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August 24, 2009

President Obama's vacation reading list

president obama on martha's vineyard Even President Obama needs a good beach read once in a while. Here's what he took for his vacation on Martha's Vineyard, where he played golf today:

-- "The Way Home" by George Pelecanos, who writes crime fiction about Washington (and wrote for The Wire).

-- "Lush Life" by Richard Price, a fictional account of a Manhattan shooting.

-- "Plainsong" by Kent Haruf, a novel about small town life on Colorado's plains.

-- "Hot, Flat and Crowded" by Thomas Friedman

-- "John Adams" by David McCullough. (Nod to New England)

White House deputy spokesman Bill Burton said it would total about 2,300 pages. From one father to another, good luck with that, Mr. President. I'd spend more time seeing the colorful clay cliffs at Gay Head, playing with the kids on the beach, or maybe picking up "Jaws" at a used bookstore (much of the movie was filmed on the island).

Posted by Dave Rosenthal at 4:39 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Comments

Uh...why no female authors, Mr. President? I think Obama should stop by a Martha's Vineyard bookstore and pick up a few books by Laura Lippman.

Posted by: Gail Farrelly | August 25, 2009 1:46 AM

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About the bloggers

While she always preferred The Hardy Boys to Nancy Drew, Nancy Knight grew up reading nearly everything she could get her hands on, including a probably unhealthy amount of R.L. Stine and Christopher Pike, with the obligatory Jane Austen thrown in. She'll still read just about anything you put in front of her, especially the funny or weird. She lives in the city with her books, cat and drum set.

Dave Rosenthal came to The Baltimore Sun as a business reporter in 1987 and now is an assistant managing editor and Sunday editor. He reads a wide range of books (but never as many as he'd like), usually alternating between non-fiction and fiction. Some all-time favorites: A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole; Wind, Sand and Stars by Antoine de Saint-Exupery; and anything by Calvin Trillin or John McPhee. He belongs to a book club with a Jewish theme.

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