Barack Obama Has New Zealand Favourites

Among former president Barack Obama’s recommended summer reads for beach, porch or sun lounger is New Zealand author Eleanor Catton’s Birnam Wood, Martin Pengelly reports for The Guardian.

“Here’s some books that I’m reading this summer,” Obama said in a tweet. “Check them out and let me know what I should be reading next.”

Also included on the list were: King: A Life, Jonathan Eig’s new biography of Martin Luther King Jr and The Wager, David Grann’s nonfiction epic of an 18th-century shipwreck.

Obama likes New Zealand music too it would seem, with The Beths’ song, Watching the Credits, included on his annual summer playlist, alongside The Bangles’ Walk Like an Egyptian, and Who Told You by J Hus ft Drake.

Original article by Martin Pengelly, The Guardian, July 20, 2023.