My 2021 Summer Reading & Music Lists

Whether you’re camped out on the beach or curled up on the couch on a rainy day, there’s nothing quite like sitting down with a great book in the summer. While we were still in the White House, I began sharing my summer favorites — and over the years, it’s become a little tradition that I look forward to sharing with you all. So without further ado, here are some books I’ve read recently. Hope you enjoy them as much as I did.

• At Night All Blood Is Black — David Diop
• Land of Big Numbers — Te-Ping Chen
• Empire of Pain — Patrick Radden Keefe
• Project Hail Mary — Andy Weir
• When We Cease to Understand the World — Benjamín Labatut
• Under a White Sky: The Nature of the Future — Elizabeth Kolbert
• Things We Lost to the Water — Eric Nguyen
• Leave The World Behind — Rumaan Alam
• Klara and the Sun — Kazuo Ishiguro
• The Sweetness of Water — Nathan Harris
• Intimacies — Katie Kitamura

With so many folks getting together with family and friends, there’s a lot to celebrate this summer. I put together a playlist of some of the songs I’ve been listening to lately — it’s a mix of old and new, household names and emerging artists, and a whole lot in between.

• Pick Up Your Feelings — Jazmine Sullivan
• Switch It Up — Protoje ft. Koffee
• Holding Back the Years — Simply Red
• My Sweet Lord — George Harrison
• Straightenin — Migos
• Desperado — Rihanna
• Leave the Door Open — Bruno Mars, Anderson .Paak, Silk Sonic
• Interlude — Sarah Vaughan
• Ella No Es Tuya (Remix) — Rochy RD, Myke Towers, Nicki Nicole
• Tumbling Dice — The Rolling Stones
• Astronaut In The Ocean — Masked Wolf
• Frozen — Sabrina Claudio
• If You Really Love Me — Stevie Wonder
• Walkin’ — Miles Davis
• Exodus — Bob Marley & The Wailers
• Does Anybody Really Know What Time It Is? — Chicago
• Coyote — Joni Mitchell
• Mohabbat — Arooj Aftab
• Didn’t Cha Know — Erykah Badu
• Allure — Jay-Z
• Conséquence — Kékélé
• Everybody Loves the Sunshine — Roy Ayers Ubiquity
• So Hard — Nezi
• I’ll Be Your Baby Tonight — Bob Dylan
• Neighbors — J. Cole
• Good Days — Sza
• Text You Back — brother sundance ft. Bryce Vine
• You Ain’t The Problem (Claptone Remix) — Michael Kiwanuka
• Everything (…Is Never Quite Enough) — Wasis Diop
• The Tears of a Clown — Smokey Robinson & The Miracles
• Wants and Needs — Drake ft. Lil Baby
• Águas De Março — Elis Regina and Antônio Carlos Jobim
• Its Way With Me — Wye Oak
• I’ll Take You There — The Staples Singers
• Find A Way — H.E.R. ft. Lil Baby
• A Kiss To Build A Dream On — Louis Armstrong
• Speak Your Mind (From the Netflix Series “We The People”) — Brandi Carlile
• Lush Life — Ella Fitzgerald