Barack Obama’s 2018 Cultural Highlights Are Worth Checking Out

This year’s list does not disappoint. Referencing authors from Zadie Smith to Lauren Groff – and of course his wife’s much-celebrated autobiography Becoming – as well as offbeat films and blockbusters changing the game in Hollywood. Obama’s favourite songs of 2018 round-up shows his tastes range from Kurt Vile and Leon Bridges, hip hop to folk.

Obama wrote on Facebook, “As 2018 draws to a close, I’m continuing a favourite tradition of mine and sharing my year-end lists.  It gives me a moment to pause and reflect on the year through the books, movies, and music that I found most thought-provoking, inspiring, or just plain loved.”

It must be said, Mr Obama is even more well-read, culturally awake and has more impeccable taste than we already thought he had. Read on for the full list.

Favourite books of 2018
Becoming by Michelle Obama (obviously my favourite!)
An American Marriage by Tayari Jones
Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
The Broken Ladder: How Inequality Affects the Way We Think, Live, and Die by Keith Payne
Educated by Tara Westover
Factfulness by Hans Rosling
Futureface: A Family Mystery, an Epic Quest, and the Secret to Belonging by Alex Wagner
A Grain of Wheat by Ngugi wa Thiong’o
A House for Mr Biswas by V.S. Naipaul
How Democracies Die by Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt
In the Shadow of Statues: A White Southerner Confronts History by Mitch Landrieu
Long Walk to Freedom by Nelson Mandela
The New Geography of Jobs by Enrico Moretti
The Return by Hisham Matar
Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe
Warlight by Michael Ondaatje
Why Liberalism Failed by Patrick Deneen
The World As It Is by Ben Rhodes

American Prison by Shane Bauer 
Arthur Ashe: A Life by Raymond Arsenault
Asymmetry by Lisa Halliday 
Feel Free by Zadie Smith 
Florida by Lauren Groff 
Frederick Douglass: Prophet of Freedom by David W. Blight
Immigrant, Montana by Amitava Kumar
The Largesse of the Sea Maiden by Denis Johnson
Life 3.0: Being Human in the Age of Artificial Intelligence by Max Tegmark 
There There by Tommy Orange 
Washington Black by Esi Edugyan

Favourite films of 2018:
Annihilation
Black Panther
BlacKkKlansman
Blindspotting
Burning
The Death of Stalin
Eighth Grade
If Beale Street Could Talk
Leave No Trace
Minding the Gap
The Rider
Roma
Shoplifters
Support the Girls
Won’t You Be My Neighbor
 
Favourite songs of 2018
Apes••t by The Carters
Bad Bad News by Leon Bridges
Could’ve Been by H.E.R. (feat. Bryson Tiller)
Disco Yes by Tom Misch (feat. Poppy Ajudha)
Ekombe by Jupiter & Okwess 
Every Time I Hear That Song by Brandi Carlile 
Girl Goin’ Nowhere by Ashley McBryde 
Historia De Un Amor by Tonina (feat. Javier Limón and Tali Rubinstein)
I Like It by Cardi B (feat. Bad Bunny and J Balvin) 
Kevin’s Heart by J. Cole
King For A Day by Anderson East
Love Lies by Khalid & Normani 
Make Me Feel by Janelle Monáe 
Mary Don’t You Weep (Piano & A Microphone 1983 Version) by Prince
My Own Thing by Chance the Rapper (feat. Joey Purp) 
Need a Little Time by Courtney Barnett 
Nina Cried Power by Hozier (feat. Mavis Staples)
Nterini by Fatoumata Diawara 
One Trick Ponies by Kurt Vile
Turnin’ Me Up by BJ the Chicago Kid 
Wait by the River by Lord Huron 
Wow Freestyle by Jay Rock (feat. Kendrick Lamar)
And in honor of one of the great jazz singers of all time, who died this year, a classic album: The Great American Songbook by Nancy Wilson