-list-2016/","keywords":["Books"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltad19fcdcc838899c/6988a22b524fc09c33df9224/obama-books.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Sarah Begley","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/sarah-begley/"}],"articleSection":"Ideas","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltad19fcdcc838899c/6988a22b524fc09c33df9224/obama-books.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"obama-books","caption":"","creditText":"Riverhead; Doubleday; Grove Press","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/section/ideas/","name":"Ideas"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/tag/books/","name":"Books"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4450367/president-obama-summer-reading-list-2016/","name":"Here's What President Obama Is Reading This Summer (12 Aug 2016)"}}]}] ```