Obama's Vacation Reading List
Curious about what President Obama is planning to read during his vacation? Well, now we know, thanks to Deputy Press Secretary Bill Burton. Obama has taken five books (that we know of) to Martha's Vineyard, a mixture of fiction and nonfiction. (Watch for these titles to rocket up bestseller lists.) They're all American authors. Judging by the list, our president is fond of crime novels and has a penchant for the writers of TV series The Wire. Here's the list:
The Way Home by George Pelecanos: Set in Washington DC, this thriller revolves around Chris Flynn, a 26-year-old released from a stint in juvenile detention. While working for his father as a carpet layer, he discovers a sack of money stashed under the floorboards at a job site, setting in place a chain of life-altering events. Pelecanos is a celebrated crime novelist, and was a writer for HBO's award winning series The Wire. The book traverses familiar terrain─racial tensions, urban decay, and difficult family relationships.
Hot, Flat and Crowded by Thomas Friedman: The follow up to his bestseller The World is Flat, Friedman explores the impact of climate change and the possibilities for American leadership. He draws links between global warming and a crisis of American identity in the face of economic globalism.
Lush Life by Richard Price: Another crime novel, Lush Life centers on a shooting in Manhattan's Lower East Side, exploring it's ramifications in an already volatile community. Price has been writing since the early 1970s and is perhaps best known for his novel Clockers, which was made into a film directed by Spike Lee. He's written screenplays including The Color of Money and the short film to promote Michael Jackson's album Bad. Interestingly, Price also wrote for The Wire.
Plainsong by Kent Haruf: Plainsong is a novel set in the small, fictional town of Holt, Colo. It follows the intersecting lives of several residents and the impact a local schoolteacher has upon them. Haruf has written four novels set in fictional Holt.
John Adams by David McCullough: This Pulitzer Prize-winner needs no introduction. Based on the life of America's second president, it was also the basis for HBO's award winning seven-part miniseries by the same name.
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Katie Connolly joined NEWSWEEK in June 2007, working for NEWSWEEK's international editions. In September 2007, she was assigned to cover Republican presidential candidates for Newsweek's special election issue and book. For this project, Katie was detached from the weekly magazine and her reporting was embargoed until after election day. As a result, she gained exclusive, behind-the-scenes access to the McCain campaign.
Now based in DC, Katie was named Political Correspondent in November 2008 and covers the White House and Capitol Hill.
Katie received her Master of Public Policy from Harvard's Kennedy School of Government, where she was the 2005 Menzies Scholar. She received her Bachelor of Arts from the University of Queensland and completed her honors thesis on media representations of the East Timor conflict at the University of Melbourne. She was born and raised in Brisbane, Australia.
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