After the publication of Barack Obama's holiday reading list, the Culture team has been pondering what else the US president might benefit from reading. Especially since, as the Daily Beast reported, Obama already read the Thomas Friedman polemic Hot, Flat and Crowded a year ago on the campaign trail.

We briefly considered The NHS Handbook and Simon Lee's The Conservatives Under David Cameron. But, given the president's taste for thrillers (there are books by the acclaimed crime writers George Pelecanos and Richard Price on his list), we heartily recommend Eric Ambler, whose 1930s spy novels were surveyed by Robert Hanks for the NS in June.

Then, if there's any time left between rounds of golf, sets of tennis and these page-turners, we'd say take a look at our Red Reads feature, "50 books that will change your life", with suggestions from Martin Amis to Naomi Klein.