Books Set in North America, Washington, D.C

The Watergate Girl, by Jill Wine-Banks (2020)

Read:  April 25, 2025

4 Stars

Books Set in North America: the United States

How to Fight Anti-Semitism, by Bari Weiss (2019)

 

Antisemitism is on the rise in the United States.  In this book, journalist Bari Weiss provides a brief history of antisemitism in the Western world and how it has manifested itself throughout the years.  Antisemitism has many faces.   It displays itself very differently depending on one’s political bent.  Some displays of antisemitism are obvious and violent.  Other displays are more subtle.  I found the first part of this book to be all over the map, as the author wanted to include so much.

 

The last chapter of the book was the most informative and provided tools that American Jews must use to combat antisemitism.

 

Read:  July 17, 2021

 

3 Stars

 

Books Set in North America; United States, Washington, D.C.

The President’s Club: Inside the World’s Most Exclusive Fraternity, by Nancy Gibbs and Michael Duffy (2012)

 

The modern President’s Club began when Dwight David Eisenhower became President of the United States.  At the time, there were two living former Presidents: Herbert Hoover and Harry S Truman.  Although the two former Presidents had very different politics from Eisenhower, both were the only two people in the world who understood the pressures of being the leader of the free world.  They were there to provide support and advice to Eisenhower.

 

Since that time, former Presidents have made themselves available to the current President for support and advice.  Note, however, that this book was published in 2012, so only applied to presidents up to Barack Obama.  The former Presidents all knew that the most important aspect of American democracy was to protect the Office regardless of which individual held it.

 

Interestingly, there was some controversy regarding the vote count in the 1960 election.  John F Kennedy had won the election, but Richard Nixon believed (and there is evidence to support this contention), that votes in Illinois were skewed in favor of Kennedy.  Nixon was advised by the former Presidents not to contest the election to protect the legitimacy of the Presidency.

 

The role of former Presidents has been the background so as not to diminish the leadership of the current President.  Although egos and personalities can influence decisions, the authors provide anecdotes showing how presidents can warm up to, and become friends, with their successors.

 

This was an interesting and eye-opening account of the interaction of former Presidents with the current President, at least up until the 2016 election.  It makes one wonder how the immediate past President’s action may impact the Office in the future.

 

Read: Summer 2021

 

3 Stars

Books Set in the North America: United States

ExUs, by Josephus IV (2014)

 

This is a cautionary tale of what could happen.  The book was written in 2014, but the events happened in the “future”, which was shortly after 2017.  The United States Congress enacted the Victims Law of 2017, which ostensibly gave an advantage to minorities.  Its impact, however, largely targeted Jews.  As more and more restrictions were placed on American Jews, they found themselves without jobs, property and the ability to travel.  Technology had advanced so that a mere pinprick could determine one’s ethnic status.  People who never knew they were Jewish but had one Jewish grandparent were suddenly ostracized.

 

The novel is narrated by a young computer hacker.  He was offered a job sponsored by the NSA that was designed to build security walls within that agency.  He was given high clearance, so was also able to view extensive files, where he realized that the government was backing an Exodus of Jews from the United States.

 

This is a very fast read, but has a lot of food for thought.

 

Read: January 27, 2021

 

4 Stars

 

Books Set in North America: United States

Sisters in Law: How Sandra Day O’Connor and Ruth Bader Ginsburg Went to the Supreme Court and Changed the World, by Linda Hirshman (2015)

 

In many ways, Justice Sandra Day O’Connor and Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg couldn’t have been more different.  O’Connor grew up as the only child of a rancher.  She got her start in politics by volunteering for her local Republican committee.  From there, she entered state politics.  She also felt it was important to cook and keep the home tidy for her family.  She held conservative views.  Ginsburg was essentially an older child (an older sister had died when Ruth was 2 years old) and became and ACLU attorney.  She had a husband how cook and was a strong advocate for her advancement to the high Court.  She was far from conservative.

 

O’Connor was the first female Supreme Court Justice.  As such, she had to face 8 male Justices who in their hearts really didn’t want women on the Court.  The author gives the impression that O’Connor, while a trailblazer by being the first woman on the Court, was tentative in her decisions and didn’t make waves.

 

Ginsburg, on the other hand, had a history with the ACLU advocating for equality for men and women long before she joined the Court.  She had argued before the Supreme Court numerous times and suffered only one adverse Court opinion.  In her advocacy, she was taking steps to advance the rights of women.

 

If anyone believes that the High Court is without politics and partisanship, this book will dispel any such beliefs.  The author describes both the politicking behind getting justices on the Court as well as the politics of the Justices during the deliberation process.  Although the title of the book suggests that both O’Connor and Ginsburg “changed the world”, cases following O’Connor’s departure began a slow erosion of the advances that Ginsburg had made as a practicing attorney.  Ginsburg became famous for her dissents, many of which she would read in open Court.  The author suggests that, perhaps in the future, Ginsburg’s dissents will become the law of the land.

 

It was an interesting book, and provides an insight into the workings of the Court.  The author attempts to digest many of the decisions in a comprehensible manner.  (Supreme Court decisions are famously vague to a non-attorney).  I did find parts of the book a bit dry, so had to put in down several times.

 

Read:  December 31, 2020

 

3 Stars

 

Books Set in the United States: Wisconsin and Washington, D.C.

American Wife, by Curtis Sittenfled (2008)

This novel is a not-so-thinly disguised fictional account of Laura Bush’s life before and after meeting George Bush, although in the book, they appear as Alice Lindgren and Charlie Blackwell. The novel is written in 4 parts. In the first part, we meet Alice Lindgren as a young girl who comes from a working-class background.  In Part 2, she meets and marries Charlie Blackwell. Charlie is the buffoon of his family and a drunkard.  In Part 3, Charlie is pushed into politics and Alice learns to be a politician’s wife. By Part 4, Charlie has been elected President of the United States and Alice must learn to navigate her political convictions and beliefs while not compromising her husband’s policy positions.

The first part was an interesting view into young Alice’s life.  She is a likable and moral character.  She has a crush on young Andrew Imhof.  Throughout high school, Alice has her eye on Andrew.  Later, when she is in high school, she is driving the car that causes an accident that kills Andrew.  This is a turning point in Alice’s life.  The decisions she makes within the next few months will impact her life and have repercussions years later.

Alice becomes a librarian and meets Charlie. He comes across as a jerk.  What the smart, articulate Alice sees in Charlie strains the imagination.  After having been together for a mere 6 weeks, they become engaged.  He is from a rich, privileged family from Wisconsin whose family is in the meat-packing business.  Charlie has no flair for business, so goes into politics.  Alice isn’t so enthused about this, but thinks that it will be a one-shot trial into that field.

When Charlie becomes President, Alice has learned to keep her political opinions to herself, although she is a Democrat and her husband has Republican values.  She keeps things to herself until forced to confront an important issue.  Will her actions, she wonders, jeopardize her husband’s career.

I found the first and fourth part of the novel to be interesting.  The middle sections were just plain frustrating.  Charlie was such an unlikable character.  What was the attraction between to two.  They seemed to have no intellectual common interests.

It was somewhat interesting to read this book in today’s political climate.  Although written in 2008, the issues raised in this novel are the same as what we are reading today.

Read:  June 28, 2019

2 Stars