Former US President Barack Obama - as seen here on the cover of his book ‘Homecoming’ - has released his favourite books of 2022. Photo: Raphael Lafargue/ABACAPRESS.COM/Canadian Press
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Barack Obama’s Favourite Books of 2022
The former U.S. president’s 13 titles include Canadians Emily St. John Mandel and Kate Beaton, as well as tomes from Michelle Obama, George Saunders and Jennifer Egan / BY Kim Honey / January 6th, 2023
Two Canadian titles made Barack Obama’s hotly anticipated best books of 2022 list, which the former U.S. president releases on social media every December, along with his favourite movies and music.
It was no surprise to see Emily St. John Mandel’s Sea of Tranquility there, since Obama included the time-travelling tale, which begins on Vancouver Island and journeys to a moon colony, on his summer reading list in July.
The second Canadian entry is Kate Beaton’s Ducks: Two Years in the Oil Sands, a graphic memoir about the Cape Breton native’s experience working in Fort McMurray, one of few women in the camps among a sea of testosterone.
“I’ve read a couple of great books this year and wanted to share some of my favourites so far. What have you been reading this summer?” Obama wrote on Instagram, prompting 487,000 likes and 3,700 comments.
Of course, The Light We Carry by his wife, Michelle Obama, was on the list (“I’m a little bit biased about this one,” he said), as well as several other books Zed has covered, including Liberation Day by George Saunders, The Candy House by Jennifer Egan, The School for Good Mothers by Jessamine Chan, Mouth to Mouth by Antoine Wilson, Trust by Hernan Diaz and Black Cake by Charmaine Wilkerson.
Obama’s list also contains the 2022 National Book Award winner for non-fiction, South to America: A Journey Below the Mason-Dixon to Understand the Soul of a Nation by Imani Perry; The Revolutionary: Samuel Adams by Stacy Schiff; The Furrows by Namwali Serpell; Afterlives by Abdulrazak Gurnah; and An Immense World: How Animal Senses Reveal The Hidden Realms Around Us by Ed Yong.