Washington, DC

This week’s book is a picture book for kids. It is called The Senator and Me: A Dog’s-Eye View of Washington, D.C. The author is Senator Edward M. Kennedy and the book is narrated by a dog based on his actual dog that accompanies him to work on occasion. It is an interesting way of kids learning about a typical day in the life of a Senator and the different roles/jobs that a Senator does. It appeals to many kids because it is told in an easy to understand way and has the main character being a dog. It is also not purely about what a Senator does, but it also throws in stuff that shows how he still does everyday things that normal people do with their dogs. This includes the Senator playing fetch with the dog (Splash is his name) and giving him treats. Overall this book is interesting and gives kids an introduction to how the legislative branch of the U.S. government works, but there are some parts that are way too off topic and distract such as when it devotes several pages just to the story of how he was adopted. While some may think this background info adds to the story, I think it just adds distraction and does not really add to the story when it is explained so in depth.

Basic Information About the Book:

ISBN #: 0-439-65077-1
Publisher: Scholastic Press
Year of Publication: 2006
Number of Pages: 50

If you have a suggestion of a D.C. related book that you would like to see featured in a future Book of the Week post, then please either comment on this post or e-mail me at kjersti.wasiak@451press.net

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With Valentine’s Day tomorrow it seemed appropriate to feature this book this week. Romantic Days and Nights in Washington, D.C.: Intimate Escapes in the Capital is written by a husband and wife team, Cynthia Hacinli and William S.D. Connor. The book is organized into day and weekend trip plans. It plans everything out for romantic escapes from where to stay to what to do to where to eat. You do not have to follow the plans by the book, but rather you can just take some recommendations and make it fit your personal preferences as a couple. There are recommendations that both local couples can enjoy as well as those visiting D.C. on vacation. The itineraries vary in themes from In the Footsteps of the Presidents to rollerblading the National Zoo to visiting wineries in Virginia. Most of the itineraries keep you within D.C. and very nearby suburbs, however the last section has some places a little farther out from the District including Horsing Around Hunt Country: Middleburg and the Plains. The book is a little out of date with it having been published almost ten years ago, but for the most part you can still do the stuff in it. The one itinerary that I found entirely out of date I would suggest doing something different is the one that tells you to go see the Baltimore Orioles because at the time this was published D.C. did not have a baseball team. Now D.C. does have a team and this season they are even moving to a new stadium, so if baseball is your thing then I would check out the Nationals rather than go see the Orioles unless you want to get away from D.C.

Basic Information About the Book:

ISBN #: 0-7627-0204-4
Publisher: Globe Pequot Press
Year of Publication: 199
Number of Pages: 225

If you have a suggestion of a D.C. related book that you would like to see featured in a future Book of the Week post, then please either comment on this post or e-mail me at kjersti.wasiak@451press.net

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A Student of Living Things by Susan Richards Shreve is an interesting fiction book set in D.C. and a decent portion of it goes on in the nearby suburbs. The main plot is about a woman trying to figure out who murdered (assassinated) her brother and getting caught up in some troublesome situations that may put her own life in danger. The book is written in a kind of journal style with the narrator being the women. It starts with her living in D.C. near Capital Hill and then flashes back to the day her brother was shot outside the George Washington University Library. She then narrates the story about what happened up until the day the story starts and then proceeds to the murderer being arrested and closure for their family finally occurring. This is a well-written story about the woman growing up through this experience and getting over the loss of her brother. The story also has an aspect about the fear that the family felt living in the D.C. area, in particular the mother’s constant fear of all manner of bad things that may occur that is related to her constantly reading and hearing about chaos in the world that is reported in the news.

Basic Information About the Book:

ISBN #: 0-670-03758-3
Publisher: Viking
Year of Publication: 2006
Number of Pages: 246

If you have a suggestion of a D.C. related book that you would like to see featured in a future Book of the Week post, then please either comment on this post or e-mail me at kjersti.wasiak@451press.net

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This is another book of compiled writings similar to the Mary McGrory book I wrote about a few weeks ago. The Woman at the Washington Zoo is a compilation of writings by Marjorie Williams, who actually did work with Mary McGrory for some years at the Washington Post and even wrote an article about Mary McGrory right after her death in 2004 that is included in this book. Marjorie herself died early 2005 after a three year battle with liver cancer and this book was put together by her husband, Timothy Noah.

This book is broken into three sections. The first is the section that most directly relates to Washington, D.C. with her profiles on key figures in Washington such as Barbara Bush and Bill Clinton. The second section is some of her essays, which includes topics that relate to Washington such as political commentary as well as several essays related to family. The final section is a very touching part about her reflections on her last years of life facing liver cancer that was pretty much untreatable. This last section while barely relates to D.C. is great writing and will make many readers cry.

Basic Information About the Book:

ISBN #: 1-58648-457-5
Publisher: PublicsAffairs
Year of Publication: 2005
Number of Pages: 355

If you have a suggestion of a D.C. related book that you would like to see featured in a future Book of the Week post, then please either comment on this post or e-mail me at kjersti.wasiak@451press.net

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Themes

politics, book, D.C.

Okay, I am somewhat hesitant to even post this book as a Book of the Week, but I decided that well I did waste my time reading it and that there must be at least a few people out there interested in this type of novel, thus I might as well do a post about it. This book is titled The Washingtonienne by Jessica Cutler. I guess you could call this a romance novel, but personally I would call it a trashy novel or is not their a genre know as trashy romance novels? Anyways, I only recommend delving into this book if you want to read about crazy sexual scandals or at least do not mind reading about them. Now it may seem interesting to read about sexual scandals and all the secrecy involved in them and I would be fine with this book if that was all this was. Instead it also just has to go into so much gruesome detail about the different and exotic ways the main character (Jacqueline) has sex with many different guys as she works for a congressman. The main plot is about her life falling apart and her breaking up with her fiancee and then moving to D.C. where most of the book takes place. In D.C. she sleeps with several guys including two that she sees regularly in exchange for money and other gifts that help her live the high life. The ending is her life falling apart again when her blog is discovered telling about her sex scandalous life with these two men and the one man she actually thinks she loves. This ending is actually a well-written part that has very little of the unnecessary gruesomeness making it a novel almost worth reading, but unfortunately you got to get through all the beginning crap of mostly useless descriptions of her sex, drug, and drinking life.

Basic Information About the Book:

ISBN #: 1-4013-0200-9
Publisher: Hyperion Books
Year of Publication: 2005
Number of Pages: 291

If you have a suggestion of a D.C. related book that you would like to see featured in a future Book of the Week post, then please either comment on this post or e-mail me at kjersti.wasiak@451press.net

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politics, book, D.C.

This week’s book is The Best of Mary McGrory: A Half-Century of Washington Commentary. This book is a compilation of articles written over 50 years by Mary McGrory. She wrote for the Washington Star until it stopped production in 1981. She then wrote for the Washington Post until she suffered a stroke in 2003. She died in 2004 after ill health following her stroke and this book was compiled by Paul Gailey to bring together some of her great commentary articles.

Most of her articles are about politics directly or indirectly. A lot of it does deal about national politics rather than just local Washington D.C. politics, however it all ends up showing the aspect of the District and how so much here revolves around politics. Through reading here different articles she seems to criticize all the presidents and the only one she appears to have liked was Clinton.

The politic articles presented in this book give an interesting look at history. It is not like reading about an event in a history textbook (although that is something I love to do), but rather it is reading it in the present in the form of the actual newspaper articles that were published after an important (or minor) event. This makes this book more readable to an average person and more enjoyable to most than a history textbook because you are reading something that was once in the paper and meant for a pretty broad audience of at least the whole Washington Metropolitan Area.

One interesting theme that is noticed in several of her articles is that she really like the District itself. She certainly did not like Virginia. Her dislike mostly had to do with the fact that she always got lost there. I can understand what see means with the roads in Virginia going every which way with no order compared to the very well planned and laid out grids of D.C.

Besides politics a good chunk of the represented articles are about gardening and her lack of success. Some articles are about trouble with squirrels. Some are just about the unluckiness in her plants failing, which I am sure some without green thumbs can easily relate to. What I
thought was really interesting, though, was when she used her garden failures (and her few successes) as analogies to political happenings.

Overall this book is a pretty easy read. It is mostly enjoyable if you are into politics, but I am not really into politics and still enjoyed it. I think I liked it because of my interest in history. Thus I would recommend to those with interests in politics and/or history.

Basic Information About the Book:

ISBN #: 0-7407-6071-6
Publisher: Andrews McMeel Publishing
Year of Publication: 2006
Number of Pages: 333

If you have a suggestion of a D.C. related book that you would like to see featured in a future Book of the Week post, then please either comment on this post or e-mail me at kjersti.wasiak@451press.net

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politics, book, D.C.

Murder at Union Station is a murder mystery book by Margaret Truman, daughter of former President Harry S. Truman. It is one of several books in her Capital Crimes series of fictional murder mysteries set in Washington, D.C. This is the first and only book I have read in her series so far, but having now enjoyed reading this one I want to read the other books in the series.

The main plot of this book revolves around the murder of a former mafia man, Louis Russo, in Union Station. He had been living in Israel under the witness protection program, but comes to D.C. to testify in Congressional hearings. The reason he is testifing is kept unclear until you are about three quarters into the book, which is part of the suspense that makes you want to keep reading. Throughout the book, though, it does hint at it having something to do with the current President. The person who killed him is discovered early on and the book turns toward more of trying to figure why he was murdered.

The second main plot intertwined with Louis Russo and his murder is tapes that have what he would have testified to recorded of Russo. These tapes are part of the material collected by a D.C. based author writing a “novel” about the incident. Thus the second half of the book is mostly about the author’s dilemma on what to do with the tapes and if he is in danger for the same reason Russo was murdered.

Overall this is a very well written mystery book with some great suspense. I also like that it is not too graphic. In addition it involves an interesting fictional representation of the dirty side of politics. It may be kind of long in length, but it is an easy read and in the end it is all wrapped up very nicely making all the different small plot lines make sense for inclusion.

Basic Information About the Book:

ISBN #: 978-0-449-00739-6
Publisher: Ballatine Books
Year of Publication: 2004
Number of Pages: 369

If you have a suggestion of a D.C. related book that you would like to see featured in a future Book of the Week post, then please either comment on this post or e-mail me at kjersti.wasiak@451press.net

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book, D.C.

The AIA Guide to the Architecture of Washington, D.C. is in its fourth edition. This edition is written by G. Martin Moeller Jr. This book is an interesting read about the architecture of Washington, D.C. The book is organized into sections about different neighborhoods such as Dupont Circle and Lafayette Square. Each chapter can be used as a walking tour with the help of the map that starts the chapter. The chapters include short descriptions of the different buildings chosen for architectural significance. The descriptions mostly tell of the buildings history and some include interesting information about how the building relate to the beginning of this capital city and the evolvement of the city to what we now know it to be like. Most entries also include a photo of the building discussed making it fun to read even if you are not actually walking around and seeing the buildings for yourself.

I would recommend this book for tourists visiting D.C. as well as D.C. residents and looking for something different to see, as this book includes many places to enjoy the outside of that one would not think of going to see because you cannot go inside. It is also a fun read if you are interested in architecture even if you cannot go see the buildings in person, as the book can easily be read as a book on the different architecture in D.C. and not just as a tour book.

Basic Information About the Book:

ISBN #: 0-8018-8467-5
Publisher: Johns Hopkins University Press
Year of Publication: 2006

If you have a suggestion of a D.C. related book that you would like to see featured in a future Book of the Week post, then please either comment on this post or e-mail me at kjersti.wasiak@451press.net

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book, D.C.

This book was first published in 1961 by the White House Historical Associated. It has been republished several times and is currently in the 22nd edition, although I the version I read was the 21st edition published in 2001. The book tells the history of the White House partially through describing the main rooms and areas of the home of the Presidents. In this section it gives the history of the famous rooms and some of the artifacts and paintings they contain. At the end of the section is a create illustration of some of the rooms discussed and shows the ones that are part of the White House public tour. The parts that discuss these rooms make it great for an alternative to actually going on the White House tour, which although you can still do is increasingly harder to do. It is the many images and photos of the rooms and artifacts that make you feel so much like you are actually there seeing the elegance that is the White House.

The second section of the book tells the history of the White House and the changes that occurred to it during its over 200-year history. This section uses plenty of images and photos that show the historical White House that helps illustrate the building’s rich history. It includes the history from how the architecture was first chosen and the building of the original White House to the repair of the building after it was damaged in the War of 1812 and the additions over the years that shows how it has evolved into the building and grounds we recognize today.

Weekly Themes

book, D.C.

book, D.C.

The Capital Mysteries Series by Ron Roy is a great series of beginning chapter books for kids. The books are about two friends who end up solving mysteries and end up friends with the fictional President. The setting is often familiar places in the D.C. area. These are especially great for kids to read before or on the way to D.C. for a vacation. Each book has several black and white pictures in the book keeping beginning chapter book readers interested in reading the chapter book.

book, mystery, d.c.

Today I drew to determine the winner of the book The Pentagon: A History: The Untold Story of the Wartime Race to Build the Pentagon And to Restore it Sixty Years Later by Steve Vogel.

And the Winner is…Mary MacIntyre for her comment on this post.

contest, Pentagon, book

Remember that you can win an autographed copy of The Pentagon: A History: The Untold Story of the Wartime Race to Build the Pentagon And to Restore it Sixty Years Later by Steve Vogel just by commenting on posts on this blog. Below are how it works as originally announced in the post here.

To enter all you have to do is comment on any November post on this blog before the end of the month. Each comment gives you an entry into the contest. On December 1st, I will put one entry per comment into a hat and draw a winner. The winner will be notified by e-mail provided when commenting and announced on here by their comment nickname and website if they use it when commenting.

contest, Pentagon, book

This is the kind of book everyone will enjoy reading. Overall I did find Sacred Geometry by Nicholas R. Mann worth reading, but this math/city planning/history book is not something most people will enjoy. It does however make a good mark as a different kind of book about D.C. It can be hard to read because of all the mathematical jargon that will probably turn most off from wanting to read it or make you feel like you are reading a book in a foreign language unless you have an advanced background in math and especially geometry. Additionally you got to actually love geometry and how geometry goes with city planning and ancient ideas of the shapes being sacred if you are to enjoy and even understand a lot of the book. One thing that makes this book good if you can get past all the mathematics is that it presents the planning of the United States Capital as it relates to the way L’Enfant planned it and how his plans were and were not followed when the city was actually made. Unfortunately the jargon makes it hard to read it for this reason and the informal way the author writes at times makes this book further confusing. The informality I mean is that the author uses first person with unnecessary information and then follows it with the technical/scholarly passages that are to be expected of this dense book. At least the unscholarly addition of the first person does not make the book unclear if you at least still know mathematical jargon. The book has another downside in being very repetitive. Thus I overall do not actually recommend this book to most, but there is definitely a niche that can enjoy this unique book.

The book is a worthy read if you want to learn more about the original planning of the city and the symbolic meaning of L’Enfants plan and thus learn more about D.C., but it is not the kind of book you would want to casually pick up to learn about your next travel destination. Try almost any other non-fiction/history book about D.C. and you will probably enjoy them better. I am not saying this is a bad book, as it does add to scholarly knowledge of D.C. in a useful way. It just is not an interesting read for most people.

Do not forget about the November Comment Contest on the blog in which you can win a free autographed book. Read about the contest details here.

Weekly Themes

book, D.C.

Remember that you can win an autographed copy of The Pentagon: A History: The Untold Story of the Wartime Race to Build the Pentagon And to Restore it Sixty Years Later by Steve Vogel just by commenting on posts on this blog. Below are how it works as originally announced in the post here.

To enter all you have to do is comment on any November post on this blog before the end of the month. Each comment gives you an entry into the contest. On December 1st, I will put one entry per comment into a hat and draw a winner. The winner will be notified by e-mail provided when commenting and announced on here by their comment nickname and website if they use it when commenting.

contest, Pentagon, book

Lost in the City by Edward P. Jones is a collection of short stories all set in the Washington, D.C. area. The stories characters are all different with none of them being interconnected by plot line. The characters are related in that they are all African Americans, however the stories are not from just one specific neighborhood in the city, but rather the settings are in a variety of areas in the city. The stories are also related in that at least most of them have a theme of being lost. The lost theme is not exactly what one always thinks, although one story is about parents continuing to try to find their daughter even years later. The lost theme thus does present itself in the physical meaning, but it also does emotionally and mentally as well. I would not recommend the book for children and not all teenagers, as the book does contain scenes involving sexual situations, drugs, and alcohol. For mature readers this is fine and the scenes are rather tastefully done. What I liked about reading this book was the fact that the stories were about ordinary people with sometimes extraordinary situations. Also, the stories very can often be read without even noticing that they are about African Americans. In fact I would not have noticed it until several stories into the book if I had not read that all the stories were about African Americans in D.C. on the back cover.

Do not forget about the November Comment Contest on the blog in which you can win a free autographed book. Read about the contest details here.

Weekly Themes

book, D.C.