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Running the country is a monumental task. It calls for a strong grasp of a wide range of topics: economics, foreign affairs, history, science.

What books would help candidates prepare for the office? And what role can fiction play in educating candidates? 

MPR News' Kerri Miller asked two prolific readers with extensive knowledge of both politics and books to share their lists: Tim Walch and Lissa Muscatine.

Tim Walch's list: The historian's perspective

Lissa Muscatine's list: The speechwriter's (and bookseller's) perspective

Listeners' choice: Recommendations from the public

Both Walch and Muscatine agreed that books on science should be high on all candidates' reading lists.

"We need to talk about climate change, we need to talk about science, we need to talk about science more seriously," said Walch.

And there's nothing like learning from the greats: Both put David Donald's biography "Lincoln" on their recommendation lists. They're not alone: When Bill Clinton was asked to recommend one book for his successor, George W. Bush, he named Donald's "Lincoln."

Walch is a historian and the retired director of the Herbert Hoover Presidential Library in West Branch, Ia. His list comes in two parts: First, the history.

Walch recommends that candidates brush up on their knowledge of the men who came before them. Eleven presidential biographies should do the trick:

"American Sphinx: The Character of Thomas Jefferson" by Joseph Ellis

"American Lion: Andrew Jackson in the White House" by Jon Meacham

"The Bully Pulpit: Theodore Roosevelt, William Howard Taft and the Golden Age of Journalism" By Doris Kearns Goodwin

"Woodrow Wilson: A Biography" by John Milton Cooper

"Franklin Roosevelt: A Rendezvous with Destiny" by Frank Freidel

"Eisenhower in War and Peace" by Jean Edward Smith

"Flawed Giant: Lyndon Johnson and His Times, 1961-1973" by Robert Dallek

With history covered, Walch branched out to classic novels and modern books on innovation, curating what he called "an eclectic collection of stories about courage, vision and values."

"Present at the Creation: My Years in the State Department" by Dean Acheson

"The Best and the Brightest" by David Halberstam

"The Innovators: How a Group of Hackers, Geniuses, and Geeks Created the Digital Revolution" by Walter Isaacson

"Profiles in Courage for Our Times" by Caroline Kennedy

"Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community" by Robert Putnam

"All Quiet on the Western Front" by Erich Remarque

"For Whom the Bell Tolls" by Ernest Hemingway

The bookseller — and speechwriter's — perspective

Muscatine is the co-owner of Politics & Prose, the much-revered independent bookstore in the heart of Washington, D.C. 

For many years, she also served as Hillary Rodham Clinton's chief speechwriter.

"Between the World and Me" by Ta-Nehisi Coates

"Preparation for the Next Life" by Atticus Lish

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What books should be mandatory reading for future presidents? A historian and a speechwriter offer up must-readers fiction, fiction and poetry. Add your own suggestions to the list.

Historian Tim Walch and former speechwriter Lissa Muscatine discuss what books should be required reading for any future leaders of America.

What books should all presidential candidates read?

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