Books Set in North America, the United States, Washington, DC

The Camel Club, by David Baldacci (2005)

The Camel Club is a 2005 political crime thriller novel featuring a group of eccentric Washington, D.C. misfits who uncover a vast government conspiracy after witnessing a murder.  They team up with Alex Ford, a Secret Service agent who is on thin ice with his boss.  Together, they all must work to prevent a national security crisis.  

Read: March 18, 2026

4 Stars

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

The Residence: Inside the Private World of The White House, by Kate Andersen Brower (2015)

 

The White House – one of the most iconic symbols of the United States.  It is the temporary home to the American presidents.  It’s 55,000 square feet, 132 rooms, 147 windows, 35 bathrooms, 28 fireplaces, 8 staircases and 3 elevators and kept in tidy order and running smoothly by a full staff of butlers, maids, electricians, florists, chefs, doormen, plumbers, engineers and others.  This staff, or Residents, tend to every need of the President and First Family.  If they don’t perform to the liking of the First Family, they can be fired at the drop of a hat.

 

The staff doesn’t live at the White House, and the often must have two jobs to cover expenses, but they are at the beck and call of the President and First Lady.  The staff is extremely discrete.  This book is not a tell-all and does not expound on the intimate details of the Presidents and their families.  It does, however, provide an intimate account of the staff and how they go about their jobs from the Kennedy family through the Obamas.  Many of the staff work at the White House for years, through the administrations of numerous presidents.

 

The book begins with an account of all the details that must take place on Inauguration Day, as one First Family moves out and the next President moves in.  Due to security issues, on outside movers are permitted on the White House grounds.  The staff must quickly whisk out the out-going family’s belongings; and move in the incoming family’s possessions – all during the Inauguration ceremony!

 

The staff must then quickly learn the new family’s quirks, likes and dislikes.  The book hints that some families, especially First Ladies, were more of a challenge that others.  

 

I found this to be a fascinating read.

 

Read:  December 1, 2020

 

4 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

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

A Higher Loyalty: Truth, Lies and Leadership, by James Comey (2018)

I don’t generally read books by celebrities or political figures.  I was browsing in the library and A Higher Loyalty, by James Comey was on display.  I decided to give the book a try.

The book is very well written.  Also, Comey has a huge ego, which he acknowledges, and seems to rarely make mistakes.  He did bully a fellow classmate while in college, which he now acknowledges, but still regrets that event.  He also acknowledges that his has a reputation for being sanctimonious, so tries to humanize himself by recounting traumatic events in his life.  His interest in law enforcement began when he was in high school and was a victim of an armed burglary in his home.

A Higher Loyalty outlines Comey’s career in law enforcement from his days as an Assistant United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York.  While there, he worked under Rudy Giuliani, whose leadership style he disagrees.  He was a prosecutor for the Mafia, and learned about how the mob mind worked.  He would later compare President Trump’s leadership to how the mob bosses operated.

After working in the public sector, we went to work in the private sector.  It seems his motive is money, as he bemoans that the salary for a government worker was insufficient to cover costs of his growing family.  This seems somewhat insulting, considering he was in high enough positions to make more money than many Americans.

After Obama became president, Comey returned to government as the director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.  He was confirmed in that position in 2013, and knowing that the term for FBI Director is for 10 years, expected to last through 2023.

Comey describes the characteristics that make a person a great leader.  He describes steps he took to create a pleasant work environment for his employees despite the often stressful tasks of the job.

The last few chapters of the book describe the FBI’s investigation into Hillary Clinton’s email debacle, and the subsequent election of President Trump. He describes his encounters with the new president and the awkwardness he felt in his meetings with the president.

Comey gave a lot of insight into the function of the office of the United States Attorney and the FBI.  It was a fun and quick read.

Read: June 3, 2018

4 Stars

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

Upstairs at the White House: My Life with the First Ladies, by J.B. West (1973)

The author, J.B. West, entered the White House on March 1, 1941 as an assistant Usher to the White House.  He left the White House exactly 28 years later as the Chief Usher.  During those 28 years, he served six Presidents, or more precisely, the needs and demands of the First Ladies.

During those 28 years, the duties of the White House evolved from being somewhat quaint (Eleanor Roosevelt could run all over town without Secret Service on her tail), to one under a fishbowl with the advent of the television age.

The Chief Usher is responsible for running the White House, from its personnel, its budget, and all guests and visitors of the First Family.  Each First Lady had her own whims and tastes.  The White House staff must adjust.

Since the Chief Usher deals mostly with the First Lady, the book did not go into the politics of each of the six Presidents.  Instead, the book provides an insight into the inner working of the White House under the control of the First Lady.  Each presidential family had its own stamp that it incorporated into the White House.  Each family is given a budget within which to use to refurbish the home.

The White House, while sturdy on the outside, was crumbling on the inside. During a tea that Bess Truman was hosting, the chandelier nearly came crashing down on her guests.  It was soon discovered that a butler walking across the floor on the room above caused the swaying chandelier.  Engineers examined the building and discovered that it was very unstable.  During the Truman administration, the White House was gutted and all the internal rooms were rebuilt.  In addition, the iconic balcony on the White House was a Truman addition.

The author details the tastes of each First Lady.  Eleanor Roosevelt was a whirlwind, always on the go.  Bess Truman was a frugal Midwesterner.  Mamie Eisenhower, was a military wife through and through.  She came across as the least likable of all the First Ladies in the book.  She seemed to laughingly scold everyone.  Jackie Kennedy was a devoted mother with a keen sense of style.  She brought the White House to the public.  Lady Bird Johnson bowed to the wishes of her husband and children.  The author left during the Nixon Administration, and his portrait of Pat Nixon is short.

I found the book to be interesting.  It is a quick and easy read.

Read:  April 7, 2018

4 Stars

Books Set in the Middle East, Europe and the United States

The Black Widow, by Daniel Silva (2016)

The Black Widow follows the exploits of Gabriel Allon, Israeli spy and art restorer.  After ISIS took responsibility for an act of terrorism in Paris, which killed a friend of his, Allon is tapped to find the mastermind responsible.  The terrorist is called Saladin, like the Sultan of Egypt and Syria who faced the Crusaders in the 1100s.

Allon recruits Natalie Mizrahi, a young French-Israeli doctor.  Natalie is fluent in many languages, including Arabic.  She is transformed and trained to become a Palestinian doctor to infiltrate the ISIS community and become an ISIS recruit.  Her cover story is that she was from a Palestinian village and her fiancé was murdered by Israelis, thus she is out for revenge.  The plan is successful and she ultimately comes face-to-face to an injured Saladin.  She faces a moral dilemma to save him, or end his life and stop his continued acts of terror.

While the novel is a work of fiction, it is inspired by true acts of terrorism that have occurred throughout the world by ISIS.  In addition, the book emphasized the healing work of Hadassah Hospital in Jerusalem.  Doctors and nurses treat and heal victims of terrorist acts as well as the terrorist themselves.

Read:

April 30, 2017

4 Stars