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Barack Obama

An Obama/Biden Caper You Could Not Have Imagined

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Hope Never Dies by Andrew Shaffer (Quirk Books), a work of fiction, may bring tears to your eyes. Yes, it’s that good of a whodunit, with its plot tied up neatly with no loose ends. You may laugh until you cry because this book is that funny. But mostly, you may weep with joy for reuniting with a couple of old friends you’ve missed so much. Hope Never Dies’s leading characters actually were leaders of a different sort from 2009 to 2017: Joe Biden and Barack Obama. Now they’re together again in a rollicking, wise-cracking buddy caper. Just a few months after he’s left his vice presidential office, Joe Biden is trying his best to become suburban Joe, laying tile…

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Just the Right Book Podcast: YOU May Be Related to Hillary Clinton

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Author A.J. Jacobs recently discovered that he was related to President Barack Obama, Lady Gaga and Donald Trump! Jacobs’ latest book, “It’s All Relative: Adventures Up and Down the World’s Family Tree” was born out of this one email: “You don’t know me, but I’m your eighth cousin. And we have over 80,000 relatives of yours in our database.” The journalist and contributing writer for Esquire who is best known for writing about his lifestyle experiments shares how he chronicled his three-year journey to help build the biggest family tree in history. The number of people who have had their DNA analyzed with home genealogy kits like AncestryDNA more than doubled during 2017 and now exceeds 12 million. We also speak to Gael LeLamer, Book Buyer at Books…

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Kathleen Hill’s Favorite Memoirs To Help Get You Through the Last Days of Our Writing Contest

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Inspired by an interview and memoir written by Kathleen Hill, BookTrib is hosting our first writing contest where anyone with a story to tell can write  for a chance to be a 2018 BookTrib Contributor.  Hill, who is also a professor of writing at Sarah Lawrence College will be judging the contest  along with Walt Gragg, author of The Red Line, and James R. Hannibal, author of The Fourth Ruby. We know many of you are looking forward to entering your work an need inspiration, but others, still, just want a list of recommended memoir to add to your collection. Here, we can oblige everyone with a list of suggested memoirs from Hill’s own personal collection along with her observations and recollections. Autobiography of…

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2018 Grammys: Carrie Fisher, Bernie Sanders and Bruce Springsteen Contend for Best Spoken Word Album

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Nominees for the 2018 Grammys were announced today and people are still talking about how this is quite possibly the most diverse list of nominees with women and people of color dominating the top categories.  Leading those nominations in all the music categories is no surprise to many: Jay-Z for his 2017 release 4:44, with eight.  While many of us tune in to the Grammys for the performances and to see if our favorites will walk away with the trophy, there are other categories that we don’t often see televised, but garner awards as well. Of interest to us is the category where books are mentioned! Audiobooks! The official category title since 1998 is “Best Spoken Word Album,” but the…

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A ‘Promise’ Fulfilled: How Joe Biden Found Purpose After Tragedy

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I have been looking forward to a number of new releases this month, including Jenifer Lewis’ The Mother of Black Hollywood (released Nov. 14) and Duane Tudahl’s Prince and the Purple Rain Studio Sessions: 1983 and 1984 (released Nov. 15).  As I set up my list of reads for the Thanksgiving holiday, the first of these on my list is the new book by Joe Biden (whom I affectionately call “Uncle Joe”), Promise Me, Dad: A Year of Hope, Hardship, and Purpose. Nearly a year after completing two terms in service to the country as Vice President for Barack Obama, Joe Biden is speaking about the last few years of his term in office marked by the pain of losing…

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10 Must-Read Political Biographies for History Buffs

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BookTrib is partnering with Bookish to bring you more great content. One of the most fascinating parts of studying history is diving deep into the life of a man or woman who helped to shape the world we live in today. Readers who share that sentiment are in luck. We’ve rounded up ten biographies that feature figures who had an impact, for better or worse, on American politics. The Marquis: Lafayette Reconsidered, Laura Auricchio This biography by Laura Auricchio introduces readers to a key figure in two historic revolutions: Gilbert du Motier, best known as Marquis de Lafayette. He was passionate about freedom and when he heard about America’s fight for liberation from England, Lafayette used his money and influence in France to secure a position…

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Review: ‘The Underground Railroad’ is the Best Book of the Year — Maybe the Decade

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Decades before the Civil War, a slave woman named Cora risks her life and runs off a cotton plantation in Georgia. Colson Whitehead’s hero in The Underground Railroad is afraid to take a gamble on so much until she realizes she wouldn’t be risking that much to begin with. Being a slave is not a life anyone would want to live; her livelihood is no livelihood at all. In bondage, Cora merely exists. She must take that ultimate risk: liberty or death. In his novel, Whitehead successfully gets to the heart of how slavery reduces a person to a point beyond recoverable humanity with this masterful, weaving tale of America’s nefarious past. Blending history with fictional innovation, Whitehead breathes life…

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