Penrod and Sam by Booth Tarkington (Indiana University, $15). Stories about two 11-year-old boys in turn-of-the-century Indiana. Fantastic writing. I read this book when I was about 12, and discovered that you could read for pleasure.
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What It Takes by Richard Ben Cramer (Vintage, $24). An amazing chronicle of the 1988 presidential election. Cramer tells the life stories of the principal primary candidates—including Bush, Dole, Biden, Dukakis, and Gary Hart—in an incredibly engrossing way. Quite possibly the finest book on presidential politics ever written. (That’s a quote from the Cleveland Plain Dealer.) Look for the cameo by an incredibly obnoxious young George W. Bush.
Why Americans Hate Politics by E.J. Dionne (Simon & Schuster, $18). This came out in the summer of 1991 and changed history. Dionne laid out an argument for how, with the Cold War over, Democrats could stop losing to Republicans on patriotism, crime, and welfare. I recommended it to a consultant who was working with Bill Clinton, and he said, “Oh, yeah. We’re running the whole campaign on that book.”
A Bright Shining Lie by Neil Sheehan (Vintage, $18). Best book on Vietnam I’ve ever read. Sheehan looks at the war through the lens of one guy, Col. John Paul Vann. The book’s something like 800 pages, but I could not put it down. It shows the whole complex history of how we screwed up in a war that shaped the way a generation looks at the use of American force.
The Conscience of a Liberal by Paul Wellstone (University of Minnesota, $18). The manifesto of the great senator from Minnesota, who died in 2002. My favorite passage: “The future will not belong to those who are cynical or those who stand on the sidelines. The future will belong to those who have passion and are willing to work hard to make our country better.”
The Price of Loyalty by Ron Suskind (Simon & Schuster, $15). The best account of the current White House. Former U.S. Treasury Secretary Paul O’Neill worked with Suskind to paint a chilling portrait of the inner workings of the Bush administration, where it’s easy to get in trouble for paying too much attention to things like detail, the consequences of policies, or the truth.
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