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Every year, former President Barack Obama shared his favorite reads of the year, both fiction and nonfiction, as well as his favorite movies and music. This year’s list includes award-winning literary fiction, popular nonfiction, and some less well-known choices. As for how he selects these titles, he says that these are the “books that have stuck with me long after I finished reading them.”

Barack Obama’s Favorite Books of 2025:

cover of Flashlight by Susan Choi

Paper Girl by Beth Macy

Flashlight by Susan Choi

We the People by Jill Lepore

The Wilderness by Angela Flournoy

There Is No Place For Us by Brian Goldstone

North Sun by Ethan Rutherford

The Wilderness cover

1929 by Andrew Ross Sorkin

The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny by Kiran Desai

Dead and Alive by Zadie Smith

What We Can Know by Ian McEwan

The Look by Michelle Obama

You might also be interested in Barack Obama’s Favorite Books of 2024 and Barack Obama’s 2025 Summer Reading List.