Game Change: Obama and the Clintons, McCain and Palin, and the Race of a Lifetime – John Heilemann and Mark Halperin, 2010

Of course I heard all about this when it came out, and I’m not sure why I finally checked it out now, but I actually enjoyed it more having forgotten many of the details since the events. It brought back many of those WTF moments–remember McCain suspending his campaign to fix the economic crisis?–with a lot of sausage-making detail.

Shibumi, Trevanian – 1979

I was looking for classic can’t-put-’em-down stuff that I hadn’t read yet, and found this on some list of “best thrillers.” I did enjoy it quite a bit, but man is it weird. Trevanian was apparently quite a character and it’s reflected in his highly-opinionated asides which trash just about everyone (see this list). Having read this months ago and just posting now, I went Googling for some of the more outrageous quotes, and found both the list above and this excellent review.

Abie’s Irish Rose – Anne Nichols, 1924

I’ve been curious about this play since enjoying Robert Benchley’s ongoing reviews/feud with it during its endless Broadway run. It’s good’n’corny–sentimental, predictable, full of stereotypes (plot is Abraham Levy marries Rose Mary Murphy, families disapprove until the first grandchild)–but I enjoyed it more than I thought I would. Jonathan just told me Bridget Loves Bernie was based on it!

Priceless lines from the Wikipedia article:

Abie’s Irish Rose [Benchley] described variously as “Something Awful”, “Just about as low as good clean fun can get”, “Showing that the Jews and the Irish crack equally old jokes”, “The comic spirit of 1876”, “People laugh at this every night, which explains why democracy can never be a success” and finally “Will the Marines never come?” Lorenz Hart … wrote these lines for “Manhattan”: “Our future babies we’ll take to Abie’s Irish Rose — I hope they’ll live to see it close.”