Book Club

Power Reading: Nominate a Book for President Obama

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Books Viewers Recommended President Obama Read Before His First Term in 2008
Four years ago on Bill Moyers Journal, Bill asked viewers to send in book recommendations for President-Elect Barack Obama. Thousands of you sent in suggestions and Bill enjoyed reading the many thoughtful e-mails about novels, poetry, biographies and books about history, politics, and other subjects. He dedicated air time on a subsequent Journal episode to excerpt the best emails, which included recommendations for Naomi Klein‘s The Shock Doctrine, Howard Zinn‘s The People’s History of the United States, Barbara Ehrenreich‘s Nickel and Dimed, Al Gore’s Assault on Reason (The Inconvenient Truth) and Doris Kearns Goodwin’s Team of Rivals. (You can view the entire list at the Journal archive website.)

We know President Obama took you up on at least one of them. Some of you may recall that he was inspired by Goodwin’s book that described Lincoln’s selection of a presidential cabinet as he was putting together his own, choosing former presidential rivals Joe Biden as vice president and Hillary Clinton as secretary of state.

So we’re asking again: what book would you like to see President Obama read before he takes the oath of office for the second time? Share your nominations below or on Facebook, and Bill will share his with you by the end of the year.

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