The White House press office recently released a list of books that President George W. Bush is reading this summer. Kenneth T. Walsh, in an article in U.S. News and World Reports, writes that White House staffers have said the president is engaged in an informal contest with senior adviser Karl Rove to see who can read more books this year.
The following are books on the president's reading list:
The novels The Stranger by Albert Camus, Challenger Park by Stephen Harrigan, The Bridge at Andau by James Michener, and The Messenger by Daniel Silva; the biographies Alexander II: The Last Great Tsar by Edvard Radzinsky, American Prometheus by Kai Bird and Martin Sherwin, Clemente: The Passion and Grace of Baseball's Last Hero by David Maraniss, The Big Bam: The Life and Times of Babe Ruth by Leigh Montville, Lincoln: A Life of Purpose and Power by Richard Carwardine, and Mao: The Unknown Story by Jung Chang and Jon Halliday; the nonfiction books Nine Parts of Desire: The Hidden World of Islamic Women by Geraldine Brooks, Polio: An American Story by David Oshinsky, The Great Influenza: The Epic Story of the Deadliest Plague in History by John M. Barry, Salt: A World History by Mark Kurlansky; and Macbeth by William Shakespeare.
