Unless you live under a rock, you know we are in the midst of a heated race to nominate two presidential candidates. The field remains wide open and it looks like it could be at least a month or two until we know the nominees. Since The Daily Show is in repeats it looks like we’re all going to have to get our candidate information somewhere else.
How about from their own books? We’ve got an assortment on display at Eckles. Here are a few interesting selections:
Dreams From My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance
by: Barack Obama
Barack Obama, a black man raised by his white mother and grandparents, decided to journey to Kenya to learn more about his African father after receiving news of his death. This memoir is not about his father’s life, but about Obama’s, and he brings that home with an intimate tone rather than that of his public speeches. (His 2004 Democratic Convention keynote address is included at the end.) Throughout the book, the he looks at race from the point of view of someone who has seen and been part of a variety of cultures, and he explains how his perspective shaped his views.
Why Courage Matters: The way to a braver life
by: John McCain
After two stirring memoirs, Senator McCain turns in a slim meditation on the nature of courage. Suggesting the definition of courage has been stretched thin in contemporary parlance, where it can be applied to acts as insignificant as cutting or not cutting one’s hair, McCain seeks to return to the word’s fundamental meaning not just of “the capacity for action despite our fears” but self-sacrifice for the benefit of others as well as for oneself.
It Takes a Village: And other lessons children teach us
by: Hillary Rodham Clinton
This year is the tenth anniversary of Hillary Clinton’s primer on raising children in the contemporary world. For the most part, this is not the former first lady and presidential hopeful we all know. In a softer, almost neighborly voice, Clinton reveals intimate details about her childhood and the childhood of her husband. She saddens when talking about Bill’s life with an abusive, alcoholic stepfather. All of this leads into her main subject–how we can raise a new generation of strong, purposeful young adults.
