Former President Barack Obama released his annual summer reading list, recommending books by a host of authors including Emily St. John Mandel, Hanif Abdurraqib, and Silvia Moreno-Garcia.

Obama revealed his picks on Twitter, writing, “I’ve read a couple of great books this year and wanted to share some of my favorites so far. What have you been reading this summer?”

Mandel made Obama’s list for her novel Sea of Tranquility; he previously called the Canadian author’s The Glass Hotel one of his favorite books of 2020. He also recommended Moreno-Garcia’s Velvet Was the Night; a critic for Kirkus praised the novel as “a noir masterpiece.”

Other works of fiction to make Obama’s list were Jennifer Egan’s The Candy House, Hanya Yanagihara’s To Paradise, John le Carré’s Silverview, Charmaine Wilkerson’s Black Cake, Lan Samantha Chang’s The Family Chao, Antoine Wilson’s Mouth to Mouth, Jessamine Chan’s The School for Good Mothers, and S.A. Cosby’s Razorblade Tears.

Abdurraqib’s A Little Devil in America, a finalist for the National Book Award and National Book Critics Circle Award, was one of four nonfiction books Obama recommended, along with Ezra Klein’s Why We’re Polarized, Yascha Mounk’s The Great Experiment, and—”for hoops fans”—Chris Herring’s Blood in the Garden. 

Some of the authors on Obama’s list reacted to their inclusion on Twitter.

“Delirious with joy,” tweeted Chan. “Thank you @BarackObama for this most wonderful surprise.”

And Cosby wrote, “I can’t speak...there are no words .. I’m crying right now, not Razorblade Tears but Tears of joy. All Things Are Possible!!!”

Michael Schaub, a journalist and regular contributor to NPR, lives near Austin, Texas.