Barack Obama's summer reading list is everything we need right now

https://www.facebook.com/barackobama/posts/10156093753316749

(Snip)

1. “Educated,” by Tara Westover (Random House).

Obama describes this as “a remarkable memoir of a young woman raised in a survivalist family in Idaho who strives for education while still showing great understanding and love for the world she leaves behind.” Westover’s story is even more dramatic than that summary suggests: Her parents home-schooled their seven children largely on matters of faith, but she managed to get into Brigham Young University and eventually attended Harvard and earned a doctorate in history from Cambridge. “Educated” has been on The Washington Post bestseller list since it was published in February.

2. “Warlight,” by Michael Ondaatje (Knopf).

The latest from the Booker Prize-winning author of “The English Patient,” this novel takes place in London just after World War II. Obama notes that it is “a meditation on the lingering effects of war on family.” It tells the story of two British children left by their parents in the care of a stranger. Reviewing the novel for The Post, Anna Mundow wrote, “All is illuminated, at first dimly then starkly, but always brilliantly.”

(Snip)

4. “An American Marriage,” by Tayari Jones (Algonquin).

Obama isn’t the only big name to give this novel a boost this year. Oprah Winfrey chose it for her book club in February, and she plans to make a movie adaptation. The story is a perfect blend of thoughtful drama and social issues. When a husband is sent to prison for a sexual assault he didn’t commit, he must deal with the horrors of incarceration, and his wife must deal with the challenges of living without him. Obama described it as “a moving portrayal of the effects of a wrongful conviction on a young African-American couple.”

5. “Factfulness,” by Hans Rosling (Flatiron).

The subtitle of this nonfiction book is “Ten Reasons We’re Wrong About the World — and Why Things Are Better Than You Think,” which is a message we all could use now. Obama calls Rosling, a Swedish physician, “an outstanding international public health expert,” and notes that “Factfulness” is “a hopeful book about the potential for human progress when we work off facts rather than our inherent biases.” Given the huge cloud of distortion enveloping the country, this is just what the doctor ordered.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.washingtonpost.com/amphtml/entertainment/books/barack-obamas-summer-reading-list-is-everything-we-need-right-now/2018/08/19/18ed91c4-a3d9-11e8-a656-943eefab5daf_story.html

I snipped out “A House for Mr. Biswas,” by V.S. Naipaul (Vintage) because I found Factfulness interesting and wanted to keep to 4 paragraphs. Full post at the Facebook link at the top.