From a story on esquire.com by Sophie Vershbow headlined “Behind the Scenes of Barack Obama’s Reading Lists”:

President Barack Obama released his first official list of book recommendations in summer 2009, a few months after taking office. He continued to share summer reading recommendations throughout his presidency, with the exception of 2012 and 2013, when one can imagine he was swept up in his day job. In 2017, after leaving office and undoubtedly regaining some free time for leisure reading, the former president also began releasing a best-books-of-the-year list, alongside similar roundups for movies, television, and music.