1. Becoming by Michelle Obama (obviously my favorite!)
2. An American Marriage by Tayari Jones
3. Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
4. The Broken Ladder: How Inequality Affects the Way We Think, Live, and Die by Keith Payne
5. Educated by Tara Westover
6. Factfulness by Hans Rosling
7. Futureface: A Family Mystery, an Epic Quest, and the Secret to Belonging by Alex Wagner
8. A Grain of Wheat by Ngugi wa Thiong’o
9. A House for Mr Biswas by V.S. Naipaul
10. How Democracies Die by Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt
11. In the Shadow of Statues: A White Southerner Confronts History by Mitch Landrieu
12. Long Walk to Freedom by Nelson Mandela
13. The New Geography of Jobs by Enrico Moretti
14. The Return by Hisham Matar
15. Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe
16. Warlight by Michael Ondaatje
17. Why Liberalism Failed by Patrick Deneen
18. The World As It Is by Ben Rhodes
Here are his other favorite books of 2018:
19. American Prison by Shane Bauer
20. Arthur Ashe: A Life by Raymond Arsenault
21. Asymmetry by Lisa Halliday
22. Feel Free by Zadie Smith
23. Florida by Lauren Groff
24. Frederick Douglass: Prophet of Freedom by David W. Blight
25. Immigrant, Montana by Amitava Kumar
26. The Largesse of the Sea Maiden by Denis Johnson
27. Life 3.0: Being Human in the Age of Artificial Intelligence by Max Tegmark
28. There There by Tommy Orange
29. Washington Black by Esi Edugyan
Mr. Obama's favorite book-based movies for 2018:
1. Annihilation
2. BlacKkKlansman
3. Burning
4. If Beale Street Could Talk
5. Leave No Trace
Here are his other favorite movies of 2018:
6. Black Panther
7. Blindspotting
8. The Death of Stalin
9. Eighth Grade
10. Minding the Gap
11. The Rider
12. Roma
13. Shoplifters
14. Support the Girls
15. Won’t You Be My Neighbor
Source Material: variety.com