Did former President Barack Obama just throw a little shade with his summer reading list?
As President Donald Trump’s personal attorney argues that “truth isn’t truth” and that facts are “in the eye of the beholder,” Obama said in a Facebook post Sunday that among the titles he picked up this summer were “Factfulness” by Hans Rosling and “Educated” by Tara Westover.
“One of my favorite parts of summer is deciding what to read when things slow down just a bit, whether it’s on a vacation with family or just a quiet afternoon,” Obama said. “This summer I’ve been absorbed by new novels, revisited an old classic, and reaffirmed my faith in our ability to move forward together when we seek the truth.”
The 44th president described “Factfulness” as “an outstanding international public health expert, is a hopeful book about the potential for human progress when we work off facts rather than our inherent biases.”
He called “Educated” is 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.”
Among the other titles Obama said he was reading this summer were “Warlight” by Michael Ondaatje, about a family in the aftermath of World War II, and “An American Marriage” by Tayari Jones, about the wrongful conviction on a young African-American couple. He also reread “A House for Mr Biswas” after Nobel-Prize-winning author V.S. Naipaul died earlier this month.
Trump has not shared a reading list, but he has recommended several titles on Twitter, including “Liars, Leakers, and Liberals: The Case Against the Anti-Trump Conspiracy” by Jeanine Pirro, “The Russia Hoax: The Illicit Scheme to Clear Hillary Clinton and Frame Donald Trump” by Fox News anchor Gregg Jarrett, “The Briefing: Politics, The Press, and The President” by Sean Spicer, “Spygate: The Attempted Sabotage of Donald J. Trump” by Dan Bongino and D.C. McAllister and “The Case Against Impeaching Trump,” by Alan Dershowitz.
William Cummings, USA TODAY
