Barack Obama’s Favorite Book Of 2017 Was A Female Power Dystopia Written By A Jewish Woman
President Obama, probably thinking about Naomi Alderman Image by Getty Images
Like us here at the Schmooze, Barack Obama enjoys saluting the successes of Jewish women through a good old-fashioned listicle. The former president, who has been enjoying the end of his tenure with jury duty and attending Broadway shows, posted a list of his top 10 favorite books and songs of the year, complete with a few asides (which we believe qualifies it as a listicle.)
We couldn’t help but notice that Obama’s first selection is “The Power,” a book by British Jewish author Naomi Alderman, which imagines a future in which young women develop the ability to deliver electric shocks with their bodies and establishing themselves as the dominant gender. “The Power,” which was also a New York Times pick for the top ten books of the year, imagines a world where women don’t fear men. No more clenching your keys in your fist on the walk to your front door, no more second-guessing whether you “asked for it,” and no more harassment. Just men receiving electric shocks.
This is the new favorite book of America’s most recent president!
(For those concerned, rest assured that the book does not advocate torturing men, seizing the reins of society, and turning it into a violent matriarchy; rather it uses satire to imagine an extreme reversal of current gender relations.)
The rest of the list, released on Facebook just before the New Year, overwhelmingly featured Jewish authors. “Grant,” written by Ron Chernow, who famously penned the biography that inspired the smash Broadway musical “Hamilton,” made the list. (I didn’t read it, but my Dad did and he assured me that we will probably not be getting another hit musical out of the disorganized, hard drinking Grant.) Amy Goldstein’s “Janesville: An American Story,” which covers life in a small town in Wisconsin after a General Motors factory closes, was another of the former president’s favorite reads. And Jew-ish (by his own admission) James McBride, who wrote the short story collection “Five-Carat Soul” captured Obama’s attention this year as well.
All told, 40% of the books on the list were written by Jews. Yay, Jews! (We fared less well in the music section.) Happy New Years and merry reading to one and all.
Jenny Singer is a writer for the Forward. You can reach her at [email protected] or on Twitter @jeanvaljenny
A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you move on, I wanted to ask you to support the Forward’s award-winning journalism during our High Holiday Monthly Donor Drive.
If you’ve turned to the Forward in the past 12 months to better understand the world around you, we hope you will support us with a gift now. Your support has a direct impact, giving us the resources we need to report from Israel and around the U.S., across college campuses, and wherever there is news of importance to American Jews.
Make a monthly or one-time gift and support Jewish journalism throughout 5785. The first six months of your monthly gift will be matched for twice the investment in independent Jewish journalism.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
