Caroline Kennedy's Reading List

"The most shocking book I read last year was “Slavery by Another Name: The Re-Enslavement of Black Americans From the Civil War to World War II,” by Douglas Blackmon. The detailed chronicle of the institutional scale of horrific oppression and criminal behavior by local government and corporate interests was truly jaw-dropping."

"The best fiction book I read was “The Yellow Birds,” by the Iraq war veteran Kevin Powers, which is about to get the PEN/Hemingway Award."

"Two books that made me cry real tears were “Jude the Obscure,” by Thomas Hardy, and “A Death in the Family,” by James Agee."

"Two books that made me cry real tears were “Jude the Obscure,” by Thomas Hardy, and “A Death in the Family,” by James Agee."

"Two books that made me laugh out loud were “A Confederacy of Dunces,” by John Kennedy Toole, and “Lucky Jim,” by Kingsley Amis."

"Two books that made me laugh out loud were “A Confederacy of Dunces,” by John Kennedy Toole, and “Lucky Jim,” by Kingsley Amis."

"“Gender Outlaw,” by Kate Bornstein. It’s a fascinating and illuminating memoir by a transgender playwright."

"I do read historically oriented books about religion and faith like Edith Hamilton’s “Witness to the Truth,” which I found in our apartment and had belonged to my mother."

"Garry Wills’s “What the Gospels Meant,” which I bought in an airport."

"I really enjoyed “God’s Secretaries: The Making of the King James Bible,” by Adam Nicolson."

"“The Cistercian World: Monastic Writings of the Twelfth Century,” which my daughter brought home from college."

"two interesting ones are “Arc of Justice: A Saga of Race, Civil Rights, and Murder in the Jazz Age,” by Kevin Boyle, the story of the highly publicized trial of a black doctor who tried to move into a white neighborhood and was defended by Clarence Darrow."

"“The Tyrannicide Brief: The Story of the Man Who Sent Charles I to the Scaffold,” by Geoffrey Robertson. That was the first trial of a head of state for waging war against his own people."

"Maybe something like “Middlemarch,” just to take his mind off things and remind him that “the growing good of the world is partly dependent on unhistoric acts.”"

"My favorite childhood books were about horses and adventurous tomboys, like “Caddie Woodlawn,” by Carol Ryrie Brink. She was badder than the characters in Laura Ingalls Wilder’s books, and I liked her much better."

"My all-time favorite character is probably the Country Bunny, from “The Country Bunny and the Little Gold Shoes,” by Du Bose Heyward."