Presidential Reading

Yesterday being President's Day, I went out of my way not to do anything. I did eat apple pie for breakfast because I'm an American. I do my part for the country. I don't really like that Lincoln's and Washington's birthdays have been reduced to one Monday day off. I was a bit obsessed with the Presidents when I was a kid, which led to a lot of useless trivia; we probably shouldn't elect another Quaker (Hoover, Nixon), for example. Also, let's face it, I was a weirdo. I named the toenails on my right foot after less well known or more notorious Presidents. I hesitated to include this information here, but Gianna's freaked out by feet and this paragraph is payback for her inability to actually deliver cookies to my house when she says she's going to bring them right over. The piggy with the pointy cornered nail was Franklin Pierce. Millard Fillmore was the big toe; that name just screams "plus sized," right? Warren Harding and Chester Arthur filled in the middle and Nixon was the little piggy who went wee wee wee all the way home.

I digress.

Shall we talk about books and the Presidency?

President #26: Theodore Roosevelt. Teddy is the subject of many books including Edmund Morris's excellent biographies, but my personal favorite of the ones I've read is Candice Millard's The River of Doubt. After Roosevelt lost an attempt to be reelected as President a decade after he left office, and facing a crisis of age and confidence, Roosevelt and his son Kermit decided to become Amazon explorers. They set off on an expedition down a previously uncharted river that almost cost the President his life. Tropical plants and critters, fish that swim up your urethra, die, and lead to penectomies (we don't use that word often enough on this blog), and savage territory only made Roosevelt's lack of experience and preparation all the more obvious. Who doesn't love arrogant white guys brought to their knees by nature?

President #37: Richard Nixon. Yeah, there's plenty to say about Nixon. All the President's Men is the classic text. We recommend the fictionalized take on Nixon's downfall, Watergate by Thomas Mallon. Nixon is both sympathetic and delusional, and Mallon's book is a psychological exploration of a great man, a well-crafted epic, and a chilling account of hubris.

President #20: James A. Garfield. True story--at the Republican National Convention in 1880, Garfield was there to nominate another guy. Toward the end of his  passionate speech, though, he rhetorically asked "Who do we want?" and someone in the crowd yelled "We want Garfield!" A few months later, Garfield was officially elected President. During the height of Gilded Age corruption, Garfield promised to be one of the great Presidents of all time. And then he was assassinated (spoiler?). Once again we are recommending a Candice Millard book, this one called The Destiny of the Republic.

President #43: Al Gore. Just kidding. George W. Bush. Maybe this pick is a bit of a cheat, but American Wife by Curtis Sittenfeld is loosely based on Laura Bush. It's probably more fun to read about the fictionalized party goer and favored son Bush than any of the books coming out about the W years these days.

President #36: Lyndon B. Johnson. Robert Caro's masterful biographical series, the most recent of which is The Passage of Power, are the definitive books written about LBJ. I also want to give a shout out to Billy Lee Brammer's The Gay Place, though. Brammer was an LBJ staffer and wrote a classic novel about Texas politics centered around a LBJ-esque governor.

President #33: Harry S. Truman. I admit it; I love Truman. He was given an impossible task--serving as President after more than a decade of FDR and at the end of major war, tasked with negotiating surrenders, war trials, and the emergent Soviet Union. Truman was the guy who decided to drop atomic bombs. For better or worse, the guy had balls of steel. David McCullough knows how to write a Presidential biography, and Truman is my favorite of his books.

President #3: Thomas Jefferson. We love Jon Meacham. We aren't the only ones. Meacham's latest, Thomas Jefferson: The Art of Power takes on Jefferson's life and also looks at his political philosophy. Even though Meacham's book was a big hit during the holiday season, I'm sure that a few people out there haven't yet picked up copies. An aside, Meacham is charming and funny in person (on top of being wickedly smart).

President #44: Barack Obama. Before he was President, Obama was a writer. His memoir, Dreams from My Father, is the story of the American dream. It's the story of a man who's lived his entire life in between worlds, the mixed race son of an African father and American mother, who knows his father more from stories than as an actual person. Obama traces his family's past, from his mother's journey from Kansas to Hawaii, her relationship with the Kenyan man who left the family when Barack was two, and Obama's rise to the top of his Harvard class and work as a community organizer in Chicago. He goes back to Kenya after his father's death, finding his place in the world and as his own man.

Liz and Gianna's Bad Ass Book Fall Preview, Part 3

Hello again,

Thus far we've previewed the big releases from Gianna's University of Texas Press, and then part two featured the half of Random House that Liz sells.  For part three, we're teaming up to cover the other half of Random House.


Thomas Jefferson: The Art of Power
Jon Meacham
November

(Gianna) I noticed last month that the description of this book promises to deliver the goods on the passion and sensuality of Jefferson, and to that I say…sold! Turns out however, Pulitzer Prize-winning author Jon Meacham felt he should give you a full portrait of the man, so you will also get details of everything from The Declaration of Independence to the famous dinner parties, to Monticello, to the Louisiana Purchase (he had no idea kids would just use it as a playground!), and Jefferson's tactical political maneuvers. Random House has a handful of really great nonfiction books this year, and this may just be the biography of the year.

A Wanted Man 
Lee Child
On Sale Now

(Gianna) It sounds crazy, but I don't think Child has had a stinker in any of his dozen or so books. He receives rave reviews, booksellers absolutely adore the series (and him), and if you can find a better book in the genre, well Jack Reacher would just die…but then not really die, you see you would just think he died but then he would show up in the next book. If you haven't tried this great series, you really can dive in anywhere, and unlike so many writers, Lee Child just gets better and better.

The Twelve 

Justin Cronin
October

(Gianna)I am so excited that this book is finally here! I haven't worked for Random House in over a year but that doesn't stop pretty much every single bookseller I see from asking me when it's coming out, and if I can get them an early copy. The wait is over (sort of …two more weeks….sorry). And I don't want to freak anyone out but…The Twelve is even better than The Passage. I know!


The Devil in Silver 
Victor LaValle
On Sale Now

(Gianna) Between this novel and Gone Girl, I had a pretty creepy summer. In fact, I think for everyone who read Gone Girl, this should be the next one on your list. I would compare his writing a bit more in line with Dan Chaon, but for readers of smart, psychological thrillers, this is a must have. LaValle is smart, original, and has written an unputdownable book with The Devil in Silver.


Joseph Anton
Salmon Rushdie
On Sale Now

(Gianna) Joseph Anton is the Random House book that I have been most excited to read.  As of right now I am about 200 pages in and its just fascinating. For those who don't know or remember, when Rushdie's Satanic Verses was published, conservative Muslims accused him of blasphemy which resulted in Ayatollah Khomeini calling for a fatwa – asking good Muslims to kill Rushdie and those associated with the book. While Rushdie was never harmed over the book, many others were, including the Japanese translator who was murdered. Of course because of timing, this book really resonates.  [Liz: "Joseph Anton" was the alias that Rushdie used while in hiding, picked from his two favorite writers--Joseph Conrad and Anton Chekhov.  The reviews are calling this book one of Rushdie's finest.]

Rod Stewart...Gianna's ex?

Rod

Rod Stewart

October

(Liz) According to my New York colleagues, Rod Stewart lives in the Broadway building where Random House is headquartered, so how awkward would it be if, say, Simon & Schuster were his publisher?  I admit that I know little to nothing about music, but Gianna, she's a music aficionado, and I'm pretty certain that she once sang me a song about wanting her body and thinking she's sexy.  Actually, I kinda think that Gianna and Rod were a couple back in the day.  Didn't he sleep with a lot of people?  Why not Gianna?

Silent No More

Victim One

October

(Liz) The biggest scandal of the year came when the revelation that longtime Penn State coach Jerry Sandusky abused children over the course of many, many years, and that school officials covered up his transgressions.  Lives were destroyed, reputations ruined, and innocence lost.  Now Victim One from the court case reveals his story of courage and survival in confronting his abuser.

The Black Count

Tom Reiss

On Sale Now

(Liz)  I've been hearing about this book for months.  Seriously, my RH colleagues won't stop talking about it.  It turns out that Alexandre Dumas, the author of classics like The Three Musketeers and The Count of Monte Cristo, based his swashbuckling characters on his father, General Alex Dumas, and more incredibly, Daddy Dumas was the son of a black slave in Haiti.  Briefly sold into slavery, Dumas managed to rise in social stature to the rank of general, joined the French aristocracy, and commanded armies.  The Black Count is the sort of literary sleuthing that makes reading the classics fun.

Buddy

Brian McGrory

November

(Liz) Brian McGrory owned a dog who was ailing, so he took his pooch to the vet.  The dog didn't make it, but Brian found love with the vet instead.  The vet?  She has a couple of kids...and a chick that grows up to be Buddy, a rooster with an attitude.  Buddy likes the family, but he doesn't like Brian.  Brian, learning to relate to children and a new family, takes his clues from the cantankerous fowl.  It's Marley & Me with poultry.

The Headmaster's Wager

Vincent Lam

On Sale Now

(Liz) This is my kind of book--literary fiction from an up-and-coming author, set in a region I don't normally encounter in fiction.  The title character in Vincent Lam's novel is the Chinese headmaster of a school in Vietnam.  His son, trying to prove his devotion to his father, says the exact wrong thing at the exact wrong time, and as civil war begins to engulf the country, the headmaster, Percival Chen, finds himself risking everything to save his son--his school, his fortune, his life.  With the help(?) of his longtime friend (who is shady), Percival is thrust into the middle of a political landscape in revolutionary Vietnam and China that he cannot comprehend, a world where influence and allegiances suddenly matter more than money.  Put Vincent Lam on your radar.  He's an author to watch.