Political Books - Page 6

In the Time of the Butterflies

Julia Alvarez

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 159 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Excellent 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

It was a beautiful story about something that I really knew nothing about. I laughed and cried and learned a lot.

a story every American needs to know 4 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

As a "Gringo" I am forever grateful to Julia Alvarez for bringing this important story to a larger audience. Actually I saw the film first, and then read the book -- in any case it is a story every American needs to know, so that, as Dede Mirabal says, we don't repeat history. To my way of thinking, the overthrow of Trujillo came late and was more legitimate than the overthrow of Saddam Hussein. It's too bad the U.S. framed communism as an enemy rather than a friend of democracy!

A great read 4 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

A great read, no matter what your politics are. Instead of making political figures into demons or little plaster saints as we're all so fond of doing, Alvarez draws them as real women who are sometimes heroic and sometimes just trying to get the kids to bed. A gripping story with believable characters and a window on a time and place I knew little about.

Editorial Review:

The author of How the Garci+a7a Girls Lost Their Accents evokes the horror of the Dominican Republic under dictator General Trujillo, as three sisters die in a jeep "accident," in a story based on actual events. $40,000 ad/promo. Tour.

America America: A Novel

Ethan Canin

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 40 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

From Ethan Canin, bestselling author of The Palace Thief, comes a stunning novel, set in a small town during the Nixon era and today, about America and family, politics and tragedy, and the impact of fate on a young man’s life.

In the early 1970s, Corey Sifter, the son of working-class parents, becomes a yard boy on the grand estate of the powerful Metarey family. Soon, through the family’s generosity, he is a student at a private boarding school and an aide to the great New York senator Henry Bonwiller, who is running for president of the United States. Before long, Corey finds himself involved with one of the Metarey daughters as well, and he begins to leave behind the world of his upbringing. As the Bonwiller campaign gains momentum, Corey finds himself caught up in a complex web of events in which loyalty, politics, sex, and gratitude conflict with morality, love, and the truth.

America America is a beautiful novel about America as it was and is, a remarkable exploration of how vanity, greatness, and tragedy combine to change history and fate.

PRAISE FOR AMERICA AMERICA

“A brilliant, serious book for serious readers.”
–San Diego Union Tribune

“A complicated, many-layered epic of class, politics, sex, death, and social history…Its reach is wide and its touch often masterly.”
–John Updike in The New Yorker

“A sprawling, captivating, timely work of art…Clearly the work of a writer at the top of his form…A novel that reminds us that fiction matters.”
–Houston Chronicle

“As rich, ambitious, intelligent, emotionally satisfying and important a work of fiction as we’re likely to get this year.”
   –Richard Russo, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Empire Falls

“We’ve waited a long time for a worthy successor to Robert Penn Warren’s All the King's Men, and it couldn't have arrived at a more auspicious moment."
–Washington Post

An intoxicating big book–in both size and ambition.
Thrilling…Luminous.
–Cleveland Plain Dealer

“A big, ambitious, old-fashioned, quintessentially American novel about politics, power, ambition, class, ethics and loyalty…Bravo to Canin for tackling the American Dream.”
–Los Angeles Times

“Beautifully written…Heartbreaking.”
–USA Today

“Intelligently observed, elegantly written…A perfect story for an election year, but one that will be read long after November.”
–Christian Science Monitor




“A magnificent novel with enormous sweep and power…The crowning glory of Ethan Canin’s writing life.”
–Pat Conroy, author of The Prince of Tides

“A very ambitious take on the great American novel–about class, wealth, politics, history, power, innocence and corruption. Beautiful…brilliant…complicated…At times triumphant, at times sad.”
–Linda Wertheimer, National Public Radio

“Ethan Canin could hardly wish for higher praise than this: His big, carefully crafted novel earns the right to its name.”
—New York Observer

"One of the best writers at work today."
–Lorrie Moore, author of Birds of America

“At year's end, America America might not have won the National Book Award, but it should have.”
–Fredericksburg Free Lance-Star

“A grand novel, with a wide scope and small anguishes…The writing is exquisite, the depiction of the fading days of a certain American dream haunting.”
–Miami Herald

“A splendid novel.”
–Publishers Weekly, Signature Review

“A superb achievement.”
–Library Journal, Starred Review

“Powerful and haunting, a major work.”
—Kirkus Reviews, Starred Review

“Striking...Sweeping, multileveled…America America has that pull, that something that could make it a classic.”
–Buffalo News

Saving Faith

David Baldacci

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 181 Average rating: 3.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

It sounds like a movie pitch: "The story is like Tom Clancy crossed with John Grisham set in the Washington D.C. political world." But David Baldacci's Saving Faith successfully fuses elements from both of these chart-busters in this political thriller spiced with techno-wizardry.The villain is a classic spy caricature: cold-war CIA super-patriot Robert Thornhill wants to reclaim the glory days of the Central Intelligence Agency--when money flowed like the Mississippi during a flood, and the FBI watched helplessly from the sidelines. Working from his secret underground bunker, he blackmails Danny Buchanan, one of the great Washington lobbyists, to front an enormous bribery scheme that will force Congress to bend to the CIA's whims. But Thornhill's plan springs a leak: Buchanan's assistant Faith Lockhart discovers her boss's dirty dealings, and she intends to expose the whole mess to Thornhill's nemesis, the FBI. Thornhill's associates attempt to assassinate Faith, but their bullet kills her FBI escort instead. Faith finds herself on the run with Lee Adams, a fit-and-trim PI who had been shadowing her at the behest of Buchanan. If all this sounds a bit confusing, it is at times. Baldacci works hard to keep the tension steadily rising, but it is sometimes difficult to remember why Faith and Lee can't just stop running and go for help. Nevertheless, they are very likable heroes, and Baldacci's depiction of the world of lobbyists and the internecine warfare of the FBI and CIA (complete with state-of-the-art spy gadgets and transmission-proof chambers) elevates the novel with details that can come only from careful research. --Patrick O'Kelley

Saturday

Ian McEwan

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 294 Average rating: 3.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

From the pen of a master — the #1 bestselling, Booker Prize–winning author of Atonement — comes an astonishing novel that captures the fine balance of happiness and the unforeseen threats that can destroy it. A brilliant, thrilling page-turner that will keep readers on the edge of their seats.

Saturday is a masterful novel set within a single day in February 2003. Henry Perowne is a contented man — a successful neurosurgeon, happily married to a newspaper lawyer, and enjoying good relations with his children. Henry wakes to the comfort of his large home in central London on this, his day off. He is as at ease here as he is in the operating room. Outside the hospital, the world is not so easy or predictable. There is an impending war against Iraq, and a general darkening and gathering pessimism since the New York and Washington attacks two years before.

On this particular Saturday morning, Perowne’s day moves through the ordinary to the extraordinary. After an unusual sighting in the early morning sky, he makes his way to his regular squash game with his anaesthetist, trying to avoid the hundreds of thousands of marchers filling the streets of London, protesting against the war. A minor accident in his car brings him into a confrontation with a small-time thug. To Perowne’s professional eye, something appears to be profoundly wrong with this young man, who in turn believes the surgeon has humiliated him — with savage consequences that will lead Henry Perowne to deploy all his skills to keep his family alive.

Split Second

David Baldacci

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 178 Average rating: 3.0 of 5

Quite good except for the extremely poor solution 2 out of 5 stars.
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PLOT: Once Sean King was one of the best agents in the Secret Service. But one day his attention was diverted for only a split second and a presidential candidate was killed right next to him. So Sean had to leave the Service. 8 years later Secret Service agent Michelle Maxwell lets a presidential candidate out of her sight and in that short moment the candidate disappears. Two completely different incidents, no common denominator, no link between the two agents. And yet their destinies are interdependent. They need each other and they need to solve the riddle. One to save her future, one to dispel the demons of his past...

The premise of the book is really great and promised long time of continuous reading. Also the two main characters are really great and well developed - as a reader you just must love them. And of course there are several twists and turns in the book that will make you wonder about the link between the two incidents. I stayed up long hours to get closer to the answer. 'Who' and especially 'Why' were the main questions I asked myself again and again. But I could not solve the riddle. Maybe because new characters were introduced repeatedly and there are lots of dead ends during the agent's investigation?
The introduction of a third ex Secret Service agent as another main character is unexpected and also a bit strange because I never got rid of the feeling that the motive and the behavior of that person did not fit in. And Sean's connection with that agent is really strange after all what happened. On the other hand the story would not work without that character.

OK every book has flaws.
For once you wonder why the perpetrator is always so well informed and at the right spot at the right time right from the start. Furthermore it seems very strange that he is able to set up Sean and Michelle so easily all the time - doing things he should not be able to. You also wonder why that person does not stop the two agents early in their investigation.
Second, you wonder why Sean and Michelle split for each night when already somebody attempted to kill them. Shouldn't they watch each other's back a lot closer?
Third, after a while you do not need to be a genius to figure out what distracted Sean during his duty 8 years earlier. But you wonder why nobody else saw what he saw [or why it was not captured on film etc.] and why he never mentioned it to anybody. (The explanation for it later on is kind of lame.)

Nevertheless most of the flaws mentioned are minor and do not really spoil the fun of reading.

Unfortunately towards the end of the book something really strange happened. Something that I have never experienced before. The first three quarters of the book I had difficulties to put it down because it was so thrilling. The closer I came to the ending though, I had a strange urge to slow down reading. It might be because both tension and pace slow down in the end. Or the fear that the ending with all its conclusions and explanations would not be satisfying. Regrettably the fear was justified.
The ending is really disappointing and could even be called ridiculous or plain stupid.
Somebody plans for years and creates this clever plot - all for that?! That is really lame. Nobody with a motive like that would go through all the difficulties to create such a scenario. Or you need a better and stronger motive to do so. Sorry Mr. Baldacci but I am not buying it!

Looking back at the other two Baldacci books I read ("Last Man Standing" + "The Simple Truth") I have a hunch that there might be a general problem with his books: The start is brilliant, the tension is high, you cannot put the book aside but at the end you are not happy with the solution. From those 3 books "Split Second" is the weakest one because the ending is really, really extremely bad/stupid/ridiculous/unbelievable/poor/lame and it ruins the whole story. Therefore 2 stars only.

Editorial Review:

Michelle Maxwell has just wrecked her promising career at the Secret Service. Against her instincts, she let a presidential candidate out of her sight for the briefest moment and the man whose safety was her responsibility vanished into thin air. Sean King knows how the she feels. Eight years earlier, the hard-charging Secret Service agent allowed his attention to be diverted for a split second. And the candidate he was protecting was gunned down before his eyes. Now Michelle and Sean are about to see their destinies converge. Drawn into a maze of lies, secrets, and deadly coincidences, the two discredited agents uncover a shocking truth: that the separate acts of violence that shattered their lives were really a long time in the making-and are a long way from over...

The Monkey Wrench Gang (P.S.)

Edward Abbey

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 104 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

A Book to be Read Again and Again 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

I received a pre-publication copy of The Monkey Wrench Gang at an American Booksellers Convention and took it home, along with a lot of other freebies. A few weeks later, my teenage son said to me, "Mom, you have GOT TO READ THIS BOOK!" This was 30 years ago. I read it then, and I have read it at least once a year since then, so that the characters have become my good friends. I love this book, and over the years I have given copies to many people. I grew to love Ed Abbey, too, through biographies about him, and I wept and grieved at his death.

Yes, buy this book and see for yourself!

Editorial Review:

Ex-Green Beret George Hayduke has returned from war to find his beloved southwestern desert threatened by industrial development. Joining with Bronx exile and feminist saboteur Bonnie Abzug, wilderness guide and outcast Mormon Seldom Seen Smith, and libertarian billboard torcher Doc Sarvis, M.D., Hayduke is ready to fight the power—taking on the strip miners, clear-cutters, and the highway, dam, and bridge builders who are threatening the natural habitat. The Monkey Wrench Gang is on the move—and peaceful coexistence be damned!

Boomsday

Christopher Buckley

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 92 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Killing yourself for the good of your country 5 out of 5 stars.
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Will the financial security of the US government depend on a large chunk of its citizenry killing themselves?

My only experience with Buckley before this was seeing the film "Thank You For Smoking." That was enough. I picked up this book on a whim, and it contained even more quick witted cynicism and pitch dark satire than I could have dreamed.

Buckley starts "Boomsday" realistically enough, and as he introduces more elements of quasi draconian politics, the plot spirals out of control and becomes patently absurd. But the best part about it is that somehow, it still seems like all of it could actually happen, which is both scary and hilarious.

The sharp dialogue reminded me of Aaron Sorkin's "The West Wing," only everyone is a lot more pessimistic and sardonic. I imagine Sorkin and Buckley to be like the tiny angel and demon consciences from 90s tv shows on each shoulder, except instead of telling me what to do, they are explaining US politics to me in humorous anecdotes and complicated vocabulary.

"Boomsday" is easily one of the most enjoyable books I've read this year.

Editorial Review:

BOOMSDAY'S heroine is Cassandra Devine, a charismatic 29-year-old blogger who incites massive political turmoil when, outraged over mounting Social Security debt, she politely suggests that Baby Boomers be given government incentives to kill themselves by age 75. Her modest proposal catches fire with millions of her outraged peers ("Generation Whatever") and an ambitious Senator seeking to gain the youth vote in his presidential campaign.
With the help of Washington's greatest spin doctor, the blogger and the politician try to ride the issue of euthanasia for Boomers (they call it "Transitioning") all the way to the White House, over the forceful objections of the Religious Right and, of course, Baby Boomers, who are deeply offended by demonstrations on the golf courses of their retirement resorts.

Murder on K Street (Thorndike Press Large Print Basic Series)

Margaret Truman

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 8 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

Nobody knows the crooked turns, slippery slopes, and dark, dangerous stretches of the Beltway better than Margaret Truman, dean of the Washington, D.C., mystery scene. And no one is better equipped to lead a suspenseful tour into the treacherous territory of big-time political lobbying, where the right information and enough influence can buy power–the kind that corrupts . . . and sometimes kills.

Arriving home from a fund-raising dinner, senior Illinois senator Lyle Simmons discovers his wife’s brutally bludgeoned body. And like any savvy politician with presidential aspirations, his first move is to phone his attorney. In this case, it’s his old friend and college roommate, former DA Philip Rotondi, who gamely agrees to step out of quiet retirement and into the thick of a D.C.-style political, criminal, and public relations maelstrom from which no one will escape unscathed.

The crime scene is barely cold when the senator’s estranged daughter arrives hurling shocking allegations of murder at her father, despite a roomful of well-heeled witnesses who can provide Simmons with an alibi. Meanwhile, D.C.’s rumor mills and spin machines shift into high gear as speculation swirls around a tabloid- and TV-ready prime suspect: Jonell Marbury, a dashing lawyer turned lobbyist at a powerful K Street firm–and the last person to see the victim alive. But Rotondi harbors his own unsettling suspicions.

And after a second woman is killed, he discovers that a long-buried secret from his past may hold the key to cracking the case.

Aided by sleuthing ex-attorneys Mac and Annabel Smith, Rotondi reawakens the prosecutorial skills that served him so well in his gang-busting days, following the stench of dirty money and dirtier tricks across the country and across the thresholds of back rooms and front offices alike–where doing the right thing is for fools and taking on the system is a dead man’s gambit.

Debt of Honor

Tom Clancy

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 206 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

one of his best 5 out of 5 stars.
2 of 2 people found this review helpful.

I have read every Clancy book and this one has got to be one of my favorites. A complex tale that reads so quickly, it is an interesting, plausible tale of how one man's dedication and determination to right how he was wronged, or at least thinks so, can loose hell upon the owrld. Again, Clancy seems to know what is going to happen, or at least I think bad guys get their ideas from him.

Gripping from start to finish 5 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

I am a big fan of Clancy's novels, and although I have to say that he's had a lot of great ones, "Debt of Honor" is one of my favorites. Clancy's plot development is superb, always giving you just enough information to both keep your interest and pique your curiosity about what will happen next. As always, the tactical details and elements of setting (economic, political, etc.) are impeccable.

As to those readers who criticize Clancy for "picking on" Japanese culture or government, I've lived in Asia for several years and happen to think he's not that far from reality. But that discussion aside, keep in mind that this is a work of fiction, not a predictor of imminent political developments. The subject matter shouldn't be too much of a problem for anyone who's not a pedantic scholar of East Asian studies.

Editorial Review:

Called out of retirement to serve as National Security Advisor to the president, Jack Ryan, with the help of CIA officers John Clark and Domingo Chavez, must prepare the untested president to meet the challenges of a new world order. 1,500,000 first printing.

Rainbow Six (Tom Clancy)

Tom Clancy

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Total reviews: 1439 Average rating: 3.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

4 Compact Discs / 6 Hours
Read by David Dukes
(Also available on cassette)


Tom Clancy's most shocking story to date - and closer to reality than any government would care to admit.

Over the course of nine novels, Tom Clancy's "genius for big, compelling plots" and his "natural narrative gift" (The New York Times Magazine) have established him as one of the preeminent storytellers of our time.  In his new and most extraordinary novel, Rainbow Six, Clancy goes beyond anything he has done before.

At its heart is John Clark, the ex-Navy SEAL of Without Remorse, a master of secret operational missions, and newly named the head of an international task force dedicated to combating terrorism.  Clark is looking forward to sinking his teeth into a new mission, but the opportunities start coming faster than anyone could have expected; an incident at a Swiss bank, the kidnapping of an international trader in Germany, a  terrible raid on an amusement park in Spain.

Each episode seems separate, yet the timing disturbs Clark.  Is there a connection?  He tries to figure out where all this activity is heading, but there is no way to predict the real threat: a group of terrorists like none the world has ever encountered, a group so extreme that their success could literally mean the end of life on this earth as we know it.  

This is Clancy at his best - and there is none better.