Barack Obama's 2018 year-end lists
As 2018 draws to a close, I’m continuing a favorite 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 also gives me a chance to highlight talented authors, artists, and storytellers – some who are household names and others who you may not have heard of before. Here’s my best of 2018 list - I hope you enjoy reading, watching, and listening.
Here’s a reminder of the books that I read this year that appeared on earlier lists:
- Becoming by Michelle Obama (obviously my favorite!)
- 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
Here are my other favorite books of 2018:
- 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
My favorite movies 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
And finally, my favorite 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
Screenshot of Obama's original facebook post
