• HOME
  • Agave Magazine
  • Prickly Pear Kids
  • Editorial Staff
  • Books
    • 2018 Series
  • Submit
  • Shop
  • Services
    • Book Design Pricing
  • Archives
  • Stockists
  • Blog
  • Author Spotlight
AGAVE PRESS
  • HOME
  • Agave Magazine
  • Prickly Pear Kids
  • Editorial Staff
  • Books
    • 2018 Series
  • Submit
  • Shop
  • Services
    • Book Design Pricing
  • Archives
  • Stockists
  • Blog
  • Author Spotlight
AGAVE PRESS

On the Blog

Summer Reads: Powerful People Edition

15/7/2018
By Deb A.

It's summer—time to curl your toes in the sand or unfurl the picnic blanket and while away an afternoon with a good book and some sunshine. This year, we've compiled some hot tips from a former U.S. President, a business leader and philanthropist, and the Queen of All Media for you to find in your local independent bookshop.
Chinua Achebe, Things Fall Apart
Recommended by Barack Obama as "a true classic of world literature."
Americanah, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Adichie is "one of the world's great contemporary writers, according to the former U.S. President.
Kate Bowler, Everything Happens for a Reason and Other Lies I've Loved
Bill Gates called this memoir "a heartbreaking, surprisingly funny memoir about faith and coming to grips with your own mortality."
David Christian, Origin Story: A Big History of Everything
Who wouldn't want to be left with "a greater appreciation of humanity’s place in the universe"? Thanks for the tip, Mr. Gates.
Anthony Ray Hinton, The Sun Does Shine: How I Found Life and Freedom on Death Row
Oprah Winfrey selected the memoir of a man who spent 30 years on death row for a crime he did not commit for her summer book club, saying, "over the years I've chosen many great novels—very few memoirs for my book club—but this story reads like an epic novel and it is all true."
Walter Isaacson, Leonardo da Vinci
Bill Gates loves Leonardo da Vinci. And he loves this book: "Isaacson does the best job I’ve seen of pulling together the different strands of Leonardo’s life and explaining what made him so exceptional."
Nelson Mandela, Long Walk to Freedom
When Barack Obama says a book is "essential reading for anyone who wants to understand history – and then go out and change it," it's probably not a bad idea to check it out from your local library.
Hisham Matar, The Return: Fathers, Sons, and the Land in Between
Obama was not the only one who thought Hisham Matar's memoir was "beautifully written"—it won the Pulitzer Prize last year.
Ben Rhodes, The World as It Is
This is the only one of Obama's suggestions that is not a celebration of African culture. But he says this this memoir by his former speechwriter and aide is "one of the smartest reflections I’ve seen as to how we approached foreign policy, and one of the most compelling stories I’ve seen about what it’s actually like to serve the American people for eight years in the White House."
Hans Rosling, Factfulness: Ten Reasons We're Wrong About the World--and Why Things Are Better Than You Think
Gates says this is one of the best books he's ever read—"it gives you a breakthrough way of understanding basic truths about the world."
George Saunders, Lincoln in the Bardo
If you weren't excited when this book won the Golden Booker, your interest might be piqued by this part of Bill Gates's description of it: "it’s basically a long conversation among 166 ghosts."
Ngugi wa Thiong'o, A Grain of Wheat
Obama wrote that this examination of the series of events that led to Kenya's independence in 1963 is "a compelling story of how the transformative events of history weigh on individual lives and relationships."
0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    Agave Press

    Literary, art and photography publications, and publisher of fine books. For current book titles, or for more information on our services, visit us online:

    www.agavepress.com





    Listed at Duotrope

    Archives

    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013

    Categories​

    All
    Activism
    Agave Magazine
    Agave Press
    Art
    Awards
    Berlin
    Canada
    Dance
    Five Questions
    Global
    ICYMI
    Inaugural Issue
    Ireland
    Kids
    Literature
    London
    Music
    Nyc
    Philosophy
    Photography
    Poetry
    Prickly Pear
    Storytelling
    Subscriptions
    Summer Reads
    Sustainability

    RSS Feed

Copyright © Agave Magazine + Press, 2019
ISSN 2329-5848
ISSN 2375-978X
ISSN 2574-3392
​