On Friday, August 19th, 2011, while vacationing in Martha's Vineyard President Obama and his daughters made an impromptu stop at the island bookstore. Of the books purchased by the president were two new books: The Bayou Trilogy by Daniel Woodrell and:

Rodin's debutante: a novel by Ward Just

The President also brought along three other books with him:

Cutting for stone : a novel by Abraham Verghese

To the end of the land by David Grossman ; translated from the Hebrew by Jessica Cohen

The warmth of other suns : the epic story of America's great migration by Isabel Wilkerson