BookOpinion

Which type of book tells a more complete story about a presidential candidate? Autobiographical or biographical?

While opinions may vary as to what makes a good biography or expose, there is no doubt that there’s plenty of reading material on the candidates making a run for the White House.

BookOpinion has come up with a presidenitial candidate book list highlighting several different writing styles…some glossy and some not always favorable to the subject. While some of the other candidates have books out as well, we chose these books on the merits of being provocative and best sellers - three Democrats and three Republicans in no particular order.

The Audacity of Hope: Thoughts on Reclaiming the American Dream by Barack Obama

NEW YORK TIMES REVIEW (excerpt): Barack Obama, the junior senator from Illinois and the Democratic Party’s new rock star, is that rare politician who can actually write — and write movingly and genuinely about himself.

His 1995 memoir, “Dreams From My Father,” written before Mr. Obama entered politics, provided a revealing, introspective account of his efforts to trace his family’s tangled roots and his attempts to come to terms with his absent father, who left home when he was still a toddler. That book did an evocative job of conjuring the author’s multicultural childhood: his father was from Kenya, his mother was from Kansas, and the young Mr. Obama grew up in Hawaii and Indonesia…

Mr. Obama’s book, “The Audacity of Hope” — the phrase comes from his 2004 Democratic Convention keynote address, which made him the party’s rising young hope — is much more of a political document. Portions of the volume read like outtakes from a stump speech, and the bulk of it is devoted to laying out Mr. Obama’s policy positions on a host of issues, from education to health care to the war in Iraq.

But while Mr. Obama occasionally slips into the flabby platitudes favored by politicians, enough of the narrative voice in this volume is recognizably similar to the one in “Dreams From My Father,” an elastic, personable voice that is capable of accommodating everything from dense discussions of foreign policy to streetwise reminiscences, incisive comments on constitutional law to New-Agey personal asides.

A Woman in Charge: The Life of Hillary Rodham Clinton by Carl Bernstein

Excerpt from Chapter One (Amazon.com): Hillary Rodham’s childhood was not the suburban idyll suggested by the shaded front porch and gently sloping lawn of what was once the family home at 235 Wisner Street in Park Ridge, Illinois. In this leafy environment of postwar promise and prosperity, the Rodhams were distinctly a family of odd ducks, isolated from their neighbors by the difficult character of her father, Hugh Rodham, a sour, unfulfilled man whose children suffered his relentless, demeaning sarcasm and misanthropic inclination, endured his embarrassing parsimony, and silently accepted his humiliation and verbal abuse of their mother.

Yet as harsh, provocative, and abusive as Rodham was, he and his wife, the former Dorothy Howell, imparted to their children a pervasive sense of family and love for one another that in Hillary’s case is of singular importance. When Bill Clinton and Hillary honeymooned in Acapulco in 1975, her parents and her two brothers, Hughie (Hugh Jr.) and Tony, stayed in the same hotel as the bride and groom.

Four Trials by John Edwards and John Auchard

PUBLISHERS WEEKLY REVIEW: In his campaigns for the U.S. Senate (successful) and the Democratic presidential nomination (struggling), Edwards has defiantly celebrated his earlier career as a trial lawyer. Following that instinct, Edwards has chosen to cast his campaign memoir as an account of four of his courtroom experiences. Four Trials is brimming with Clintonian empathy for regular folks, and Edwards is at his best in his endearing portraits of the victims he represented in medical malpractice and personal injury lawsuits. He also displays a keen understanding of the psychology of a jury, which he calls “a microcosm of democracy.” Edwards weaves in recollections of his youth as the son of a mill worker, his rise to prominence as a lawyer, his dedicated family life and the death of his son in a car accident. But he mostly sticks to the details of the cases; he omits almost entirely his years in the Senate and his plans for the presidency. Edwards can tell a good yarn, and at times this book works as a courtroom drama. But it suffers from shoddy, platitudinous prose. The book is chiefly of interest for the way it manifests Edwards’s strategy to present himself as an advocate for the downtrodden to his new jury, the American electorate.

From Hope to Higher Ground: 12 STOPS to Restoring America’s Greatness by Mike Huckabee

BOOKLIST REVIEW: One of the longest-serving governors in the nation, Huckabee offers an optimistic outlook on the state of the nation. This is no Pollyanna view; Huckabee is candid about the nation’s problems; as governor of Arkansas, he had a front seat from which to observe Hurricane Katrina and the disastrous recovery efforts. Part 1 of his book is a description of his small-town origins and the kinds of civic and church involvement and activities that bind communities. The second part of the book lists 12 action steps to avoid cynicism, the nation’s number-one problem. Among his recommendations: don’t believe bad reports without documentation, listen to more music and less talk radio, do volunteer work, and have regular conversations with people of other ethnic, religious, or political backgrounds. Republican Huckabee is from Hope, the same small town that produced former president Clinton.

Faith of My Fathers: A Family Memoir by John Mccain and Mark Salter

AMAZON.COM REVIEW: Books by politicians are not often worth reading, but John McCain’s Faith of My Fathers is an astonishing exception to the rule. The Republican senator from Arizona has a remarkable story to tell–better than just about any of his peers–and he tells it well, with crisp prose and an unexpected sense for narrative pacing. The first half of the book concerns his naval forbears: his grandfather commanded an aircraft carrier in the Second World War, while his father presided over all naval forces in the Pacific during the Vietnam War. They were the first father-son admirals in American history. Young John McCain knew he had enormous shoes to fill and rebelled against many of the expectations set for him. At the Naval Academy, he was nearly expelled, graduating fifth from the bottom of his class. He never became an admiral, but achieved fame another way: as a naval aviator in 1967, he was shot down over North Vietnam and spent several years in POW camps, where he was beaten, tortured, and nearly allowed to die. McCain describes the awful details of his imprisonment and tells how he stayed mentally strong during seemingly endless months of solitary confinement and how he communicated in code with fellow captives. Faith of My Fathers concludes with McCain’s release and contains no information about his subsequent political career. It is, nonetheless, a complete and compelling memoir of individual heroism–one that will interest both political and military history buffs.

Rudy!: An Investigative Biography of Rudolph Guiliani by Wayne Barrett

From the inside flap: Rudy Guiliani. New York City’s Mayor. America’s Number One Cop. A municipal superhero who needs no phone booth. A politician of astonishing complexity whose full story has never been told. Until now. Guiliani has assumed mythic proportions, the can-do emblem of the new urban politics. He has been heralded as the ultimate turn-around artist - projecting himself as the reformer who single-handedly salvaged a crime-ridden and blighted New York. From his days in the Eighties as the Michael Milken-busting U.S. Attorney of Manhattan to his current purge of hundreds of thousands from his city’s welfare rolls, Giuliani has targeted rich and poor with the same relentless certitude.This investigative biography starts with the college kid who confided his presidential dream to his girlfriend and practiced future campaign speeches in front of her at home. It analyzes his substantial impact as U.S. Attorney, badly wounding the Mafia, ransacking the white collared halls of Wall Street and forever changing the face of New York politics. It looks at his celebrated crime reduction and other achievements through a new lens, highlighting the single-mindedness that has made Giuliani one of America’s most important and controversial figures.

- Alexander

Read some of the customer reviews about “Three Cups of Tea: One Man’s Mission to Promote Peace . . . One School at a Time” at Amazon.com and you may literally want to “STOP what you are doing”  and read the review as one poster suggests.

Not only is the book inspirational, but its reviews are as well.

“Three Cups of Tea” is currently #3 on NY Times bestseller list (paperback nonfiction). BookOpinion highlights three reviews of the book beginning with this from USAToday:

Mountaineer builds schools in ‘Three Cups of Tea’

A surprise best seller this season is a non-fiction book, set in Pakistan and Afghanistan, that was published 21 months ago to limited notice. “Three Cups of Tea” by Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin has climbed the lists, thanks to word-of-mouth recommendations and a tireless author with an inspiring story.

“Tea” describes how Mortenson, an American mountaineer, found a new cause: building schools, mostly elementary and especially for girls, in 1993 during a failed attempt to climb the K2 peak on Pakistan’s border.

In a Pakistani village, the former U.S. Army medic met children without paper or pencils. He promised to build them a school.

His book, written with Relin, a journalist, describes how he did that and more in the belief that “education can overcome the despot leaders, dictators and clergy who use illiteracy to control impoverished society.”

The non-profit foundation (ikat.org) he started in his hometown of Bozeman, Mont., has contributed to the construction of 58 schools in Pakistan and Afghanistan.

Via e-mail on his way to Pakistan, Mortenson, 49, says he pushed to have the book’s subtitle changed. In hardcover, it was One Man’s Mission to Fight Terrorism … One School at a Time. In paperback, it was revised to One Man’s Mission to Promote Peace.

“The public is interested in peace, just as much as fighting terrorism,” he says. “So far, no politician seems to have their finger on that pulse.”

Read Full Review/USAToday

Publishers Weekly: Some failures lead to phenomenal successes, and this American nurse’s unsuccessful attempt to climb K2, the world’s second tallest mountain, is one of them. Dangerously ill when he finished his climb in 1993, Mortenson was sheltered for seven weeks by the small Pakistani village of Korphe; in return, he promised to build the impoverished town’s first school, a project that grew into the Central Asia Institute, which has since constructed more than 50 schools across rural Pakistan and Afghanistan. Coauthor Relin recounts Mortenson’s efforts in fascinating detail, presenting compelling portraits of the village elders, con artists, philanthropists, mujahideen, Taliban officials, ambitious school girls and upright Muslims Mortenson met along the way. As the book moves into the post-9/11 world, Mortenson and Relin argue that the United States must fight Islamic extremism in the region through collaborative efforts to alleviate poverty and improve access to education, especially for girls. Captivating and suspenseful, with engrossing accounts of both hostilities and unlikely friendships, this book will win many readers’ hearts.

Bookmarks Magazine: While critics agree that “Three Cups of Tea” should be read for its inspirational value rather than for its literary merit, the book’s central theme, derived from a Baltistan proverb, rings loud and clear. “The first time you share tea with a Balti, you are a stranger,” a villager tells Greg Mortenson. “The second time, you are an honored guest. The third time you become family.” An inspirational story of one man’s efforts to address poverty, educate girls, and overcome cultural divides, “Three Cups,” which won the 2007 Kiriyama Prize for nonfiction, reveals the enormous obstacles inherent in becoming such “family.” Despite the important message, critics quibbled over the awkward prose and some melodrama. After all, a story as dramatic and satisfying as this should tell itself.

BOOKOPINION REVIEW: When my daughter kindly gifted me with “The Yada Yada Prayer Group” by Neta Jackson, I wasn’t quite sure what to think. Our tastes differ tremendously so I approached it rather warily, nodding to it casually as it lay next to my computer. But an unread book is rather like fasting from chocolate…it cannot be done! So, last night I picked it up with a certain amount of apprehension. I need not have worried. This book is a treasure!

The story opens with a quick intro to the Baxter family: Jodi and Denny and their two teenage children, Josh and Amanda, who have recently moved from their comfortable suburban neighborhood to a duplex on Chicago’s north side. When Jodi, who teaches third grade at Mary McLeod Bethune Elementary, is invited by Avis Johnson, the school principal, to attend a women’s conference sponsored by a coalition of Chicago area churches, Jodi jumps in feet first. A good way to meet others and perhaps make some friends, she thinks.

Although the situation doesn’t turn out quite as Jodi expects, she does end up in a prayer circle with eleven other women, all very different, all unsure as to how to proceed. But unforeseen events occur and something unusual begins to happen with these extremely diverse women…they begin to bond, to pray for each other, to open up.

When the conference ends, they agree to exchange email addresses and phone numbers and not just casually keep in touch, but genuinely support each other. And Yo-Yo (Yolanda) arrives at the name, The Yada Yada Prayer Group, a title that seems to perfectly fit this unrelated, hodge podge selection of black, white, Asian and Spanish women. But none of them are aware that they are placed together for a larger purpose, a divine purpose, if you will, that is going to test their commitment and their faith in a surprising way.

Written in the first person, Jodi becomes the one about whom we have the most information. But exposure comes with every trial and the personalities and characters of the twelve women are revealed as they join together in their determination to triumph through their various situations.

This is a truly sweet story, not syrupy sweet, just honest, kind and open. I loved every one of these women, the quirkiness, the laughter in the face of disaster, the bravado with which they faced their problems. I found myself yearning for the same type of relationship with a group of women where we could just “simply be”.

I don’t think ‘The Yada Yada Prayer Group’ is a book that would appeal to many men and this is definitely a Christ centered story. So, some may not feel that it is a read that would appeal to your taste. But if you enjoy a well written story with great, well rounded characters and don’t mind having certain aspects of your own shortcomings identified, then you are going to thoroughly enjoy “The Yada Yada Prayer Group.” I liked it so well that I immediately ordered all the sequels and am looking forward to several hours of alternating between tears and laughter.

– Elizabeth Channery

BOOKOPINION REVIEW: The following quote will probably help you understand where Laura Ingraham is coming from in “Power to the People,” her newest book: “Whether you know it or not, many of the most important decisions in your life are being made for you. They are being made by out-of-touch politicians, agenda-driven educrats, haughty life-tenured judges and executives in a polluted entertainment industry – all of whom believe they know better than you. Responsibility and accountability are principles that they preach but do not practice. They have their agendas – and when little people get in the way, watch out. They are perpetrating a massive power grab. Watch your wallet. Hide your children. Lock up the livestock. They’re coming for you.”

Thus speaks Laura Ingraham, political and cultural commentator, former white-collar defense attorney, Supreme Court law clerk, graduate of Dartmouth College and the University of Virginia School of Law and currently host of her own syndicated conservative radio show.  She also hosted the first live national radio show from Iraq and is the recipient of the VFW’s 2007 award for distinguished media coverage. Quite an impressive bio.

And if you believe, as many do, that there is nothing you can do to change the current ugly situation, you are going to be delighted with “Power to the People,” an expose with an encouraging message. Ingraham offers sensible solutions for solving the problems that seem so obvious but leave most of us feeling helpless.

This fast-paced, well thought out book is at times humorous, cutting and blunt. Ingraham doesn’t cut corners or hesitate to name names. Beginning with great insights on the American family, Ingraham quickly moves on from parenting issues to illegal immigration to terrorism to the judicial system…she reintroduces the reader to the Bill of Rights, frightening information regarding the failure of our educational system and addresses problems with the internet and the film industry.

“Power to the People” is a commonsense work that will quickly touch a responsive chord in most Americans, regardless of your political affiliation. If you’re as tired of I am of irresponsible government, no hold bars spending with hard-earned tax dollars and autocrats who simply refuse to listen to your complaints, you are going to love this book.

You will learn that there is something you can do to make a difference. And you can learn how to do it. This is one of the most encouraging, informative books that I’ve read in a long time. It’s an easy, well-written read, simple to understand and occasionally, shockingly explicit. An eye-opener to say the least.

Admittedly, there are some who are going to be offended by certain aspects of this book. All I can say is, try to keep an open mind and be brutally honest about your reasoning. If you disagree with certain chapters, so be it. There are sure to be other elements with which you will be in agreement.

As Ingraham states, “The good news is it’s never too late. Although we have been pushed to the edge of the ravine, we can still save ourselves. But only if we face reality and acknowledge that our cultural and political leaders have failed us – and that we allowed this to happen.”

– Elizabeth Channery

The best good and bad quotes last forever or at least until the end of the year … for example, making your “Don’t Tase Me, Bro!” T-shirt still a worthy Christmas present.

While a delicious quote on a T-shirt might bleach out in the wash, a book of memorable quotes lasts a lot longer. Fred R. Shapiro, an associate librarian and lecturer at the Yale Law School, is the editor of “The Yale Book of Quotations,” released earlier this year after six years of research. It contains about 13,000 quotes, each extensively researched to verify its origin. He expects to add about 1,000 more quotes — mostly modern — for the next edition of his book in about five years.

More recently, Shapiro released a list of the 10 most memorable quotes of 2007. With help from the Associated Press, here’s the list from bottom to top:

10. “I think as far as the adverse impact on the nation around the world, this administration has been the worst in history.”

Former President Jimmy Carter, referring to the Bush administration in an interview with the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette newspaper

9. “I mean, you got the first mainstream African-American who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy. I mean, that’s a storybook, man.”

Sen. Joseph Biden, referring to rival Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama

8. “(I have) a wide stance when going to the bathroom.”

Idaho Republican Sen. Larry Craig, explaining why his foot touched the foot of an undercover police officer in an airport men’s room

7. “I’m not going to get into a name-calling match with somebody who has a 9 percent approval rating.”

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, a Democrat, referring to Republican Vice President Dick Cheney

6. “There’s only three things he (Republican presidential candidate and former New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani) mentions in a sentence: a noun and a verb and 9/11.”

Sen. Joseph Biden, speaking during a debate for Democratic presidential candidates

5. “I don’t recall.”

Former U.S. Attorney Alberto Gonzales’ repeated response to questions from members of Congress about the firing of U.S. attorneys

4. “That’s some nappy-headed hos there.”

Radio personality Don Imus, referring to the Rutgers University women’s basketball team

3. “In Iran we don’t have homosexuals like in your country.”

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, during a speaking engagement at Columbia University in New York

2. “I personally believe that U.S. Americans are unable to do so because some people out there in our nation don’t have maps and I believe that our education like such as in South Africa and the Iraq and everywhere like such as and I believe that they should our education over here in the U.S. should help the U.S. or should help South Africa and should help the Iraq and the Asian countries so we will be able to build up our future for us.”

Lauren Upton, the South Carolina contestant in the Miss Teen America contest, when asked why one-fifth of Americans cannot find the U.S on a map

1. “Don’t tase me, bro.”

Andrew Meyer, a senior at the University of Florida, after being hauled away by campus police during a speech made by Sen. John Kerry.

Don’t Tase Me, Bro! The Video

Now that I’ve refreshed your memory on some top unforgettable quotes of 2007, I recommend getting your hands on an extensive list found in “The Yale Book of Quotations.”

This from Booklist’s Carolyn Mulac:

To paraphrase Ira Gershwin, “on every [page] that you turn you meet a notable with a statement that is eminently quotable” in this collection. According to editor Shapiro, this is “the first quotation book to be compiled using state-of-the-art research methods to seek out quotations and to trace quotation sources.” He compares his approach with that of the Oxford English Dictionary: he, too, traces words back to their earliest possible usages. Using a variety of electronic sources, such as JSTOR, LexisNexis, ProQuest Historical Newspapers, andTimes Digital Archive, scores of quotations were verified, and in many cases reverified. The more than 12,000 quotations collected here span a wide array of subjects, from literature, philosophy, and history to science, business, and politics.

Quotations are presented alphabetically by the name of the author or speaker. Shakespeare and the Bible, the mother lodes of quotations, are amply represented, but emphasis is on “modern and American materials.” Children’s authors, who are often ignored in other dictionaries, are quoted here. There are a number of special sections devoted to particular types of quotations, among them advertising slogans, ballads, film lines, political slogans, and radio and television catchphrases. Song lyrics are entered by the name of the composer, and film lines appear either under the film title in the special section devoted to movie lines or, if they originated in a book or play upon which the film was based, under the author of that literary source. Proverbs span the centuries and often include evidence of a saying’s first print appearance. A keyword index, an essential element of any quotation dictionary, rounds out the text.

Don’t disappoint me, bro…go check out “The Yale Book of Quotations” now!

- Alexander

Long before Orange County, Calif. became “The OC”, a young Steve Martin used Disneyland and other county landmarks as backdrops for honing his stage and comic skills.
Martin’s book, “Born Standing Up“, is his memoir of the first half of his life…including an Orange County from a different era.

Martin and excerpts from “Born Standing Up” were recently featured in an article in the OC Register:

Take a tour of comedian Steve Martin’s Orange County
The comedian and writer grew up in Garden Grove, worked at Disneyland as a kid and cut his teeth as a performer at Knott’s.

By Peter Larsen

If we are shaped by the places we go and people we know in our childhoods, then Steve Martin is an absolute product of Orange County in the ’50s and ’60s.

Young Steve Martin worked at the magic shop at Disneyland. (courtesy Steve Martin)

From the well-known outlines of the actor-comedian-writer’s life we already knew that Martin grew up in Garden Grove, worked at Disneyland and Knott’s Berry Farm as a teen, and launched his career as a comic in the long-gone folk clubs here some 40 years ago.

But with the recent arrival of “Born Standing Up” (Scribner, $25), Martin’s memoir of the first half of his life, the details of his years here – the significant places on the map of his life – are revealed in the star’s own words and memories…

Full story/OC Register

Janet Maslin of The New York Times writes that “Born Standing Up” is a “lean, incisive new book about the trajectory of [Martin’s] life in comedy…”Born Standing Up” does a sharp-witted job of breaking down the step-by-step process that brought Steve Martin from Disneyland, where he spent his version of a Dickensian childhood as a schoolboy employee, to both the pinnacle of stardom and the brink of disaster…tightly focused…”Born Standing Up” is a surprising book: smart, serious, heartfelt and confessional without being maudlin.”

This from Jerry Seinfeld in GQ: “Absolutely magnificent. One of the best books about comedy and being a comedian ever written.”

Time Magazine’s Richard Corliss reviews: “The writing is evocative, unflinching and cool. When Martin takes a scalpel to his life, what you feel is the precision of the surgeon more than the primal scream of the unanaesthetized patient…”Born Standing Up” is neither fanfare nor confession. It gives off a vibe of rigorous honesty. With lots of laughs.”

Having lived “behind the Orange Curtain”, Steve Martin’s “Born Standing Up“ is an inspiring break-out story, also reminding me of the sweet smell of orange blossoms that once permeated the air.

- Alexander

BOOKOPINION REVIEW: Sue Grafton is one of those authors who has me running to the bookstore the very day her latest offering goes on sale. I have not yet been disappointed at my haste, and not yet been able to stop reading one of her new books until it’s done. So it was yesterday at precisely 12:09 a.m. that I reluctantly closed the book on the 20th installment of Grafton’s alphabet mystery series, “T is for Trespass.”

For those not in the know, the books detail the life and cases of private investigator Kinsey Millhone. In this latest book, Kinsey investigates a private nurse who has been hired to care for a cranky octagenarian neighbor after he has had a bad fall. Initially all seems well, but Kinsey and her landlord/friend Henry Pitts become convinced that something sinister is happening. The novel deals with not only elder abuse, but also identity theft. “T is for Trespass” is Kinsey at her best — absolutely out for justice and kicking … well, you know what.

There are a lot of disturbing characters in this novel, some frustrating and some just evil. The novel jumps back between first person (narrated by Kinsey) and third person (describing the behind-the-scenes action of the main antagonist, a thoroughly wretched character).

I don’t want to give away a lot of plot details, but this one is a page-turner. I was not totally satisfied by the ending, it seemed to close up too quickly or maybe the plot device was lacking. In general, though, this is a great addition to my Kinsey Millhone collection.

Grafton’s writing just never really disappoints. Now I will have to start counting the days until the next book. U is for Umbrella? Unitarian? Ubiquitous?

– Jane Leisteiner