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Monday, August 24, 2009

Politics / Books Obama's Summer Book Club

Posted by Paul Constant on Mon, Aug 24, 2009 at 1:19 PM

Here is a list of the books that Obama is bringing with him on vacation this week:

Lush Life by Richard Price
Plainsong by Kent Haruf
The Way Home by George Pelecanos.
Hot, Flat and Crowded by Thomas Friedman
John Adams by David McCullough

Is there anything better than taking a stack of books on vacation? I know that's one of the major selling points for the Kindle, but reading through a foot of books feels like the most luxurious thing in the world to me.

Anyway, here's what I think of the list: the Pelecanos and Friedman don't really excite me, but Richard Price is always compelling reading. Haruf is not a great author, but Plainsong is a great book. And John Adams is an overhyped classic in presidential biography; presidential biographers will be trying to copy it for decades to come, but it's really so perfect because of the combination of McCullough and Adams; the book is a great collaboration between author and subject. Three out of five ain't bad, Mr. President.

Comments (12) RSS

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Friedman is so boring and redundant. All of his writings consist of him explaining that he was at some event, ran into someone he knew, was reminded of something, then his thoughts regarding the issue. Here, I can write some fake-Friedman right now:

In the summer of 2007 I had the rarest of pleasures to attend the Dick Diggers Ball in Austin, Texas. In attendance were many prestigious friends and colleagues of mine. My son, who attends Yale on an academic scholarship, and who intends on pursuing a law degree from Berkeley, called me from home that night. He told me that his kitchen was on fire, and what he should do. At that point I couldn't help to recall that in 1982...

You get my point. Oh, and he makes sure to repeat over and over again what he recalled in 1982.

Note: all of that was fictional.

Posted by Lacking Creativity

on August 24, 2009 at 1:37 PM

More Friedman fun here

http://www.thewoodenrobot.com/timesselec…

Posted by 8Way on August 24, 2009 at 1:43 PM

I can't remember. Did we ever see a list of comic books Bush took on his endless vacations?

Posted by Tom on August 24, 2009 at 1:58 PM

Friedman was a pro-capitalist free-market fundamentalist until his ultra-rich wife lost their fortune in the recession and now he's flown around the country to hypocritically lecture us about the value of living sustainably (getting paid more per lecture than I earn in a year) before returning to his obscenely oversized mansion.

Posted by john t on August 24, 2009 at 2:08 PM

Pelecanos is one of the finest writers working in modern American fiction.

Posted by McGee on August 24, 2009 at 2:26 PM

you go on vacation to eat, drink, shop and fuck in a different location than your usual haunts.

Posted by michael strangeways

on August 24, 2009 at 3:08 PM

Pelecanos was involved (as writer or producer, I believe) in the penultimate episode of every season of The Wire. You know, the episodes where the real shit went down, tragic heroes died, etc. That's plenty good enough for me.

Posted by Fizish on August 24, 2009 at 3:57 PM