--- 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 title: Here's What President Obama Is Reading This Summer image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltad19fcdcc838899c/6988a22b524fc09c33df9224/obama-books.jpg?branch=production&width=2400&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  * [Ideas](/section/ideas/) ## Ideas Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close * [Books](/tag/books/) ## Books Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # Here's What President Obama Is Reading This Summer (12 Aug 2016) by [Sarah Begley](/author/sarah-begley/) ## Sarah Begley Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Aug 12, 2016 4:35 PM CUT  Riverhead; Doubleday; Grove Press by [Sarah Begley](/author/sarah-begley/) ## Sarah Begley Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Aug 12, 2016 4:35 PM CUT 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/ "undefined") advice and picked up Colson Whitehead’s [_The Underground Railroad_](https://www.amazon.com/dp/0385542364/?tag=timecom-20 "undefined"), 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 "undefined"), his reading list also includes several memoirs: Helen Macdonald’s [_H is for Hawk_](https://www.amazon.com/dp/0802123414/?tag=timecom-20 "undefined"), 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 "undefined"). The presidential reading list also includes two big page-turners: Neal Stephenson’s [_Seveneves_](https://www.amazon.com/dp/0062334514/?tag=timecom-20 "undefined"), 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 "undefined"), new in paperback and soon to appear on the [big screen](http://time.com/4411019/the-girl-on-the-train-second-trailer-emily-blunt/ "undefined"). 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":"/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)"}}]}] ```