Comedian and host of The Daily Show Trevor Noah views the world from a unique vantage point; his analysis of American news and culture benefits from his own experience, growing up in South Africa as the biracial son of a South African mother and European father. “I couldn’t play in the streets because my grandmother and mother could get arrested. I couldn’t be known. I became used to being an outsider, which isn’t the worst thing in the world. It doesn’t mean you can’t enjoy what is on the inside, but it means you always maintain a mind-set that keeps you within your own space,” he said to The New York Times in 2016. He was named one of the 100 Most Influential People in the World by Time magazine in 2018, the same year he voiced the character of Griot in Black Panther.

Below are Trevor Noah’s favorite books, available to purchase as a set or individually.