Robert Schlesinger's White House Ghosts

Just an update on White House Ghosts: Presidents and Their Speechwriters by Robert Schlesinger (which I first heard about in May and have been slowly reading since August; click here to view all my posts about this book).

I am enjoying the book; Schlesinger is a great storyteller and with each chapter I am more and more impressed by his abilities.

It's just that with all of the excitement surrounding the Presidential election and the drama of the financial crisis, I found myself watching news on tv and reading news online during every spare moment.

So I confess I haven't been reading as much as I'd like to these past few months.

Click here to visit the official website for the book, here to read an excerpt of White House Ghosts on the publisher’s website, or here to view the table of contents.

The Story of Edgar Sawtelle by David Wroblewski

One of my book clubs has just selected yet another Oprah's Book Club book as it's next selection: The Story of Edgar Sawtelle: A Novel by David Wroblewski.

Some of the girls in my book club said that Oprah told her viewers not to read the inside cover of the book until they have read the book, and the girls in my book club who have already read the book suggested not reading anything about the book until you've read the book in its entirety.

So all I know about this book is what I read in Janet Maslin's review for the New York Times "Talking to Dogs, Without a Word" published june 13, 2008.

That's all I'll say since I'd hate to spoil the book for anyone.

Click here to visit the author's website where you can read an excerpt, find discussion questions, and much more.

The Worst Hard Time by Timothy Egan

I don't know much about the High Plains Dust Bowl of the 1930s, so I'm interested in reading Timothy Egan's The Worst Hard Time: The Untold Story of Those Who Survived the Great American Dust Bowl, a National Book Award winner in 2006 (also in 2006 it won the Washington State Book Award and the Oklahoma Book Award) - click here to read Elizabeth Royte's December 2005 review titled "The Anti-Joads."

Timothy Egan is a reporter for the New York Times and I seem to gravitate towards books written by the Times staff.

The Table of Contents looks promising...

Introduction: Live Through This 1

I • PROMISE: The Great Plowup, 1901–1930
1. The Wanderer 13
2. No Man’s Land 32
3. Creating Dalhart 52
4. High Plains Deutsch 59
5. Last of the Great Plowup 73

II • BETRAYAL, 1931–1933
6. First Wave 91
7. A Darkening 103
8. In a Dry Land 115
9. New Leader, New Deal 128
10. Big Blows 136

III • BLOWUP, 1934–1939
11. Triage 145
12. The Long Darkness 155
13. The Struggle for Air 171
14. Showdown in Dalhart 176
15. Duster’s Eve 193
16. Black Sunday 198
17. A Call to Arms 222
18. Goings 236
19. Witnesses 242
20. The Saddest Land 254
21. Verdict 265
22. Cornhusker II 273
23. The Last Men 279
24. Cornhusker III 293
25. Rain 303

Epilogue 309
Notes and Sources 315
Acknowledgments 328
Index 331

Click here to read an excerpt of the first chapter.

Loving Frank discussion

One of my book clubs has just started its discussion of Nancy Horan's Loving Frank, a historical novel fictionalizing the love affair of Mamah Borthwick Cheney and Frank Lloyd Wright that my book club just loved.

Our first discussion question sparked much conversation as did our final discussion question:

How did Mamah's relationship with Ellen Key (the Swedish feminist whose work so profoundly influences Mamah) mirror - or differ- from hers with Frank Lloyd Wright?

Will write some of my general thoughts on this book later.

Barack Obama '79

Punahou has this statement on it's website regarding Obama's historic victory:

Barack Obama ’79 Elected President of the United States

Punahou alumnus Barack Obama was elected the 44^th president of the United States in an historic election. As a first-term senator from Illinois, Obama's candidacy has brought significant attention to Hawai‘i and to Punahou School.

In his acceptance speech, Senator Obama said, "It's been a long time coming, but tonight, because of what we did on this day, in this election, at this defining moment, change has come to America."

Punahou School President James K. Scott today said, "This is a historic moment for America and the world, and for Hawai‘i. We are thrilled and honored that a Punahou School alumnus - and son of Hawai‘i - has been elected to serve as the next President of the United States. At Punahou School, our calling is to foster each student's potential to reach his or her promise and effect meaningful change in society. President-elect Obama is an inspirational embodiment of that vision."

Barack Obama was born in Hawai‘i and attended Punahou School beginning in the 5^th grade, graduating in 1979.

Yippeee!

Michael Crichton

Wow, shockingly Michael Crichton died of cancer yesterday at the age of 66.

When I was in my teens, Crichton was one of my favorite authors and over the years I have frequently enjoyed re-reading his works.

Of his many books, the medical thriller A Case of Need was the one I liked the most -- even more than Jurassic Park, The Lost World, Disclosure, The Great Train Robbery (my second favorite Crichton book), The Andromeda Strain, or any of his other best sellers.

What I always found so interesting about A Case of Need was that Crichton originally published it under a pseudonym (Jeffrey Hudson) when he was still a 26-year-old Harvard medical student (in 1968). After it won an Edgar Allen Poe Award in 1969, it gave Crichton the confidence he needed to leave medicine and his prestigious fellowship at Jonas Salk Institute for Biological Studies in La Jolla, CA.

I think what I loved about Crichton's books was that they filled you with a sense of wonder about science -- and as a math and science geek I appreciated that.

Now I'd like more than ever to read Crichton's State of Fear (by the way, I recently learned that Crichton was a Visiting Writer at MIT in 1988).