A child's first book of Trump

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Michael Tomasky

"It was without precedent. In July 1999 Hillary Rodham Clinton hit the campaign trail - the only sitting first lady in the history of the United States ever to seek public office. In her quest to become a New York senator, the nation's most polarizing woman would have to hold her own in the hurly-burly world of New York politics." "In this book, political columnist Michael Tomasky exposes the fascinating inner workings of that race. Hillary, he reveals, was neither a gladiatorial tigress nor the unreconstructed flower child conservatives so deeply feared. Constitutionally unable to embrace what Tomasky calls "the politics of personal narrative" and to bare her soul before the voters, she instead presented herself in a tradition of nineteenth-century women reformers religiously bent on problem solving. But would that play in a media capital that savored scandal and demanded that politicians parade their personalities?" "Here then is the witty, barbed month-by-month chronicle of how Hillary made the transition from "cosseted first lady to flesh-and-blood candidate": the surreal crises; the angry rifts among advisers over her image; the hovering presence of a scandal-plagued husband and president. And finally, here is a brilliant and lasting analysis of the vast and thorny world of statewide politics, with portraits of New York politicians of all stripes - from Al Sharpton to George Pataki - who sought to reshape the race for their own purposes." "Filled with trenchant observations about liberalism and its antagonists, this is a rollicking tale of hardball politics in the nation's fiercest arena. It is also an illuminating portrait of that most guarded of candidates, now New York's first woman senator, Hillary Rodham Clinton."--Jacket.

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Reinaldo Arenas

Critics worldwide have praised Reinaldo Arenas's writing. His extraordinary memoir, *Before Night Falls*, was named one of the fourteen "Best Books of 1993" by the editors of *The New York Times Book Review* and has now been made into a major motion picture. *The Color of Summer*, Arenas's finest comic achievement, is also the fulfillment of his life's work, the *Pentagonía*, a five-volume cycle of novels he began writing in his early twenties. Although it is the penultimate installment in his "secret history of Cuba," it was, in fact, the last book Arenas wrote before his death in 1990. A Rabelaisian tale of survival by wits and wit, *The Color of Summer* is ultimately a powerful and passionate story about the triumph of the human spirit over the forces of political and sexual repression. **From Publishers Weekly** Reinaldo Arenas was the cursed visionary of late 20th-century Cuban literature, imprisoned by Castro and shunned by pro-Cuba leftist intellectuals in this country after he came over in the Mariel boatlift. His open queerness shocked his contemporaries. This novel is the fourth in a cycle of five novels, dubbed the *Pentagonia* (the fifth in the series, *The Assault*, was published in 1994). It operates on a number of levels, like a noisy and particularly chaotic party. The most straightforward segment of the plot concerns the tyrant Fifo's 50th-anniversary celebration. It is typical of the grandiose, bloated Fifo that it is actually the 40th anniversary of the revolution -- Fifo even lies about arithmetic. The island over which Fifo presides is a vast, groaning prison, dotted by real prisons, like El Morro, where Arenas was actually imprisoned. Fifo keeps control with an army of midgets and a flotilla of sharks that circle the island and prevent anyone from escaping. However, the island queens (mercilessly hunted by Fifo's minions, although Fifo and most of his court have dabbled in men) have been nibbling away at the base of the island, trying to unmoor it. On another level, this is Arenas's autobiography. His character has three names: Skunk in a Funk, his queer nom de guerre; Gabriel, the writer; and Reinaldo, the real person. The tripartite division of his character, and of others, entails dizzying changes of gender and jumps between levels of reality. Arenas has a nice vaudevillian touch, scattering scabrous reference to recent events and people as he bounces from skit to skit. A chapter entitled "The Confession of H. Puntilla" is modeled on the real recantation of Heberto Padilla in 1971, with anatomically impossible flourishes. Unfortunately, the flood of Cuban marginalia makes this book, at times, almost indecipherable for the non-Cuban reader. (July) Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc. **From Library Journal** The fourth of Arenas's five-novel cycle (begun with *Singing from the Well*) and the last piece of fiction he wrote before his suicide in 1990, this is a magnificent roman X clef. Lamentably, the vagaries of publishing and the translator!s own timetable delayed publication of this shattering testimonial novel until after the 1999 it foretells. In honor of his 50th year in power, a Caribbean dictator named Fifo engineers a grand cultural gala featuring the greatest stars of Cuban literature. Gertrudis GUmez de Avellaneda, whose verse Cuban schoolchildren learn by heart, is resurrected from the dead but, refusing to take part in the charade, makes a run for Key West. Fifo repudiates her by having a procession of characters intone doggerel testimonials that Arenas refashions for them from the greatest lines of their prose and verse. Homosexuality, the tragicomedy of Cuban politics, the church, the mother-son relationship, salaried work, and even the weather are metaphors the author uses to portray the larger, all-inclusive struggle of power vs. freedom. The human spirit, Arenas argues, is capable of irreverent humor in even the worst situations and indeed must be given free rein if beauty is to be brought into the world. Hilarious and savagely sarcastic, this is a requisite addition to collections of Hispanic, Cuban, and gay literature."Jack Shreve, Allegany Coll. of Maryland, Cumberland Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Elizabeth Frost

America's 39 presidents have not all been great men, but they have all had great--sometimes greatly amusing and sometimes greatly surprising--things to say on myriad subjects. From Washington to Reagon, American presidents have sounded off with wit, eloquence, humor, solemnity, spitefulness and brilliance on everything from foreign policy to the personalities of their fellow presidents. The Bully Pulpit collects the cream of these presidential quotes and offers nearly 3,000 of them in a single, splendid volume.

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Zev Chafets

I know the liberals call you 'the most dangerous man in America,' but don't worry about it, they used to say the same thing about me. Keep up the good work.-Ronald Reagan in a letter to Rush Limbaugh, December 11, 1992Do you remember your first time?People tend to remember the moment they first heard The Rush Limbaugh Show on the radio. For Zev Chafets, it was in a car in Detroit, driving down Woodward Avenue. Limbaugh's braggadocio, the outrageous satire, the slaughtering of liberal sacred cows performed with the verve of a rock-n-roll DJ-it seemed fresh, funny and completely subversive. "They're never going to let this guy stay on the air," he thought.Almost two decades later Chafets met Rush for the first time, at Limbaugh's rarely visited "Southern Command." They spent hours together talking on the record about politics, sports, music, show business, religion and modern American history. Rush opened his home and his world, introducing Chafets to his family, closest friends, even his psychologist. The result was an acclaimed cover-story profile of Limbaugh in The New York Times Magazine.But there was much more to say, especially after Limbaugh became Public Enemy Number One of the Obama Administration. At first Limbaugh resisted the idea of a full-length portrait, but he eventually invited Chafets back to Florida and exchanged more than a hundred emails full of his personal history, thoughts, fears and ambitions. What has emerged is an uniquely personal look at the man who is not only the most popular voice on the radio, but the leader of the conservative movement and one of the most influential figures in the Republican Party.While Limbaugh's public persona is instantly recognizable, his background and private life are often misunderstood. Even devoted Dittoheads will find there's a lot they don't know about the self-described "harmless little fuzzball" who has, over the years, taken on the giants of the mainstream media and the Democratic Party-from Bill and Hillary Clinton to Barack Obama-with "half his brain tied behind his back, just to make it fair." Chafets paints a compelling portrait of Limbaugh as a master entertainer, a public intellectual, a political force, and a fascinating man.