Here Are My Favorite Books, Movies, and Music of 2022

Barack Obama
3 min readDec 23, 2022

I always look forward to sharing my lists of favorite books, movies, and music with all of you.

First up, here are some of the books I read and enjoyed this year. Let me know which books I should check out in 2023.

Favorite Books of 2022:

  • The Light We Carry — Michelle Obama (I’m a bit biased on this one)
  • Sea of Tranquility — Emily St. John Mandel
  • Trust — Hernan Diaz
  • The Revolutionary: Samuel Adams — Stacy Schiff
  • The Furrows: A Novel –Namwali Serpell
  • South to America: A Journey Below the Mason-Dixon to Understand the Soul of a Nation — Imani Perry
  • The School for Good Mothers — Jessamine Chan
  • Black Cake — Charmaine Wilkerson
  • Ducks: Two Years in the Oil Sands -Kate Beaton
  • An Immense World: How Animal Senses Reveal the Hidden Realms Around Us — Ed Yong
  • Liberation Day — George Saunders
  • The Candy House — Jennifer Egan
  • Afterlives — Abdulrazak Gurnah

Favorite Movies of 2022:

I saw some great movies this year — here are some of my favorites.

  • The Fabelmans
  • Decision to Leave
  • The Woman King
  • Aftersun
  • Emily the Criminal
  • Petite Maman
  • Descendant (I’m biased — Higher Ground produced)
  • Happening
  • Till
  • Everything Everywhere All at Once
  • Top Gun: Maverick
  • The Good Boss
  • Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy
  • A Hero
  • Hit the Road
  • Tár
  • After Yang

Favorite Music of 2022:

I always enjoy sharing my end of year music playlist with all of you — and this year we heard a lot of great songs. Here are some of my favorites.

  • The Heart Part 5 — Kendrick Lamar
  • Tití Me Preguntó — Bad Bunny
  • POF — Ari Lennox
  • Something in the Orange — Zach Bryan
  • Last Last — Burna Boy
  • American Teenager — Ethel Cain
  • Communion In My Cup — Tank and The Bangas ft. The Ton3s
  • Pull Up — Koffee
  • Saoko — Rosalía
  • Rush — Ayra Starr
  • Break My Soul — Beyoncé
  • Life Is Good — SiR ft. Scribz Riley
  • That’s Where I Am — Maggie Rogers
  • Dodinin — Leyla McCalla
  • Sunshine — Steve Lacy ft. Fousheé
  • Calm Down — Rema
  • Problem With It — Plains
  • Feelings 4 You — Xavier Omär
  • Tamagotchi — Omar Apollo
  • Home Maker — Sudan Archives
  • Where I Go — NxWorries (Anderson .Paak & Knxwledge) ft. H.E.R.
  • Shirt — SZA
  • About Damn Time — Lizzo
  • ‘Round Midnight — Adam Blackstone & Jazmine Sullivan

Let me know if you have any recommendations, and I’ll check them out.

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Barack Obama
Barack Obama

Written by Barack Obama

Dad, husband, President, citizen.

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