Over the Thanksgiving holiday, President Obama, along with daughters Sasha and Malia, stopped by Politics and Prose, an independent bookstore based in the nation's capital. The First Family purchased 17 books in total—ranging from Jacqueline Woodson's brave memoir in verse Brown Girl Dreaming to Katherine Rundell's magical Cartwheeling in Thunderstorms.

So, what did Obama himself pick up? Below, the president's holiday picks:

  • Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad
  • Age of Ambition: Chasing Fortune, Truth and Faith in the New China by Evan Osnos
  • All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr
  • Nora Webster by Colm Toibin
  • The Laughing Monsters by Denis Johnson
  • The Narrow Road to the Deep North by Richard Flanagan
  • Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters in the End by Atul Gawande

[Image via AP]