--- ---  # Here's What President Obama Is Reading This Summer (12 Aug 2016) 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. President Obama Summer Reading List 2016 ```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":"/section/ideas/","name":"Ideas"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/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)"}}]}] ```