Presidential Biography Book Club Update

[Shoshana O'Keefe]

Even though we had our meeting a week ago, I'm just now getting to this update email.  Terribly sorry about that - I was involved in some pretty intense studying to pass a test to become a teacher but that's over now.  By the way, one of the essay questions on my history exam was to compare the economic policies of Herbert Hoover and Franklin Roosevelt.  It was pretty fucking sweet.

Anyway, you may have heard by now that after a heated and somewhat depressing discussion of President Nixon, we drew a card and the new subject is.... Woodrow Wilson!  I fine topic if you ask me.  We haven't looked at that time period at all and we haven't had a president with his style and background before or since.  I think you guys are going to love learning about him.

Why am I so sure?  Because I already read a biography of him, that's why. I couldn't recommend it more highly.  It's called Wilson, by A. Scott Berg, and it came out in 2013.  If you look through the Terry Gross podcast archives, you'll find a great interview with the author that will give you a sense for what the book is like.  

I didn't see too many other books to read, except this one, which isn't much shorter, but definitely another option. They are both over 700 pages.  If you find any more good choices, please share them with the group.

I know that's another long book, but check this out - we decided at the meeting to wait until the end of the summer to meet again.  Regarding meeting time, I feel (and people generally agreed) that the experiment in choosing a date far in advance was a failure.  We had pretty low attendance at the last meeting and I think it was largely due to people having plans come up after we committed to the date.  I want to go back to the old way of checking in a few weeks before we want to meet and setting a time then.  I'm putting a reminder in my calendar to reach out on August 1st.  I'll provide a few ideas for meeting times towards the end of August at that point.  

Sound good?  OK, get out there and Wilson it up!

Shoshana