Flavorwire

It might not matter what the President is reading, but since we’re firm proponents of the idea that books shape your mind, your way of seeing the world, your decisions, even, we think that then again, it just might. Jacket Copy reports that President Obama, who is currently vacationing in Martha’s Vineyard, visited an independent bookstore called Bunch of Grapes on Friday, picking up Rodin’s Debutante, by Ward Just, and The Bayou Trilogy, a set of three novellas by Daniel Woodrell, who also penned Winter’s Bone. Those books will ostensibly be added to the other books he brought along on his summer vacation: Abraham Verghese’s bestseller Cutting for Stone, David Grossman’s To the End of the Land, and Isabel Wilkerson’s The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America’s Great Migration. Though none of these choices are particularly controversial (although the Woodrell is decidedly hip), Obama has been known to dip into many different genres — take a peek at this infographic of the books he’s read since he took office – and from we’re standing, it looks like he has pretty good taste: David Mitchell, Jonathan Franzen, and Richard Price are among our favorites, too, so maybe we’ll follow suit and pick up a few of Obama’s choices for our own summer reading. Is it wrong that the fact that our President reads good books makes us breathe just a little easier? We don’t think so.