Recently in Political reading Category

From the Associated Press:

NEW YORK -- Karl Rove's memoir has a title, "Courage and Consequence," and a release date -- March 9, 2010.

From the Associated Press:

STOCKHOLM -- Romanian-born German writer Herta Mueller won the 2009 Nobel Prize in literature Thursday, honored for work that "with the concentration of poetry and the frankness of prose, depicts the landscape of the dispossessed."

The 56-year-old author, who emigrated to Germany from then-communist Romania in 1987, made her debut in 1982 with a collection of short stories titled "Niederungen," which was promptly censored by the Romanian government. In 1984 an uncensored version was published in Germany and her work depicting life in a small, German-speaking village in Romania was devoured by readers.

That work was followed by "Oppresive Tango" in Romania.

Because of her vocal criticism of Romania's government, and its feared secret police, she and her husband left the country.

The prize includes a 10 million kronor ($1.4 million) prize and will be handed out Dec. 10 in the Swedish capital.

Why would a young American woman want to live in Tehran? Azadeh Moaveni has many reasons.

In "Honeymoon in Tehran" she explains them -- she works as a Middle East correspondent for Time Magazine; she has roots in Iran, her parents having emigrated from there to the United States before she was born. Her extended family of aunts and cousins in Iran help with housing and lend moral support. And, most important, she meets an Iranian man she wants to marry.

But it is 2005, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has just been elected and as the government cracks down, life gets uncomfortable for many Iranians and for Moaveni.

From the Associated Press:

NEW YORK -- Sen. Edward Kennedy did not live to see his dream of universal health care passed, but he did complete a cherished and more personal project: his memoir.

"True Compass," the greatly awaited summation of his life and career, comes out Sept. 14 with an announced first printing of 1.5 million copies. Kennedy, diagnosed with a brain tumor in May 2008, just months after his book deal was announced, died Tuesday night at age 77.

From the Associated Press:

NEW YORK -- Former Vice President Dick Cheney has a book deal with a conservative imprint at Simon & Schuster.

The memoir by Cheney, widely considered the most powerful vice president in history, is expected to be published in Spring 2011, a few months after President George W. Bush's book comes out. Cheney's work is currently untitled and will cover his long career in government, from chief of staff under President Ford to vice president under Bush.

Known for his secrecy while in the Bush administration, Cheney has made clear for months that he was planning a book. He is working on it from his home outside of Washington, D.C., with the assistance of his daughter, Liz Cheney.

A review from reader Nancy Duncan:

Alice Lindgren is from a small town in Wisconsin where she lives with her parents and grandmother in the 1950s. She has no illusions of grandeur, she believes her life will follow the path of her parents, but a series of events in her teenage years leads her in an unexpected direction.

Loosely based on a biography of Laura Bush, the author attempts to understand why a quiet, bookish librarian would marry such a man as George Bush, or as he is called in the book, Charlie Blackwell.

The book is divided up by the houses Alice lived in. First her parents' house in Riley, Wisconsin; the apartment she lived in as a single, working woman; the governor's mansion in Wisconsin and finally the White House.

The last part of the book is the most introspective. At this point Alice is looking back and wondering what if, what if those events as a teenager hadn't happened, would her life have been so different? What lead her to this point, where she is struggling with the decisions her husband has made as president -- and is she complicit with them in her silence?

Until Laura Bush writes her own biography and gives us insight into the why and how of her decisions, we can read "American Wife" and think we know the answers.

Long-time York County lawyer Jeffrey C. Bortner has penned a lively look at York County's legal community.

And it provides useful information for serious inquirers about the local bar in the past 50 years.

For details about his work, available via York County libraries, click here.

A new book by Patrick Radden Keefe, "The Snakehead: An Epic Tale of the Chinatown Underworld and the American Dream," highlights York in the campaign to secure human rights for hundreds of Chinese dissidents seeking political asylum.
Keefe is the first to write a book on the politics, international intrigue and human drama of the refugees of the Golden Venture.
Keefe will speak and sign books from 2 to 4 p.m. Aug. 2 at the York Historical Society Museum, 250 E. Market St., York. Several of the Golden Venture immigrants, political insiders, and members of The People of the Golden Vision will also speak.

Best-sellers at Borders Books & Music in Springettsbury Township for the week that ended May 24.

1. "The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society" by Mary Ann Shaffer.
2. "The Girls from Ames" by Jeffrey Zaslow.
3. "Gone Tomorrow" by Lee Child.
4. "Horse Soldiers" by Doug Stanton.
5. "Resilience" by Elizabeth Edwards.

David Kushner's "Levittown."

David Kushner tells the story of York, Pa.'s Bill and Daisy Myers and the discrimination they faced after moving into a new house in Bucks County's Levittown in 1957.

Kushner's 2009 work draws from - and expands upon by bringing in many other sources -Daisy Myers' 2005 memoir "Sticks 'n Stones."

For more, click on the post: New book 'Levittown' tells about the Myers family's quest to live the American dream - in York, Pa., too.

From the Associated Press:

Sarah Palin has picked a collaborator for her memoir.

A spokeswoman for SarahPAC, the Alaska governor's political action committee, says that Palin has selected Lynn Vincent, an author and features editor for World magazine, a conservative Christian publication. Palin's book, currently untitled, is scheduled for release next year by HarperCollins.

Vincent, a San Diego resident, has written or co-written several books, among them "Same Kind of Different As Me," "The Blood of Lambs" and "Donkey Cons: Sex, Crime and Corruption in the Democratic Party."

From the Associated Press:

You knew it was coming: Sarah Palin is ready to tell her side, agreeing to publish a memoir with HarperCollins. The book comes out in spring 2010 -- the year she is up for re-election.

Joan McInnis, librarian for the Daily Record/Sunday News, reviews "Cherie Blair: Speaking for Myself":

From a girlhood in working class Liverpool to wife of Prime Minister Tony Blair at No. 10 Downing Street, Cherie Booth Blair tells her remarkable story.

Just in from the Associated Press:

President Barack Obama, a best-selling author who received royalties of $2.5 million last year, will get hundreds of thousands more for a youth-oriented version of his published memoir and will write a nonfiction book after he leaves the White House.

From the Associated Press:

Former President George W. Bush, who once famously called himself "The Decider," is writing a book about decisions.

"I want people to understand the environment in which I was making decisions. I want people to get a sense of how decisions were made and I want people to understand the options that were placed before me," Bush said during a brief telephone interview Wednesday with The Associated Press from his office in Dallas.

This just in from the Associated Press:

Sen. Edward M. Kennedy's memoir is scheduled to come out sooner than originally planned -- in the fall.

and that definitely applies to book lovers.

The following Web sites offer used books for purchase or exchange, some for as little as the postage to ship them.

Check them out, and if you know of any others, please let us know.

www.bookmooch.com

www.bookins.com

www.swaptree.com

www.paperbackswap.com

I recently had a long layoff in finishing any books because I was slowly making my way through Thucydides' "The History of the Peloponnesian War."

His history is rather dense, but quite remarkable for something written in the 5th century B.C.

As for the war itself, it was a long -- about 27 years -- conflict between Greek powers Athens and Sparta and numerous allies on both sides. It started for many reasons, but most notably because of Athens' expansion of its Aegean empire and its friction with Sparta, which felt threatened. The eventual defeat of Athens reshaped Greece.

Unlike an earlier historian, Herodotus (who I wrote about here), Thucydides attempts a chronological, factual account of the war. The author served as a general in the Athenian army for some of the time and seemed to have good sources otherwise, though he fails to name them.

Thucydides appears -- though this has been disputed -- to remain objective in his account and to shun propaganda. He states early on that, "My work is not a piece of writing designed to meet the taste of an immediate public, but was done to last forever."

From the Associated Press:

RALEIGH, N.C. -- Elizabeth Edwards plans a new book about facing adversity, recapping an often-tumultuous life that most recently included her husband's public disclosure of an affair, her publisher said Tuesday.

The book entitled "Resilience" is to be published on May 12. It comes less than a year after Edwards' husband John publicly acknowledged having an affair with a video producer in the months before he began his second campaign for president.

David Drake, the publicity director at Broadway Books, declined to discuss in detail the contents of the book but said it would serve as a sort of sequel to her previous memoir, "Saving Graces," that was first published in 2006 and updated in 2007.

From the Associated Press:

Obama campaign manager David Plouffe has agreed to a seven-figure deal to write a book about last year's presidential election.

"The Audacity to Win: The Inside Story and Lessons of Barack Obama's Historic Victory" will be published by Viking next fall.

From the Associated Press

Cable television isn't enough for MSNBC's Joe Scarborough. He has a book coming out in May.

Publisher Crown Forum, an imprint of Random House Inc., says the title is "The Last Best Hope: Restoring Conservatism and America's Promise."

Crown Forum says the book will issue a challenge to Scarborough's own Republican Party to either reform or die.
Scarborough hosts MSNBC's "Morning Joe" news-talk program.

"In Search of Bill Clinton: A Psychological Biography," by Johns Hopkins University professor John Gartner, has been named one of the best books of 2008 by Booklist, the official publication of the American Library Association.

To read more about Gartner's book, click here.

WEbook.com, the home of community-sourced books, will publish a collection of inauguration stories, told by real people in their own words. Leveraging the speed and agility of the Internet and digital printing by CreateSpace (an Amazon company), the printed book will be available within two weeks of the inauguration.

"Jan. 20, 2009: True Stories, Real People, One Day" will be sold on WEbook.com and Amazon.com for $9.99. WEbook will donate all profits and ask its authors to donate their royalties to 826 National, a nonprofit tutoring, writing and publishing organization that assists students ages 6 to 18 with their writing skills and helps teachers get their classes excited about writing.

This just in from the Associated Press:

First lady Laura Bush has sealed a deal with Scribner to publish a memoir that will encompass her recollections of personal and historical moments, including her eight years in the White House.

This just in from the Associated Press:

After eight years in Washington, Lynne Cheney plans to write about a politician she regards as "steady," "reserved" and given to working "from behind the scenes."

No, it's not a memoir about her husband, Vice President Dick Cheney, but a biography of James Madison.

that books make great gifts, but now we can listen to famous authors tell us why.

Artist Bradley Schmehl's painting of the burning Wrightsville Bridge in 1863 serves as the focal point of the cover of Scott Mingus' forthcoming Civil War book.

Scott Mingus' detailed study of the Confederate occupation of York County, 'Flames beyond Gettysburg, in late June 1863 is moving along the printing trail.

Another forthcoming Mingus work follows one of the brigades that visited York County. "A Spirit of Daring: The Louisiana Tigers in the Gettysburg Campaign" will come from the LSU Press.

This just in from McClatchy Newspapers:

BELLINGHAM, Wash. -- Michelle Obama's fashion savvy may earn her a spot on a future cover of Vogue magazine.

But her political influence has already won over Bellingham, Wash.-based publishing company Bluewater Productions, which plans to feature the future first lady in the third book of its "Female Force" comic book series.

John Gartner, assistant professor of medical psychology at Johns Hopkins University Medical School, has written "In Search of Bill Clinton: A Psychological Biography."

Gartner is also the author of "The Hypomanic Edge."

In his new book, Gartner attempts to show that Clinton has a hypomanic temperament which helps explain both his charisma and his reckless impulsive behavior.

Amazon.com has introduced an interactive map of the U.S. showing which states are "red" or "blue" based on their online book purchases.

According to the Seattle Times:

Although it's not meant to predict the next president, it suggests that the Right's slant on the Obama-McCain matchup is more widely read than the Left's.

For now, 36 states are pink or red. Six are blue. And eight, including Washington and Oregon, are purple, meaning residents are virtually split in their political book purchases between Republican and Democratic viewpoints.

The map, (click here) updated daily, is based on sales of books with a political perspective, as identified in promotional material and customer classifications.

Because of high demand, Epicenter Press has rushed to produce a paperback edition of the biography of Gov. Sarah Palin of Alaska, The New York Times reports.
Selected by Sen. John McCain as his running mate on the Republican presidential ticket, Palin's story is told in "Sarah" by Kaylene Johnson.
After producing the books in an 18-hour digital printing job, the publisher delivered 40,000 copies to its distributor on Tuesday. By midafternoon, the hardcover edition of "Sarah" ranked 54th on Amazon.com.

A memoir by Sen. Joe Biden is now a best-seller.

According to the Associated Press:

A day after Sen. Barack Obama chose Biden as his running mate for the Democratic ticket, Biden's "Promises to Keep: On Life and Politics" was in the top 10 on Barnes & Noble.com and in the top 40 on Amazon.com.

It was so in demand that on Sunday it was listed as out of stock by both booksellers.

"We'll be reprinting," said Tom Perry, deputy publisher of the Random House Publishing Group, which released the memoir in the summer of 2007, several months after Biden announced his candidacy for president.

He's baacck!

Yes, Michael Moore is in the news again with a new book, "Mike's Election Guide 2008" (Grand Central, 260 pp., $13.99, paperback original), in stores Tuesday.

To read more about it, click here.

Review by Joan McInnis

"War Journal: My Five Years in Iraq" By Richard Engel. Simon & Schuster, New York. c. 2008.

You know his face and voice from the NBC nightly news reports about the war in Iraq, and now Richard Engel has put his experiences on paper for a vivid and horrifying tale of what it has been like to cover the war since it began.

In the process the reader comes to know the man as well as the reporter and what toll
his coverage has exacted. His marriage ended in divorce; he narrowly escaped kidnapping, lost fellow reporters to sudden death, and had his hotel room blown up around him as a suicide bomber struck his hotel.

It was no wonder the constant violence led to burn out.

Upton Sinclair's "Oil!" is the 1927 novel that the recent Oscar-winning film "There Will Be Blood" is loosely based upon.

Probably the most obvious difference is that, in "Oil!", the main character is "Bunny," the son of the book's central oil man, J. Arnold Ross.

As part of my campaign to visit every York Library, I checked out the books on tape section at the attractive and easily accessible Red Land Community Library.

See see what I found there and to see a little library history to boot, visit York County libraries offer serendipity - and have done so for decades at York Town Square blog.

Voni Grimes recounts his long life in his autobiography "Bridging Troubled Waters."

Voni B. Grimes, respected community leader, has labored for months to write about his long life.

The result is a 90-page book with more than 20 photos of a life well lived.

For details, see: New book gives insight into community leader Voni B. Grimes at York Town Square blog.

Windsor's centennial book is a snapshot - well, hundreds of them - of small-town life in York County.

A 300-plus page history book packed with photos can tell much about a town.

This 100th-anniversary book of Windsor borough provides a busy side of a town that seemingly can best be described as sleepy.

For long post on this thick book, view: Windsor: Home of 'stately old houses that may appear to be miniature castles' at York Town Square.

Speaking of summer reads, here are the top book-related searches on Yahoo!

Barnes&Noble.com has added three new features to its Barnes & Noble Studio multimedia site that are well worth a look.

In Guest Books, found out what writers read as authors talk about their top three favorite books. David Sedaris is featured this week.

5 Books selects five titles that will help readers sharpen their skills on a particular topic. Read all about wine.

The Book Files tells the story behind the book. This week’s featured book is James Joyce’s “The Dubliners.” Upcoming are Jerzy Kosinski’s “The Steps” and Dr. Seuss’ “Green Eggs and Ham.”

Visit http://www.barnesandnoble.com/bn-studio/videos-podcasts/index.asp?.

Daisy Myers' "Sticks 'N Stones," Mary Hamilton's "Rising from the Wilderness," and Carol McCleary Innerst's "York College of Pennsylvania" are three books that merit reading this summer - or any time of year.

For more details, see: Central Pennsylvania histories make smart part of summer reading stack over at sister blog, York Town Square.

Those of you of a certain age (and you know who you are) who are members of AARP will want to check out Borders’ latest promotion.

Just go to www.borders.com and click on “Exclusive offer for AARP members.”

You can save from 10 to 35 percent on books purchased both online and at the store. And if you’re not a member, they will sign you up on the spot.

Occasionally getting older has its advantages.

Readers would rather curl up with a printed book than go online or read an e-book, a new Random House/Zogby poll finds.

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich's latest book, "Days of Infamy," written with historian William Forstchen, debuted at No. 11 on the New York Times Fiction Best-seller list this week.

This comes on the heels of the success of Gingrich’s non-fiction work, "Real Change: From the World that Fails to the World that Works," which spent 12 weeks on the NY Times Non-Fiction Best-seller list.

Gingrich joins the ranks of only a handful of authors who made the fiction and non-fiction list in the same year.

Respected York Daily Record columnist Jim Hubley died Tuesday, but his work lives on for public enjoyment via his 1994 book "Off The Record, York County Life Through a Newsman's Eyes."

The 165-page book, published by the York Daily Record and the York County Heritage Trust, is packed with a sampling of the 1,300 columns he had written through 1994. It's out of print but is available via the York County Library System.

A sampling of his work is also available on the Web via the searchable blog yorktownsquare.com, particularly the post YDR columnist James A. Hubley: 'What I prefer is a simple, Jim.'.

Sometimes, as much as we hate it, we have to part with our books.

What else can we do when there just isn't enough shelf space for all our recent purchases?

Massachusetts' first black governor, Deval Patrick, is writing a memoir that will be published by Broadway Books in 2010.

Have you just finished reading a book you couldn't put down, or one that kept putting you to sleep?

We want to hear about it, good or bad.

Send your book review to gfogal@ydr.com and we will post it here.

While my husband watches basketball on television, my nose is in a book.

But now I’ve discovered that we literary types can get hyped with a March Madness of our own.

By JOSEPH MALDONADO
For the Daily Record/Sunday News

A book is like a warm quilt comprised of many threads, colors, textures and images. And like any quilt, a book takes tremendous know-how to transform it from an idea to something people curl up with in their favorite chair.

In May, the literary group Pennwriters will host its 21st annual conference, “A Writer’s smorgasbord.” The three-day event will feature scores of publishing experts, including many pub
lished authors.

Have you just finished reading a book you couldn't put down, or one that kept putting you to sleep?

We want to hear about it, good or bad.

Send your book review to gfogal@ydr.com and we will post it here.

Lisa Margonelli, an award-winning writer on global culture and the economy of energy, will discuss her new book, "Oil on the Brain," at 7 p.m. Feb. 5 in Leedy Theater of the Mund College Center at Lebanon Valley College, 101 N. College Ave., Annville.

Margonelli will explore the possibilities of a post-oil world. Her lecture is part of LVC's yearlong Energy Colloquium.

She is an Irvine Fellow at the New America Foundation and was the recipient of a Sundance Institute Fellowship and an excellence in journalism award from the Northern California Society of Professional Journalists. She has been published in The New York Times, The Washington Post, San Francisco Chronicle, Wired, Business 2.0, Discover and Jane.

The book: “Lines of Contention: Political Cartoons of the Civil War” (HarperCollins under the Smithsonian imprint, $19.95)

The authors: Pam Huff and Jim Lewin of Hellam Township are the owners of the York Emporium used-book store, 343 W. Market St., York. Huff is a native of Washington, D.C., and Lewin is a native of the Buffalo, N.Y., area. They moved to York in January 2006.

Have you just finished reading a book you couldn't put down, or one that kept putting you to sleep?

We want to hear about it, good or bad.

Send your book review to gfogal@ydr.com and we will post it here.

On Feb. 12, HarperCollins will publish a memoir and policy book by former Pakistan Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, finished only a week before her assassination.

According to the Associated Press:

The publication of “Reconciliation: Islam, Democracy, and the West” has “the full support of her family and advisers,” according to a statement issued today by HarperCollins.

“No one could have known that these would be Benazir Bhutto’s final words, and somehow that makes them carry even more weight, especially at a time like this,” said HarperCollins Executive Editor Tim Duggan. “This book is her legacy.”

Bhutto, a rival of Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf, died Dec. 27 in a suicide bombing and shooting in the city of Rawalpindi. Bhutto was a pro-U.S. moderate who had vowed to fight Islamic extremists if elected in an upcoming parliamentary vote.

The book will include an afterword by her husband, Asif Ali Zardari, and her three children.

Multiply that abandoned feeling a few thousand times to understand the protagonists in two excellent books -- “Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier” and “What is the What.”
Both boys are torn from their families and never stop looking for home.

For anyone who enjoys political reading, I'd recommend "What's Liberal About the Liberal Arts: Classroom Politics and 'Bias' in Education" by Michael Berube, a literature professor at Penn State.

The book is basically Berube's response to conservative politicians and pundits — especially David Horowitz, who included Berube in his book "The Professors: The 101 Most Dangerous Academics in America" — who are part of an academic reform movement that believes college professors are dangerous to American society because of liberal bias in their classrooms.