The Gatekeepers: How the White House Chiefs of Staff Define Every Presidency by Chris Whipple

The first in-depth, behind-the-scenes look at the White House Chiefs of Staff, whose actions—and inactions—have defined the course of our country.
What do Dick Cheney and Rahm Emanuel have in common? Aside from polarizing personalities, both served as chief of staff to the president of the United States—as did Donald Rumsfeld, Leon Panetta, and a relative handful of others. The chiefs of staff, often referred to as "the gatekeepers," wield tremendous power in Washington and beyond; they decide who is allowed to see the president, negotiate with Congress to push POTUS's agenda, and—most crucially—enjoy unparalleled access to the leader of the free world. Each chief can make or break an administration, and each president reveals himself by the chief he picks. 

Through extensive, intimate interviews with all seventeen living chiefs and two former presidents, award-winning journalist and producer Chris Whipple pulls back the curtain on this unique fraternity. In doing so, he revises our understanding of presidential history, showing us how James Baker’s expert managing of the White House, the press, and Capitol Hill paved the way for the Reagan Revolution—and, conversely, how Watergate, the Iraq War, and even the bungled Obamacare rollout might have been prevented by a more effective chief. 

Filled with shrewd analysis and never-before-reported details, The Gatekeepers offers an essential portrait of the toughest job in Washington.

The New American Militarism by Andrew Bacevich

In this provocative book, Andrew Bacevich warns of a dangerous dual obsession that has taken hold of Americans, conservatives, and liberals alike. It is a marriage of militarism and utopian ideology--of unprecedented military might wed to a blind faith in the universality of American values. This mindset, the author warns, invites endless war and the ever-deepening militarization of U.S. policy. It promises not to perfect but to pervert American ideals and to accelerate the hollowing out of American democracy. As it alienates others, it will leave the United States increasingly isolated. It will end in bankruptcy, moral as well as economic, and in abject failure.
With The New American Militarism, which has been updated with a new Afterword, Bacevich examines the origins and implications of this misguided enterprise. He shows how American militarism emerged as a reaction to the Vietnam War. Various groups in American society--soldiers, politicians on the make, intellectuals, strategists, Christian evangelicals, even purveyors of pop culture--came to see the revival of military power and the celebration of military values as the antidote to all the ills besetting the country as a consequence of Vietnam and the 1960s. The upshot, acutely evident in the aftermath of 9/11, has been a revival of vast ambitions and certainty, this time married to a pronounced affinity for the sword. Bacevich urges us to restore a sense of realism and a sense of proportion to U.S. policy. He proposes, in short, to bring American purposes and American methods--especially with regard to the role of the military--back into harmony with the nation's founding ideals. 

Hillbilly Elegy by J.D. Vance

While ostensibly about the particular culture of the West Virginia Scots-Irish underclass, anyone that has seen white poverty in America's flyover states will recognize much of what is written about here. It is a life on the very edge of plausibility, without the sense of extra-family community that serves as a stabilizing agent in many first-generation immigrant communities or communities of color. Drugs, crime, jail time, abusive interactions without any knowledge of other forms of interaction, children growing up in a wild mix of stoned mother care, foster care, and care by temporary "boyfriends," and in general, an image of life on the edge of survival where even the heroes are distinctly flawed for lack of knowledge and experience of any other way of living.

This is a story that many of the "upwardly mobile middle class" in the coastal areas, often so quick to judge the lifestyles and politics of "those people" in middle America, has no clue about. I speak from experience as someone that grew up in the heartland but has spent years in often elite circles on either coast.

Two things struck me most about this book.

First, the unflinching yet not judgmental portrayal of the circumstances and of the people involved. It is difficult to write on this subject without either glossing over the ugliness and making warm and fuzzy appeals to idealism and human nature, Hollywood style, or without on the other hand descending into attempts at political persuasion and calls to activism. This book manages to paint the picture, in deeply moving ways, without committing either sin, to my eye.

Second, the author's growing realization, fully present by the end of the work, that while individuals do not have total control over the shapes of their lives, their choices do in fact matter—that even if one can't direct one's life like a film, one does always have the at least the input into life that comes from being free to make choices, every day, and in every situation.

It is this latter point, combined with the general readability and writing skill in evidence here, that earns five stars from me. Despite appearances, I found this to be an inspiring book. I came away feeling empowered and edified, and almost wishing I'd become a Marine in my younger days as the author decided to do—something I've never thought or felt before.

I hate to fall into self-analysis and virtue-signaling behavior in a public review, but in this case I feel compelled to say that the author really did leave with me a renewed motivation to make more of my life every day, to respect and consider the choices that confront me much more carefully, and to seize moments of opportunity with aplomb when they present themselves. Given that a Hillbilly like the author can find his way and make good choices despite the obstacles he's encountered, many readers will find themselves stripped bare and exposed—undeniably ungrateful and just a bit self-absorbed for not making more of the hand we've been dealt every day.

I'm a big fan of edifying reads, and though given the subject matter one might imagine this book to be anything but, in fact this book left me significantly better than it found me in many ways. It also did much to renew my awareness of the differences that define us in this country, and of the many distinct kinds of suffering and heroism that exist.

Well worth your time.

Wired to Create by Scott Barry Kaufman

Based on psychologist Scott Barry Kaufman’s groundbreaking research and Carolyn Gregoire’s popular article in the Huffington Post, Wired to Create offers a glimpse inside the “messy minds” of highly creative people. Revealing the latest findings in neuroscience and psychology, along with engaging examples of artists and innovators throughout history, the book shines a light on the practices and habits of mind that promote creative thinking. Kaufman and Gregoire untangle a series of paradoxes— like mindfulness and daydreaming, seriousness and play, openness and sensitivity, and solitude and collaboration – to show that it is by embracing our own contradictions that we are able to tap into our deepest creativity. Each chapter explores one of the ten attributes and habits of highly creative people: 

Imaginative Play * Passion * Daydreaming * Solitude * Intuition * Openness to Experience * Mindfulness * Sensitivity * Turning Adversity into Advantage * Thinking Differently

With insights from the work and lives of Pablo Picasso, Frida Kahlo, Marcel Proust, David Foster Wallace, Thomas Edison, Josephine Baker, John Lennon, Michael Jackson, musician Thom Yorke, chess champion Josh Waitzkin, video-game designer Shigeru Miyamoto, and many other creative luminaries, Wired to Create helps us better understand creativity – and shows us how to enrich this essential aspect of our lives

I'm Happy for You (Sort of...Not Really): Finding Contentment in a Culture of Comparison by Kay Wills Wyma

Kay Wills Wyma does an incredible job of putting into words what happens in all of our minds at one time or another (realistically, more often than not). Her writing is like you are have conversation with her over coffee, her humor makes you chuckle out loud and her honesty allows you to say, "thank goodness I am not the only one who feels this way." If everyone would read this book, we would all find such freedom in our differences, such grace in our shortcomings and such humility in our strengths. Imagine how our relationships with eachother (and ourselves) would change! 

What a fun read and help for life in the process! Ms Wyma takes us on a walk up the comparison trail and brings us with openness and laughter to realize we are on it and it is affecting our life negatively. Yet, not to worry, we learn we are not alone and many tips for letting go of comparison walking instead into compassion and contentment.For a book that majorly kicked my hind end around with it's  message, this was a lot of fun to read! Kay Wills Wyma writes with both heart and humor, and that makes the medicine of the message go down a lot easier! Maybe you're like me...you can't really think of any Jones's you're trying to keep up with. I mean, we don't have new cars of a bright, shiny house, but I'm happy and content with my lot in life. At least, I thought I was....

meQuilibrium= a balanced life

This book is alot more powerful than it appears at first glance of the overall book. Although I write about many things this book discusses, I like this book because it gets right to the point, with sufficient detail to make the point AND have people do the homework and implementation easily. It does it far more efficiently than my many pieces on related subjects trying to have my readers understand and motivate them to do something.

And it results in tangible effects in each of of the 14 days.

I will be recommending the book to my readers as a way to catapult themselves forward into getting the benefits, which are:

1. To feel calmer, more peaceful, despite what is going on.
2. To clear your mind, so that you can use your higher brain (to see what is going on more clearly and to solve problems).
3. To identify and challenge and resolve the beliefs that pop up to create the undesirable emotions and stresses.
4. To identify and replace effectively those iceberg (core underlying) beliefs that you've been operating on since you were 10 years old.
5. To get unstuck (get out of the revolving treadmill).
6. To get the life balance without which no human being can do well.
7. To actually live your life goals.
Plus...

But, you say, don't other books do the same thing?

Yes, together a number of books might do that but not so directly and rapidly nor as effectively.

Even for relatively sophisticated people in terms of knowledge about this type of thing, I'd recommend this book to move ANY person forward in life.

Bend Your Brain by Marbles: The Brain Store

I’ve been trying the puzzles in BEND YOUR BRAIN the last few days, and my brain hurts. That’s a good thing! Thanks to the variety of included puzzles, I can feel myself thinking differently. Sounds weird, but it’s true. In  recent books like THE ORGANIZED MIND or HOW WE LEARN, we learn to pick up associations and patterns and to minimize distractions: this book helps us do that. Doing these puzzles over the weekend has helped my work performance today.

Variety is king. A lot of these types of puzzles I’ve seen before: mazes, Sudoku, and crosswords, etc. Then they change the method (and madness) on several of these: random letters instead of numbers in Sudoku, mazes covering front-and-back pages, and several hundred dot-to-dots. Then!—they add puzzles I’ve never seen before such as linking words through various shapes, strategizing the placement of battleships, and making compound words from pictures.

There are various levels of intensity, but some of the “mind blowing” puzzles may seem easier than the “warming up” puzzles. Depends on the person, I suppose.

All that is not without its faults. Sometimes I can’t tell what something is by its black & white picture (is that a piece of gum or sandpaper?). They ask me to identify a corporate logo I’ve never seen before. The dot-to-dots run down into the crease of the book. They ask me to recall the date the original TWILIGHT book was released (really?!?). They ask me to know the year the Starz movie channel was founded (again, really?!?). And they want me to identify celebrities by the photos of their mouths (fill-in-the-blank nonetheless).

Overall the good outweighs the bad or frustrating. I like this book so much that I want more! There are a lot of challenging and fun puzzles that I’ll continue to look forward to completing.

Get it at Amazon