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Barack Obama goes shopping for books

Monday, November 28th, 2011

Barack Obama and family went book shopping on Saturday in Washington DC. I love how this article comments how both his daughters wore jeans – as if what the president’s daughters wear was remotely important.

The Obamas bought the following books:

The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick
Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Cabin Fever by Jeff Kinney
Tails by Matthew Van Fleet
Descent into Chaos by Ahmed Rashid
The Tiger’s Wife by Tea Obreht
The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster
The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz
Zen Shorts by Jon Muth

The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao is a pretty disappointing book in my humble opinion but it won a Pulitzer Prize, so what do I know? The Phantom Tollbooth, on the other hand, is a magnificent book and I hope he reads it aloud to those two girls. It’s a beautiful book to read to children as it’s so full of word play. My nine-year-old has read The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick and she gave it a thumbs up.

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American Grown: Michelle Obama’s Vegetable Garden

Wednesday, October 26th, 2011

A few years ago when Barack Obama was first elected, we heard he and Mrs. Obama were planning to plant a vegetable garden, and did a little feature recommending vegetable gardening books for the Obamas.

Three years later, it seems they might have taken our advice, as first lady Michelle Obama has a book set for release in April 2012 called American Grown: How the White House Kitchen Garden Inspires Families, Schools, and Communities, which talks about childhood obesity and the importance of affordable, nutritionally sound food in schools for children.

Through telling the story of the White House Kitchen Garden, First Lady Michelle Obama explores how increased access to healthful, affordable food can promote better eating habits and improve health for families and communities across America.

Mrs. Obama will describe how Sasha and Malia were the catalysts for change for their family’s eating behavior which inspired her national initiative to address childhood obesity and resulted in the idea to plant a vegetable garden on the South Lawn, the first since Eleanor Roosevelt’s Victory Garden. American Grown will be inspirational and instructive and will provide ideas for readers to get involved and join the movement to create community gardens, support local farmers markets, create school gardens, and start urban gardens, as well as other ways that they can make small changes to achieve big results and create healthy eating habits.

Since entering the White House, Mrs. Obama has emerged as a passionate advocate for healthful eating and exercise. In February 2010 she launched Let’s Move!, a nationwide initiative to address the epidemic of childhood obesity by empowering parents and caregivers with information, improving food quality in schools, increasing access to healthy, affordable food, and encouraging increased physical activity.

American Grown will speak to these issues which Mrs. Obama has strongly advocated for, in particular, making better food choices. It will also include practical ideas, recipes, and resources as well as tips on how to begin a garden of any size, anywhere and how to support local farmers’ markets.

Filled with gorgeous full-color photography, American Grown will include stunning photos of the White House garden and Mrs. Obama throughout the seasons, as well as other community and school gardens from around the country.

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Books for Barack: President Obama’s Summer Reading List

Tuesday, August 23rd, 2011

We all know that President Obama loves to read books.

Here’s the latest picks from the presidential shelves: Obama’s 2011 summer reading list. And while I know it must have gone through 50 calculators and approval by various aides and demographic analyst wizards and robot-comp-whizzers to be sure it was the BEST POSSIBLE AND MOST LIKEABLE LIST POSSIBLE or something, I like to imagine that really, these are just 5 books that he went “ooh, that sounds good,” when hearing about, and made a list, and handed it to someone, and this is all real. Anyway, here is what Barack Obama is reading this summer. Allegedly.

The Warmth of Other Suns by Isabel Wilkerson
Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese
Rodin’s Debutante by Ward Just
To the End of the Land by David Grossman
The Bayou Trilogy by Daniel Woodrell

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Barack Obama to read Franzen’s Freedom

Monday, August 23rd, 2010

President Barack Obama is going to be reading Jonathan Franzen’s new novel Freedom. Of course, he didn’t have to pay for it. The folks at the Bunch of Grapes bookstore on Martha’s Vineyard gave him an ARC (advance reader copy) that they had knocking around in the back.

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Signed Obama books a bargain once again?

Friday, October 9th, 2009

During the heat of the presidential campaign and the months following Obama’s win, there was a hysteria among collectors looking to snap up signed copies of Barack Obama’s books, Dreams from My Father and The Audacity of Hope leading up to the sale of a signed first edition Dreams from My Father for a staggering $12,500 shortly after his inauguration.

Over the past couple months it has pretty much been business as usual, until today when, to everyone’s surprise, Obama was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

Will the announcement spark another flurry of signed Obama book sales? It’s tough to say but this recent announcement makes the signed first edition (although a later printings) copies of The Audacity of Hope seem like a relative bargain when priced at about $400.

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Aussie Rules: Full contact reading

Tuesday, September 22nd, 2009

The Age has done an interview with 16 Australian Football League players on their reading habits. I hardly expected to see recomendations for Chomsky in a footballers list; the world proves that I should quit trying to judge a book by it’s cover.

JOEL BOWDEN – RICHMOND
Understanding Power, a collection of talks by Noam Chomsky, is the book that had the biggest influence on me. It allowed me to develop a critical view of global issues.

I like it because it gives an alternative view to historical events – it is always good to hear two sides of a story. I did not really start reading extensively until I was in my 20s, but now I enjoy it for relaxation. I mostly read on holidays or of an evening after the kids have gone to bed. In the future, I am really interested in reading Dreams From My Father by Barack Obama.

Posted in Australia, Barack Obama, books, reading | 2 Comments »

What is Michelle Obama Reading?

Wednesday, August 26th, 2009

The White House confirmed that Michelle and daughter Malia were reading Yann Martel's Life of Pi

There’s a lot of buzz at the moment about President Obama’s reading list but what about the First Lady? What books does she like to read?

While there isn’t an official White House list, the good folks over at Oprah.com went on a treasure hunt through articles and photos and came up with this list of books she’s enjoyed reading with her daughters and children at elementary schools:

The Life of Pi by Yann Martel
Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day by Judith Viorst
Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? by Bill Martin Jr.
The Cat in the Hat by Dr. Seuss
Olivia by Ian Falconer
Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak

What books would you recommend that Michelle Obama read with her daughters or at elementary schools?

Posted in Barack Obama, books, children's book, lists, reading | 1 Comment »

Who was Thomas Paine?

Monday, June 8th, 2009

Who was Thomas Paine? The BBC explains. Barack Obama fans should take note.

Paine threw his lot in with those Americans who were thirsting for independence from Britain. In January 1776 he published a short pamphlet that earned him the title The Father of the American Revolution.

Titled simply, Common Sense, the work has been described by the Pulitzer-winning historian Gordon S Wood as “the most incendiary and popular pamphlet of the entire [American] revolutionary period”. It put the case for democracy, against the monarchy, and for American independence from British rule.

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Barack Obama to make another comic cameo

Thursday, May 28th, 2009

According to graphic novel publishers Papercutz Barack Obama has made a cameo in their newest Hardy Boys graphic novel.

President Obama also has a cameo apearance in THE HARDY BOYS Graphic Novel #16 “Shhhhhh!” also from Papercutz. Unlike his other more recent and highly-publicised comicbook appearances, as either a Conan-like Barbarian or Spider-Man’s partner-in-crimefighting, his appearance in the Hardy Boys graphic novel was far more Prsesidential – he’s depicted giving a speech about libraries, something he did in real-life as a Senator

In his next comic book Barack the Barbarian will defend the Library of Congress against the alien silverfish symbiote “Saccharina”….

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Obamas to Preside Over Book Festival

Thursday, May 28th, 2009

In addition to presiding over a country, Barack Obama will be presiding over the ninth National Book Festival along with First Lady, Michelle.

Organized and sponsored by the Library of Congress, the festival celebrates literacy and the joys of reading. This year’s event, which will be held on the National Mall, will host approximately 70 award-winning authors, poets and illustrators in genre-specific pavilions. Admission is free and is the event is open to the public.

You’ll have to wait a bit though as the festival isn’t until Saturday, September 26.

The National Book Festival was launched by former First Lady Laura Bush in 2001.

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The Open Veins of Latin America – Hugo’s book club pick

Monday, April 20th, 2009

open-veins Poor old Barack Obama. When he goes anywhere in the world, people are going to give him books they think he should read. It’s like being a child at Christmas when uncles and aunts have heard that you are good at something and they end up giving you a rubbish book.

Hugo Chávez gave The Open Veins of Latin America by Eduardo Galeano to Obama at the weekend. “I thought it was one of Chávez’s books. I was going to give him one of mine,” the president said.

Rumour has it Chavez’s minnions bought up copies of the book to send it into the Amazon’s top 10 at the weekend. Now that’s what I call political intrigue.

Here’s 15 pages of comment in Spanish on whether Chavez’s people forced the book up Amazon’s rankings.

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American President Obama Reads ‘Where The Wild Things Are’ to Children

Wednesday, April 15th, 2009

Okay, here’s where I get girly on you for a moment. This is a video of Barack Obama reading Maurice Sendak’s Where the Wild Things Are to a group of kids. It made me grin watching it.

Mister President, you’re dreamy.

Sure, I know it’s for publicity, but still. He seems like such a great guy, great dad. Let’s hope that translates to great president.

I know Obama loves to read, so that’s a great start in my book. Heh. In my book. Get it?

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Books about Portuguese Water Dogs

Wednesday, April 15th, 2009

I wouldn’t buy a dog that needs a haircut every six weeks. Blimey, there’s a surprising high number of books about Portuguese Water Dogs for the Obama family to read.

I think my favourite is…. Mad Cao’s are Surfing In My Kitchen. A Gathering of True Short Stories & Poetry about Portuguese Water Dogs.

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Obama’s next read: A Mind at Peace

Tuesday, April 7th, 2009

a-mind-at-peace Barack Obama is easy to buy gifts for. Just give him a book and he’ll be happy. The leader of the Turkish opposition party gave him with a copy of Ahmet Hamdi Tanpinar’s 1949 novel, A Mind At Peace, on the president’s recent trip. Naturally, it’s a novel about change.

A Mind at Peace is a tragic love story concerning a family in the years after the founding of the Turkish republic in 1923. Set in changing times, the protagonist Mümtaz wants to preserve the past. After his parents’ death, he becomes a devotee of Turkish literature and falls in love with an unattainable woman.

Ahmet Hamdi Tanpinar was one of Turkey’s most prominant novelist of the 20th century. He taught aesthetics, mythology, and literature at the University of Istanbul.

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Organic Obama: Barack and Michelle Plant a Vegetable Garden

Monday, March 23rd, 2009

Barack and Michelle Obama have announced their plans to transform part of the existing White House lawn/landscape into an edible garden. Among the veggies destined for presidential planting are spinach, chard, collard greens, black kale and cilantro, as well various other herbs and lettuces.

The garden will be used in part as an educational tool for children, teaching that fresh food, grown from your own garden, can taste a lot better than what you can get in the supermarket, and be healthier too. Involving kids in the process of growing their own food can be an exciting, informative way to generate excitement about healthy eating.

Since Michelle and Barack are Chicago city-slickers, we figured they could use a little help, and we recommended them 10 books on growing your own fruit and vegetable garden.

…Looks like they’ll have plenty of space.

white-house

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