Audiobook Review: Unthinkable: Trauma, Truth and the Trials of American Democracy by Jamie Raskin

Unthinkable: Trauma, Truth and the Trials of American Democracy
by Jamie Raskin (Compact Disc Biography Raskin)

Jamie Raskin is the Maryland Congressman whose son, Tommy, committed suicide December 31, 2020 after a lifelong battle with depression. Raskin was back in Congress on January 6, the day after burying his son, to certify the 2020 Presidential election results and was in the capitol building during the attack by the insurgents. Later, he was the lead impeachment manager for President Trump’s second impeachment trial.

 

This is the eloquent story of his son’s life and struggle with depression, Raskin’s personal experience during the January 6 attack, and the preparation for “Impeachment 2.0” – each of these being an “unthinkable” event on their own let alone all three at once.

 

I very much enjoyed listening to Raskin read his own book. It felt as if we were chatting over coffee as he told me everything that came about. The grief at his son’s death is palpable; the danger faced by members of congress on January 6 was stunning; and the planning, depth of information, and organization of the impeachment trial was riveting.

 

Unthinkable is a longer book at 12 discs (most books are 6-8 discs) but, regardless of the length, I was still disappointed when the story ended. This fascinating read stayed with me for several days.

 

( publisher’s official Unthinkable web page ) | ( official Congressman Jamie Raskin web site )

 

Recommended by Charlotte M.
Bennett Martin Public Library — Public Service

 

Have you read or listened to this one? What did you think? Did you find this review helpful?

New reviews appear every month on the Staff Recommendations page of the BookGuide website. You can visit that page to see them all, or watch them appear here in the BookGuide Blog individually over the course of the entire month. Click the tag for the reviewer's name to see more of this reviewer’s recommendations!

New Booklist on BookGuide: Who Lives, Who Dies, Who Tells Your Story?

Did Lyn Manuel Miranda's hit musical Hamilton inspire you to read more volumes about American History around the time of the Founding Fathers? You may then have discovered that there's a lot of books out there that attempt to capitalize on Americans' increased interest in that time period.

Lane G., from the Bennett Martin Public Library downtown has read a lot on this topic, so you don't have do. Follow their recommendations with this new list of Hamilton reading suggestions!

Here are the top 10 books (and some runner ups) that not only report information about the Revolutionary period of American history, but also embody the rebel spirit captured in Lin Manuel Miranda’s Hamilton. The books on this list are exciting, subversive, modern, and full of enough facts that your high school history teacher would cry with pride. So rise up, raise a glass to freedom, and don’t throw away your shot at these 10 excellent reads which will definitely leave you satisfied 

Check out this new booklist on BookGuide at the following link:

Who Lives, Who Dies, Who Tells Your Story?

Audiobook Review: Author in Chief: The Untold Story of Our Presidents and the Books They Wrote by Craig Fehrman

Author in Chief: The Untold Story of Our Presidents and the Books They Wrote
by Craig Fehrman (Compact Disc 973.09 Feh)

I had read a pre-publication review of Author in Chief, and it sounded fascinating, so I placed it on hold as soon as it showed up in the libraries’ online catalog.

Author Craig Fehrman does not try to do an exhaustive exploration of every book ever written by every ex-U.S. President — that’s been done before, and would tend to make for rather dry reading, considering some of the laborious books they created. Instead, he focuses on the Presidents who produced truly noteworthy works of non-fiction, and looks at what the writing process was for each author (or ghost writer, in many cases), and what the impact of each book was — if the book was written before their election, did it serve as a useful campaign tool? If it was written afterwards, was it a look back at their time in office as a “legacy” volume, or was it more honest and personally reflective? Therefore, not every President is featured. This tome is broken up into ranges of time, from the works of the Founding Fathers at the front, to the period from Truman to Obama at the back — the last section is titled “Truman to Trump”, but there is very little about Trump’s literary contributions, other than his ghost-written The Art of the Deal.

A great deal of time is spent on Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, Abraham Lincoln, Woodrow Wilson, Calvin Coolidge, Harry Truman, Ronald Reagan and Barack Obama. Fehrman makes many of their works sound absolutely fascinating, particularly Jefferson’s Notes on the State of Virginia, Lincoln’s compiled debate speeches against Douglas, Calvin Coolidge’s autobiography and Obama’s Dreams of My Father.

I learned a great deal while listening to this as a Book-on-CD, and narrator Fred Sanders really brings the subject matter to life. I was particularly impressed by the contributions of Nebraskans to significant portions of our Presidential literary history. Nebraska authors Bess Streeter Aldrich and Willa Cather are both mentioned — Aldrich was an inspiration to one person being profiled, and Cather was the ghost writer of a non-presidential “autobiography” that greatly influenced another presidential biography. And Lincoln High School’s own Theodore “Ted” Sorensen, chief speechwriter and counselor for John F. Kennedy, is clearly identified as the author of Profiles in Courage, for which Kennedy accepted a Pulitzer Prize, as well as much of JFK’s other supposed literary output.

Author in Chief: The Untold Story of Our Presidents and the Books They Wrote is an engaging volume about United States history, and the world of publishing. Definitely worth taking the time, even if it is a very large book. I hope you, too, will find yourself fascinated by what you learn! It was interesting that the 13-disc audiobook was really only 11 discs long — most of the last two discs were extensive appendices!

[ publisher’s official Author in Chief web site ] | [ official Craig Fehrman web site ]

Recommended by Scott C.
Bennett Martin Public Library – Public Service

Have you read or listened to this one? What did you think? Did you find this review helpful?

New reviews appear every month on the Staff Recommendations page of the BookGuide website. You can visit that page to see them all, or watch them appear here in the BookGuide Blog individually over the course of the entire month. Click the tag for the reviewer's name to see more of this reviewer’s recommendations!

Book Review: Doing Justice by Preet Bharara (as an audiobook)

Doing Justice: A Prosecutor’s Thoughts on Crime, Punishment, and the Rule of Law
by Preet Bharara (Compact Disc 347.73 Bha)

Preet Bharara was US Attorney for the Southern District of New York from 2009 until 2017 when President Trump fired him for his refusal to interfere with the Mueller investigation.

I first encountered Bharara in a live interview with Pulitzer Prize-winning feature writer Eli Sanders at a Seattle city venue complete with an interactive audience in March, 2019 (https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/dan-savage/blabbermouth/e/59733466) where I found him intelligent, well-spoken, and humorous. When asked questions on current events or cases, he did not give a knee-jerk reaction but carefully outlined all the possible legal reasoning behind an attorney’s and court’s activities and explained the consequences for each action.

Doing Justice is Bharara’s first book, and I check it out as a book on CD. He reads the book and it feels as if he’s having a conversation with a friend, he wasn’t preachy or full of legal Latin terms as if trying to impress you.

This is not a dry book on legal topics by a law professor droning on and on. He covers compelling stories – some are famous cases we’ve heard about – providing background and discussing what attorneys must consider when bringing a case to trial (or not), including the ethics involved.

The book is arranged like a criminal case: Part I Inquiry (the investigation), Part II Accusation (do they charge or not?), Part III Judgment (court proceedings), and Part IV Punishment (what happens when a defendant is found guilty). And discusses each in the realm of actual cases. In Part I the first case he talks about is the Lyle and Erik Menendez case (turns out he has a personal connection there) when he realized anyone could be guilty of anything.

From the Preface: “Smart laws do not assure justice any more than a good recipe guarantees a delicious meal. The law is merely an instrument, and without the involvement of human hands it is as lifeless and uninspiring as a violin kept in its case. The law cannot compel us to love each other or respect each other. It cannot cancel hate or conquer evil; teach grace or extinguish apathy. Every day, the law’s best aims are carried out, for good or ill, by human beings. Justice is served, or thwarted, by human beings. Mercy is bestowed, or refused, by human beings.”

I thoroughly enjoyed this book and was disappointed when it ended. I’m now following his weekly podcast podcast (https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/cafe/stay-tuned-with-preet) as an attempt to continue this book.

[ publisher’s official Doing Justice web page ] | [ Preet Bharara page on Wikipedia ]

Recommended by Charlotte M.

Bennett Martin Public Library – Public Service

Have you read or listened to this one? What did you think? Did you find this review helpful?

New reviews appear every month on the Staff Recommendations page of the BookGuide website. You can visit that page to see them all, or watch them appear here in the BookGuide Blog individually over the course of the entire month. Click the tag for the reviewer's name to see more of this reviewer’s recommendations!

Fantasyland by Kurt Anderson

Fantasyland: How American Went Haywire: A 500 Year History

by Kurt Andersen [973 And]

There are many books out there that why one group of people are wrong or why another group of people are insane. “Fantasyland” stands out by taking a big picture approach of how our country came to a place where we appear to be polarized on the very definition of reality itself. Kurt Andersen traces America’s relationship with “wishful magical thinking” all the back to the Protestant Reformation. The author does take a consistently critical view of religion (especially Christianity). So, those readers easily agitated by religious criticism may have a hard time with this book. Rest assured that Kurt Andersen is an equal-opportunity critic. It is a long read, but never a tedious read. It would take the most closed of minds to not at least acknowledge that the author makes some valid criticisms and observations about America’s “fantasy industrial complex”. For anyone wondering how it is we got to where we are as a country, for better or worse, I cannot recommend this book enough to you. It is one of the most entertaining and insightful books you are likely to read.

[ official Fantasyland page on the official Kurt Andersen web site ]

Recommended by Corey G.
Gere Branch Library

Have you read this one? What did you think? Did you find this review helpful?

New reviews appear every month on the Staff Recommendations page of the BookGuide website. You can visit that page to see them all, or watch them appear here in the BookGuide blog individually over the course of the entire month. Click the tag for the reviewer's name to see more of this reviewers recommendations!

The West Wing: Complete Third Season (on DVD)

The West Wing: Complete Third Season
[DVD West]

The third season of the West Wing starts with staff in a lock-down at the White House, with high school students who were touring it at the time, and ends with the president deciding if he should or should not assassinate a terrorist. Some character highlights include: President Jed Bartlet calling the Butterball Hotline on Thanksgiving, Sam being followed and interviewed by his reporter ex-fiance, Toby arguing with the team who were hired to get Bartlet re-elected, Leo dating his attorney, Josh becoming obsessed with a website that’s devoted to him, Donna finding out that due to a cartography error she was actually born in Canada, CJ learning the lyrics to “I’m Too Sexy” and singing them around the White House when the majority leader flubs a question on camera, and Charlie getting into a prank war with CJ after a copy of the President’s schedule goes missing. While there were a lot of funny moments throughout the season there was also a lot of tension because of the terrorist attack and also the staffers being subpoenaed and having to testify in court.

[If you enjoy this, you may also wish to try The American President, Veep, Madam Secretary or other political dramas.]

 

[ Internet Movie Database entry for this series ] | [ official The West Wing page on the NBC web site ]

Recommended by Carrie R.
Bennett Martin Public Library

Have you watched this one? What did you think? Did you find this review helpful?

New reviews appear every month on the Staff Recommendations page of the BookGuide website. You can visit that page to see them all, or watch them appear here in the BookGuide blog individually over the course of the entire month. Click the tag for the reviewer's name to see more of this reviewers recommendations!

The West Wing: Complete Second Season (on DVD)

The West Wing: Complete Second Season
[DVD West] 

The second season of the series starts off by finding out who got shot at the end of last season’s finale, and the season ends with a funeral of a beloved staff member. Some character highlights include the President being forced to tell the country about his health, CJ choosing which turkey is the most photogenic and therefore should be pardoned for Thanksgiving at the White House, Toby arguing about school prayer, Charlie trying to locate the perfect carving knife for the president, Josh dealing with his issues with the help of a psychiatrist, Leo defending the Missile Defense Shield, Sam helping his friend run for office with bad results, Donna being the only one worried about the satellite falling to earth and also in the second season we are introduced to Ainsley Hayes, a Republican reporter who shows Sam up on national TV and Leo then hires as Associate White House Counsel.
The drama and humor continue in the second season. The best episode is probably the Thanksgiving episode, but there are many good ones throughout the year. When the president is forced to explain his health it really changes the dynamic in the White House so there is a lot more drama added in-house between staff.

[If you enjoy this, you may also wish to try The American President, The Newsroom, Scandal, Madam Secretary or other political dramas.]

[ Internet Movie Database entry for this series ] | [ official The West Wing page on the NBC web site ]

Recommended by Carrie R.
Bennett Martin Public Library

Have you watched this one? What did you think? Did you find this review helpful?

New reviews appear every month on the Staff Recommendations page of the BookGuide website. You can visit that page to see them all, or watch them appear here in the BookGuide blog individually over the course of the entire month. Click the tag for the reviewer's name to see more of this reviewers recommendations!