The First Gentleman

This thriller, co-written by Bill Clinton and James Patterson, revolves around an author and his partner/researcher who believe that the first gentleman, husband of President Madeline Wright, killed his cheerleader girlfriend 17 years ago and they intend to write a book exposing him. Kirkus provides a positive summary and review:

"The former president teams up again with the industrial-strength tale-spinner to deliver an action-packed mystery. Cole Wright is in big trouble. Thanks to the dogged diggings of former Boston Globe reporter Garrett Wilson and his partner, sometime lawyer Brea Cooke, the former New England Patriots tight end is on trial for murdering his cheerleader girlfriend 17 years earlier. Thing is, Cole is now married to Madeline Parson Wright, the president of the United States. ... Garrett and Brea are shopping a book in which they claim to have hard evidence that Cole Wright killed Suzanne Bonanno, but as they probe deeper into the story, things become murky: Mafiosi, a contract killer, FBI agents, overworked cops, a law professor with deep insight into Cole’s enemies, and sleek political operatives all wait their turn to complicate the tale. For all the tangled threads, Clinton and Patterson turn in a taut yarn that’s satisfyingly stuffed with red herrings, a neatly engineered conspiracy, and more than a few dead bodies. One is tempted, of course, to read between the lines: The first gentleman is, after all, married to the first woman president, and there’s a vast right-wing effort to stymie her efforts to forge a “Grand Bargain” that, among other things, is going to “increase the legal immigration quota by a million people per year for a decade,” raise the corporate tax rate to an ironclad 15%, and “bring back Al Gore’s Reinventing Government initiative from the 1990s.” Suffice it to say that the primary audience for the book is not the MAGA crowd. Carefully constructed, entertaining escapism with a political edge, and just the thing for beach or airplane reading."

As an introduction to their interview with the authors the BBC offers this: "Their gripping new novel centres on US President Madeline Wright and husband, Cole Wright, a former professional American football star. He still carries the scars of his career and is looking for a purpose in the White House, as he fights to clear his name in a trial for the murder of a cheerleader more than 20 years ago. It's a classic police procedural-meets-courtroom drama, as journalists, detectives and political operatives all work to uncover the truth behind who killed the cheerleader and to exonerate the First Gentleman – or to destroy him – and his wife's political agenda. " 

 

Mr. Churchill in the White House: The Untold Story of a Prime Minister and Two Presidents

This chunk of Winston Churchill's life by Robert Schmuhl is painstakingly researched and reported. I have read 3 other books about Winston Churchill: Hero of the Empire, about his service as a soldier during the Boer War; The Splendid and the Vile, describing his personal and public life during his first term as Prime Minister during WWII, and Lady Clementine, which also describes his personal life during WWII alongside the lives of those closest to him. In many ways this book extends his biography to include Churchill's intensified interactions with President Roosevelt once the U.S. joined the war, as well as his strong relationship to President Eisenhower during Churchill's 2nd term as P.M. "With a new biography, Robert Schmuhl walks readers through Winston Churchill’s frequent stays at the White House – and the strong bonds those sojourns forged" Christian Science Monitor, July 31, 2024). For me at least, it did cement in my mind that this was a truly a great man who initially stood alone against the Nazi threat and who advocated relentlessly for peace and democracy. I had not realized he won a Nobel Prize for literature and just how extensively he studied and documented history of the western world.

Publishers Weekly notes that, in spite of the hundreds of books written about Churchill, Schmuhl takes a unique approach by focusing extensively on the character of the men involved and their relationships and closes by strongly recommending the book to "history buffs."  As one example cited by the Wall Street Journal's review reveals, "In an extraordinary gesture of trust, the American president [Roosevelt] left Washington, D.C., on Sept. 9, 1943, and handed the British prime minister his keys. 'Winston, please treat the White House as your home. Invite anyone you like to any meals, and do not hesitate to summon any of my advisers with whom you wish to confer.' Winston Churchill had been staying at the White House for more than a week and Franklin Roosevelt was departing for his country home in Hyde Park, N.Y. 'I availed myself fully of these generous facilities,' Churchill later wrote. Assembling the British and American chiefs of staff, he led a meeting on the invasion of Italy. One onlooker wondered whether 'there has ever existed between the war leaders of two allied nations, a relationship so intimate as that revealed by this episode.'" Moreover, Churchill is famously quoted as saying, "No lover ever studied every whim of his mistress as I did those of President Roosevelt" (letter to John Colville, May 2, 1948). Kirkus says, "An educational recollection of an era when geopolitics was based on respect, mutual understanding, and friendship....It adds up to a fresh approach to an important piece of history." 

Peril

I hesitated to start reading this book written by Bob Woodward and Robert Costa, both of whom are familiar from the media--print journalism and print/ TV news/ analysis, respectively. This is the 3rd book in Woodward's "Trump trilogy" (preceded by Fear and Rage) and the first of the 3 with a co-author. But once I got started, I was fascinated. They interviewed over 200 people who were close to either the Trump administration or the Biden campaign--members of Congress (e.g., Nancy Pelosi), members of the military (e.g., Mark Milley), lawyers (e.g., William Barr), campaign organizers, etc. The last few months of the Trump administration were more rife with flagrant violations of norms and laws than even I imagined. The book opens with the revelation from Milley that he was in contact via back channels during the final days of the Trump administration to reassure them that the United States was not planning to attack China. This is how unbalanced and unpredictable many--in the U.S. and the world at large--had come to see Trump. It is overall a fascinating, somewhat terrifying, and very concerning read, especially as they conclude that the peril for American democracy is far from over.

NPR offers a lengthy review. In their review, The Guardian claims at one point that "In Peril, he [Trump] is indistinguishable from the Trump Baby, the diapered balloon that bobbed above Westminster during his state visit. As he suborns Pence to discount electoral results and nullify Biden’s win, his wheedling suggests dialogue overheard in a primary school playground."The LA Times calls the book "a damning--and tedious--portrait of American democracy on the brink." I still thought the book a worthwhile read.

Destiny of the Republic: A Tale of Madness, Medicine, and the Murder of a President

This is the 2nd book by Candice Millard; my book group also read her River of Doubt, which I found equally engrossing. She is able to tell a good tale about actual historical events, chock full of detail about people as well as places and happenings. The title says it all. I knew nothing about James Garfield but according to Millard's website, "James Abram Garfield was one of the most extraordinary men ever elected president. Born into abject poverty, he rose to become a wunderkind scholar, a Civil War hero, and a renowned and admired reformist congressman. Nominated for president against his will, he engaged in a fierce battle with the corrupt political establishment. But four months after his inauguration, a deranged office seeker tracked Garfield down and shot him in the back." Not only do we follow the assassin's (Charles Guiteau) paranoid descent into a conviction that God wants him to kill Garfield, but we learn almost more than we want to know about the state of medicine in the United States (the NYT called Millard's description "fascinating, if appalling") that very probably was the actual cause of Garfield's death. Of course she tells us about the political machinations that got Garfield nominated and elected along with his wildly unpopular vice president, Chester A. Arthur. And we learn about the role of Alexander Graham Bell in trying to save the president with one of his inventions after Garfield was shot. It is truly a fascinating account and if you are a fan of Erik Larson, you will be happy to read this also.
Appropriately laudatory reviews from The New York Times, Kirkus, The Washington Post,  and Publishers Weekly.