A Great Book with Barack Obama

by Barack Obama, Tom Hanks (Narrator), Ta-Nehisi Coates (Narrator)

Some books don't just tell a story — they change the way you see the world. In A Great Book with Barack Obama, a new Audible Original podcast from Audible and Higher Ground, President Obama is joined by some of the most compelling thinkers, writers, and artists of our time to revisit six timeless books that shaped his life and perspective on the world.

With his signature intellectual curiosity, President Obama reflects on identity, power, memory, and culture using the stories that impacted him most. Over the course of six episodes, President Obama sits down with guests Tom Hanks, Ta-Nehisi Coates, Jill Lepore, Ben Rhodes, Percival L. Everett, and Lauren Groff. Together they explore a central what do the stories we love tell us about the world we live in and the world we want to create?

The books featured in this season Gilead by Marilynne Robinson, The Fire Next Time by James Baldwin, All The King’s Men by Robert Penn Warren, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy by John le Carré, Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison, and All The Pretty Horses by Cormac McCarthy.

Genres: Audiobook, Nonfiction, Books About Books, Literary Criticism, Biography

Audible Audio

Published September 24, 2026

About the author

Barack Obama was the 44th president of the United States, elected in November 2008 and holding office for two terms. He is the author of two previous New York Times bestselling books, Dreams from My Father and The Audacity of Hope, and the recipient of the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize. He lives in Washington, D.C., with his wife, Michelle. They have two daughters, Malia and Sasha.

Reviews

[Alan (The Lone Librarian) Teder · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Best Book Club or All the President's Books
A review of the Audible Originals audiobook (September 24, 2026).

Are there any other former or present world leaders such as Barack Obama who regularly share their annual reading lists and best of the year lists? I can't think of any.

For this 6-episode podcast, Obama invited six authors and fellow readers to share their thoughts about six of his own favourite books, many of which had influenced his thinking in his early years and others which resonated with him during his presidency. This was a very engaging audiobook and will likely spark your interest to read each of the novels discussed. I've only read 3 of them myself, but hope to amend that.

The discussion was very quotable, but being in audio it was difficult to transcribe much of it. I managed to add a few snippets in my summaries below.

1. Discussing Marilynne Robinson’s Gilead (2004) with actor/writer Tom Hanks. A good start to this podcast style audiobook, discussing the issues of faith and fatherhood and small town life.

2. Discussing James Baldwin’s The Fire Next Time (1963) with Ta-Nehisi Coates. A great discussion about American racism and oppression with Coates prodding Obama and Obama treading carefully in his responses about America’s oppression of its own and of peoples around the world. Coates: “How do you read this and become President of the United States?”

3. Discussing Robert Penn Warren’s All the King's Men (1946) with historian Jill Lepore. A discussion about the rise of populism in the present world and how this book is relevant in the present day. Jill Lepore: “Tyrants never, ever, win history.” Barack Obama “I am glad for us to end on a hopeful note.”

4. Discussing John le Carré’s Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy (1974) with his former deputy national security advisor Ben Rhodes. Obama: “I have always been a big fan of spy novels. When done well they provide a perfect backdrop to bigger questions about geopolitics, national security, but also the thin line between loyalty and betrayal and the challenges of maintaining a moral code when you are operating in an often immoral world. To my mind at least, no one does this better than John le Carré.”

5. Discussing Toni Morrison’s Song of Solomon (1977) with Percival Everett. Discussing the untold stories of the black communities in America. Obama: “If I have a sense of how I came to be here, that prepares me to face anything going forward.”

6. Discussing Cormac McCarthy’s All the Pretty Horses (1992) with novelist Lauren Groff. Discussing American masculinity and its myths. They agree that this is his “sweetest” book and that Blood Meridian, or, the Evening Redness in the West (1985) is his greatest. Groff: “This is the best book club I’ve ever been in!”

Trivia and Links
Audible Originals are often exclusive audio productions for Audible. The exclusivity may be time-limited. An author may agree to a (e.g.) six-month audio exclusive before they are free to publish the story in eBook or paper formats. It is relatively rare that a podcast is turned into a printed book, but in the case of someone as prestigious as Barack Obama, anything is possible.

As A Great Book with Barack Obama currently has no print equivalent, reading it will not add to your page count. Based on its audio length of 5 hours and 38 minutes it would be approximately 168 pages if in print (i.e. assuming 1 hour is 30 pages of reading time).

See every book that Barack Obama has mentioned in his annual lists from 2009 to 2026 at the Friday Night Readers substack here.

[Kristīne · Rating 5 out of 5]

Vairāk kā podkāsts, bet tā kā Audible to piedāvāja kā viena gabala audiogrāmatu, kāpēc ne.

Vispār jau brīnišķīgi, ka politiķis ir ne tikai tik daudz lasījis, bet izlasīto spēj arī sasaistīt ar apkārt notiekošo un atklāti runā par lasīšanas ietekmi uz savas personības veidošanos.
Inteliģentas sarunas starp gudriem, interesantiem cilvēkiem, jautājumi, kas rosina domāt, rīkoties. Un vēl tas viss par grāmatām!
Lai gan nevienu no nosaukumiem nebiju lasījusi, izbaudīju un dažas pievienoju savam lasāmsarakstam.

[Ann · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent. I enjoyed the discussions on each of the books and added 2 books to my to-be-read list. It was interesting to see the perspectives, especially on the books that I myself had already read. Also throughout all of this, I kept thinking how wonderful it was to have an intelligent president who reads. Educating yourself should be a lifelong journey. One of the best ways to do that is with a book.

[Mark Colaci]

Absolutely nothing against this book, and I admire Barack Obama. It just wasn’t what I expected, and after listening through a little bit of multiple chapters, I just realized, yeah, I’m gonna move on. Wasn’t what I was looking for right now.

[Karen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ah, the joys of a President who read! Who was actually interested in ideas! Who had thoughtful conversations that were neither derogatory nor sycophantic!

[Lindsey Zolot]

I miss this man everyday

[Paige · Rating 4 out of 5]

An intriguing listen and document.

[Steve · Rating 3.5 out of 5]

Would totally listen to a President Obama Podcast

[Suellyn · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a quick listen and I loved it. Not really a book, but so much fun for readers because Obama is a President who really reads and can talk books. His guests are terrific and the insights into life and the application of great books to our current day are interesting. Great audio.

[George · Rating 5 out of 5]

A remarkable experience. Obama’s literary sensibilities far exceed those of many literature professors and even some of the esteemed guests on the program. It provides vital insight ms into what is needed in our civic life.

[Erin *Proud Book Hoarder* · Rating 3.5 out of 5]

Was interesting. He held a conversation with various friends on different books. My favorite was surprisingly on the spy novel. I had heard of All The King's Men but have not read the others they discussed. If he releases more like these, will listen to them also.

[Kate · Rating 4 out of 5]

Always a pleasure listening to Obama go deep and contemplate issues of moral seriousness

[Tamara Mansfield · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved the conversations that happened here. My favorite conversation was between Obama and Coates on racism and how to get beyond it. It’s so nice to hear a great conversation on politics and what we can do these days.

[Phil Atteberry · Rating 4.5 out of 5]

I have a pretty firm policy of not reading books by or about contemporary political figures. However, I took a chance on this one because of its structure. It exists only as an audiobook, with Mr. Obama talking (for about 45 minutes) with a guest about a particular book. Six books are discussed with six guests. Most of the guests are writers and/or historians, although in the first "chapter," Tom Hanks is the guest.

I'm a book guy, so I enjoyed this. The books discussed are extremely diverse (I had only read two of them), but they are all similar in that they pursue a serious moral purpose. Sometimes that takes a religious form, sometimes not. All of the conversations explore the personal and social insights developed in the book, as well as things like historical and cultural perspectives. Each conversation also gives a little attention to how language use flavors each text. All in all, these are high end, interesting conversations.

Mr. Obama's guests are all interesting, articulate and well read, as is Mr. Obama. The breadth of his reading is impressive. My only mild criticism is of Mr. Obama's speech patterns. He speaks in extremely complex sentences, with multiple subordinate clauses layered within one another. The sentences work syntactically, but Mr. Obama is thinking as he is speaking, so these complicated sentences are spooled out in a halting manner with several pauses. After a while that gets a little tiresome to listen to. Sometimes when he asks a question of his guest, the question almost gets lost in the preface to the question and in the various qualifications of the question. If these conversations were written down--and tightened up a little--these issues would disappear.

But, I am nit-picking. These conversations are thoughtful and interesting. I hope Mr. Obama does this again.

[Claire Kurtz · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantastic conversations about literature and life between President Obama and some of our current brightest thinkers/writers. I cannot recommend this enough. Even if you have not read each of the works they discuss you will be richer for having listened to these conversations.

I hope there will be more of these to come!

[Bridget · Rating 5 out of 5]

Love this! I was always interested to see Barak’s reading list each year. This is such a great idea to get together with another writer to discuss some of those books. Great conversations I could listen to this forever!

[Jason Bradley · Rating 3 out of 5]

Obama chats about books

[Nicole Elkind · Rating 5 out of 5]

“Part of the question for all of us is how do we select the injustices worthy of our attention, because there are many. There are comparable stories that could be told of really good and innocent people being damaged by reckless and terrible things…How do we direct our energies and proper moral outrage in constructive ways, in order for us to get things done.”

[Nikohl Maw · Rating 5 out of 5]

Not an actual “book”, but Obama has some fantastic conversations about books and how they influence us.

[tree · Rating 3 out of 5]

this was nice, but i didn’t know ahead of time it was essentially a collection of podcasts. i was v much expecting more of the usual writing from Obama, but him discussing books is cool, too! i won’t do 5 stars due to selections made, though. the authors of the books being discussed lack diversity, and there’s an attempt to remedy this with podcast guests that are more diverse and modern. but there is a dearth of latinx, asian, lgbtqia+, american indigenous (or any indigenous people), mena/swana representation, overall.

[Aisling Smith · Rating 3 out of 5]

Obama talking about books missed his voice ok back to normal reading

[Abragail Arnold · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed the guests and their conversations surrounding these novels. Very profound and thought-provoking while also respectful and insightful. A wonderful short listen.

[Susanna Johnson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolutely fantastic. When it feels like our country is burning down, listening to kind, wise people talk about great books is such a treat.

[Adrienne Adrimano · Rating 3.75 out of 5]

Clever people share their conversations on notable books.

Audible original book chat by President Obama with literary guests: an actor-filmmaker, authors, and a historian.

Most of the chats were enjoyable and brought an understanding of or a new perspective on the works being discussed, or a contemporary interpretation of the same by the hosts.

The books discussed:

1. Marilynne Robinson’s Gilead (2004), with actor Tom Hanks

Men should stop talking over each other. Lots of discussion about father-son relationships.

2. James Baldwin’s The Fire Next Time (1963), with author Ta-Nehisi Coates

A frank and also heartfelt discussion between two Black American writers, on the ongoing impact of another Black American legend and his work.

The discussion with the most questioning and pushback from the guest. I actually enjoyed how Mr Coates challenged the President on how he could truly understand and even agree with Baldwin's perspective, and still pursue political positions in the USA.

3. Robert Penn Warren’s All the King's Men (1946), with historian Jill Lepore

I love when smart, well-read people talk. I love when metaphors are references from classics. I love when you have to be well-read enough to catch the references.

This discussion about the historical perspective on the dramatization of the come-up of a real American politician in a pivotal era was super interesting.

4. John le Carré’s Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy (1974), with his former deputy national security advisor Ben Rhodes

Two people who have served in National Security talk about the reality of, and literary take on Espionage and Surveillance, and the people involved. Another American and global political history lesson, and a wake-up call that spies were real, and that technology changed the game. Tech now does all the espionage and warfare that double agents used to do.

5. Toni Morrison’s Song of Solomon (1977), with Percival Everett

Interesting discussion on Black fatherhood, and identity. I found the parts that President Obama shared on the points in his life that he chose to lean intohis blackness or his name really interesting.

I hoped for more from this discussion. I see Everett as a didactic writer, always with some sort of observation to make or lesson to teach, but I think I got more on the reflection on his own family life than the book.

Unrelated, but this is how I find out that Percoval Everett is married to Danzy Senna, the author of Colored Television, a book with such a unique perspective.

6. Cormac McCarthy’s All the Pretty Horses (1992), with novelist Lauren Groff

.The most natural and my favourite of all the conversations included. I don't know who this woman is, but I love her Voice. Such a delightful conversationalist, clearly well-read, and effusive in her discourse and opinions, without being rude or condescending.

I agree with her stance on American masculinity. She made an observation that I never had before-- that "There are very few women in books not written by women." Of all the discussions, this one actually made me want to try one of her books.

[Kristi · Rating 4 out of 5]

It is an immense pleasure to listen to Barak Obama talk about books. In this collection, Obama discusses six books, each in conversation with a different guest: actor Tom Hanks, writer Ta-Nehisi Coates. historian Jill Lapore, political advisor and commentator Ben Rhodes, and authors Percival L. Everett and Lauren Groff. My enjoyment in the individual guests varied, but the discussions are thoughtful, insightfully curious, and inspiring, offering much of what so many of us are craving in our present moment. I wish I had drawn out my listening to make it last longer.

I haven’t read any of the featured books— Gilead by Marilynne Robinson, James Baldwin's The Fire Next Time , All The King’s Men by Robert Penn Warren, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy by John le Carré, Toni Morrison's Song of Solomon , and All The Pretty Horses by Cormac McCarthy—but my enjoyment in the discussions was not diminished. You do not need to have read the books to follow the conversations, ranging from fatherhood and faith to getting beyond racism; populism; spy novels and human relations; generational trauma and uplifting connection; and masculinity, its myths and aspirations—all to reflect on our world and our influence on the world as we'd like it to be. However, listeners should be aware that there are necessarily content spoilers within the conversations. These recommendations are now added to my 'to-read' list, and I look forward to going back and listening to these conversations again when I can bring my own perspective and reading experience to the dialogue.

The one caveat, this Audible Original audio production is currently available exclusively on Audible / Amazon.

[Jason Showalter · Rating 4 out of 5]

A Great Book with Barack Obama is six conversations, Obama sitting down with a different writer each episode to talk through a book that shaped him. Gilead with Tom Hanks was the one that hit me hardest, a book I’d never even heard of before this, built around a dying father’s letters to his son, and it sent me straight to my TBR. The Fire Next Time with Ta-Nehisi Coates landed just as personally, less a discovery than a confirmation I should have read it years ago, and hearing Obama name specific writers he still carries with him when working through hard decisions stuck with me long after the episode ended.

Jill Lepore’s conversation on All the King’s Men turned into a thoughtful discussion of power and populism that never tipped into point-scoring. Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy was the one episode that didn’t pull me in, more procedural than resonant. Percival Everett on Song of Solomon offered a great idea about rereading books from earlier in your life, and Lauren Groff closed things out on the beauty of McCarthy’s prose in All the Pretty Horses, book number three added to my list by the end.

Three new TBR additions from one listen is a real result. Best consumed as six separate sittings rather than straight through. You don’t need to have read any of the six featured books going in. If you love thoughtful literary conversation this is worth your time.

4 stars, with Gilead and the Baldwin conversation being the two that stuck with me most.

[Susan · Rating 5 out of 5]

As an avid reader, I was delighted with this book. The book consists of six episodes where Barack Obama has a conversation with someone about six of his favorite books and ones that had the most influence on him. The conversations are very thoughtful and intellectual which is such a breath of fresh air. It reminded me of just how much I miss him as our president. I have not read any of the six books that they discussed, but believe me, they are now on my "to read" list. The books discussed are Gilead by Marilyn Robinson, The Fire Next Time by James Baldwin, All the King's Men by Robert Penn Warren, Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy by John la Carrè, Song of Soloman by Toni Morrison, and All the Pretty Horses by Cormac McCarthy. I would highly recommend listening to the book as it is a conversation between Barack and six different people (Tom Hanks, Ta-Nehisi Coates, Jill LaPore, Ben Rhodes, Percival Everett, and Lauren Groff. The dialogue is SO good, and I found it fascinating to listen to their perceptions and realizations about the books, society, and themselves.

[Samuil · Rating 4 out of 5]

It was great to hear Obama talk about the books that had an impact on his life. I'm encouraged to read these books and have a new appreciation for a well-spoken politician.

The books were varied and explored at least these themes that I remember:
aging/mortality/fatherhood,
race identity and American ideals vs reality,
politics / corruption,
interactions between the individual and the bureaucratic system,
masculinity in today's age.

I was particularly impressed with Obama's ability to take away the positive aspects of a book written from a Christian perspective. He talks to Tom Hanks about a Christian writer's ability to capture the beauty of life in the way that light is reflected off of droplets from a sprinkler that his son is running through... Absolute chills. I can't wait to start reading the books mentioned.

There's also something to be said about reading a book that has influenced one of the most powerful people in our age. It feels like these books have some sort of timeless substance to them. I'm now craving some books with "profound moral seriousness".

[Lena Dodd · Rating 5 out of 5]

Not so much a book as a podcast type format. President Obama and others discussing books - sign me up!
(I would listen to this on the weekly if they wanted to continue this series.)
Six books/segments/conversations with the overall question: What do the stories we love say about the the world we live in and the world we want to create?
So many wonderful moments to highlight and the overarching themes were race relations/racism, family dynamics, passion, power, struggle...life. I got an intro to classics I haven't read and learned new details about those I had.
One of my favorite segments was Obama and Tom Hanks discussing Marilynne Robinson's book "Gilead" - digging deep into the fathers and sons dynamic. And what it means to live a life of purpose. Good stuff.
The main takeaway: I love having an intelligent, thinking, voracious book reading, kind, thoughtful person discuss books and life and their worldview with other like minded folks.

[Tracy · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am not sure I should even review this Audible offering here because it is really a podcast, but I am including it because I think it is really worth a listen. It's just Barack Obama discussing great books with smart, interesting people.

Tom Hanks on Gilead by Marilynne Robinson
Ta-Nehisi Coates on The Fire Next Time by James Baldwin
Jill Lepore on All the King's Men by Robert Penn Warren
Ben Rhodes on Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy by John le Carré
Percival Everett on Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison
Lauren Groff on All the Pretty Horses by Cormac McCarthy

It's hard to pick a favorite.

The only downside is it left me yearning for the days when we had a decent, upstanding, intelligent man in the Oval Office who actually reads and values both knowledge and other human beings. It's clear that Barack Obama doesn't just read for entertainment, but to better understand both himself and other people. As with any good book club, there was some disagreement, and the example of how he handled that is one I am going to try to be better at following.