Pete Buttigieg's Reading List
Former US Transportation Secretary, former mayor of South Bend; polyglot and avid reader.
Open in WellRead Daily app →Pete Buttigieg's 10 Favorite Books (2020)
Curated for One Grand Books with quotes from Buttigieg about each pick.
Source: onegrandbooks.com
James Joyce · 1922 · Buy on Amazon
"A story about what it is to be human as one middle-class guy goes about one day."
Dylan Thomas · 1952 · Buy on Amazon
"Achieves the remarkable feat of making me nostalgic about someone else's childhood."
Antoine de Saint-Exupéry · 1943 · Buy on Amazon
"Touching, it's about innocence and exploration, it's sad but also uplifting."
Graham Greene · 1955 · Buy on Amazon
"Points out the dangers of well-intentioned interventions."
Stephen Kotkin · 2001 · Buy on Amazon
"Ahead of its time in pointing out how the seeds of oligarchy were sown."
Orhan Pamuk · 1998 · Buy on Amazon
"A gripping novel about art and religion, the encounter of East and West."
Naguib Mahfouz · 1956 · Buy on Amazon
"Views politics not through the excitements of politicians but what it means for our lived experience."
Erlend Loe · 1996 · Buy on Amazon
"The book that every searching twenty-something needs."
Hilary Mantel · 2009 · Buy on Amazon
"Explores what it means to live by a code when you are at political and personal risk."
Favorite books (2021)
Favorite books recommended by Pete Buttigieg, as compiled by radicalreads.com. Source article: https://radicalreads.com/pete-buttigieg-favorite-books/.
Source: radicalreads.com
James Joyce (also rec’d by Gabriel García Márquez & Jim Morrison ) · Buy on Amazon
"The greatest work of modern English literature. It’s known for being complex and difficult, but in a way it’s very democratic: a story about what it is to be human as one middle-class guy goes about one day of his life in Dublin."
Dylan Thomas · Buy on Amazon
"It’s a short book, or a long poem, by Dylan Thomas, which achieves the remarkable feat of making me nostalgic about someone else’s childhood. Some of the best writing ever about snow."
Antoine de Saint-Exupéry (also rec’d by Trevor Noah ) · Buy on Amazon
"It’s touching, it’s about innocence and exploration, it’s sad but also uplifting."
Homer (also rec’d by Bob Dylan, Jay-Z & Nick Cave ) · Buy on Amazon
"Homer’s epic isn’t just a foundational text in Western literature, it also makes me feel connected to my Mediterranean (Maltese) roots. The Maltese island of Gozo, where my people probably originated, claims to be the locale of Calypso’s cave."
Graham Greene (also rec’d by Anthony Bourdain & Richard Branson ) · Buy on Amazon
"I wrote my thesis on this prophetic Graham Greene novel about the dangers of American involvement in Vietnam, set in the 1950s before most people knew we were operating in Vietnam at all. In a very jaded, British way, Greene points out the dangers of well-intentioned interventions."
Stephen Kotkin · 2001 · Buy on Amazon
"I’ve recently returned to this very readable history of the collapse of the Soviet Union. Published soon after 2000, it now seems ahead of its time in pointing out how the seeds of oligarchy were sown through the unmanageable end of Communism and the arrival of capitalism without democracy."
Orhan Pamuk · 1998 · Buy on Amazon
"A murder mystery set in 16th-century Istanbul, this gripping novel is about art and religion, the encounter of East and West, and above all the question of how we deal with modernity."
Naguib Mahfouz (also rec’d by Jackie O ) · Buy on Amazon
"Part of the Cairo trilogy by Mahfouz, this novel is like Ulysses in its focus (everyday life) but instead of a day covers a family moving through generations. It, too, views politics not through the excitements of politicians but what it means for our lived experience."
Erlend Loe · 1996 · Buy on Amazon
"This is the book that every searching twenty-something needs. The sense of humor is spot on, and the book turned me on to Norwegian literature as a whole, though unfortunately not much of Erlend Loe’s work has been translated."
Hilary Mantel · 2009 · Buy on Amazon
"A brilliant take on politics through historical fiction about Thomas Cromwell in the time of Henry VIII. And it explores what it means to live by a code when you are at political and personal risk."