From USA TODAY‘s The Oval:
The five — count ’em, five — books that the president toted along on his vacation amount to a whopping 2,352 pages of reading. Obama packed two novels, two non-fiction tomes and one thriller, all of them hits with the reviewers. In case you’d like to read along with the commander-in-chief, here’s the list:
The Way Home, a crime thriller set in Washington, D.C., by George Pelecanos. USA TODAY reviewer Carol Memmott called it “well-written and touching.”
Lush Life, a novel set in New York City, by Richard Price. Memmott said it “shows all the shades of grey in our urban landscapes.”
Hot, Flat and Crowded, an examination of today’s green revolution, by New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman that made the USA TODAY best-seller list.
John Adams, David McCullough’s 2002 Pulitzer Prize-winning biography of the second president.
Plainsong, a best-selling novel by Kent Haruf. Reviewing the television show that the novel inspired, USA TODAY’s Robert Bianco described it as a story in which families are tested by difficult circumstances but prevail out of “sheer decency.”
I gotta say, someday I would love to find out that a President had read my book! Must be a pretty cool feeling.
And I’m biased, of course, but I worry a lot about people in power who never read; who don’t see the use in story. How do they learn about other experiences, other perspectives, other possible lives? And if they don’t learn that, how can they lead well?
Two novels and a thriller. Harrumph. A thriller isn’t a novel? Tsk tsk at USA Today.
Yes, that would have to be a cool feeling knowing a president had read your book. But you never know – maybe he has.
I’ve had the Hot, Flat, and Crowded on my list for a long time. Maybe nows the time…
I wonder if he has a Kindle.
I’m guessing he wouldn’t want a Kindle, I think he wants us to see what he’s reading.
If you want the Hot, Flat and Crowded “cliff notes” you can watch Friedman discuss it at http://fora.tv/2008/09/23/Tom_Friedman_Hot_Flat_and_Crowded. Will either inspire you to read the book or figure that you got the gist of it.
Thanks for the link John. I’ll check it out.
I was thinking same thing re his reading list. I have to think of anything that comes out of that system as part of some marketing thing. And I also thought why hasn’t he already read that book and the Adams biography? I figure he had final approval, but someone else made up that list.
You could still have a list with a Kindle, but saying so would be like a giant ad for the Evil Empire.
After seeing this list, I was able to mention to a hiker at the lookout yesterday that the book she mentioned she was reading, John Adams, was on the President’s nightstand. She was tickled to know that.
It occurs to me the President might be savoring his time with books more than ever. Recently I watched Air Force One descending between Humphrey’s Peak and Kendrick Mountain on its way to our local national park. For days I heard stories about the hoopla of security efforts and it made me think how lonely to always be shepherded and watched and examined. Perhaps that moment of opening a book is the only place the man gets to be simple: just a reader meeting a writer. How anonymous and intimate and private.
I published some thoughts on “bookness” and Kindle this week, a short “Letter from Home” column called, “Not Available Online” at
http://www.flaglive.com/flagstafflive_story.cfm?storyID=202161.
That’s beautiful Jean, thanks for sharing the link. Your books sound like true treasures.