A New York Times bestseller from President George W. Bush’s “most essential advisor” (ABC News). An inside look at the life of Bush’s most respected aide and confidante, as she balanced her role as one of the most influential women ever to set foot in the White House against her role as a wife and mother. “The rule of thumb in any White House is that nobody is indispensable except the president,” said The New York Times, “But Karen Hughes has come as close to that description as any recent presidential aide.” Ten Minutes from Normal is the often humorous, disarmingly down-to-earth, and politically fascinating journey of her time in Bush’s inner circle. As Counselor to the President for his first eighteen months in the White House and as his communications director since he first ran for Governor of Texas in 1994, Hughes was a crucial influence. When he first moved to Washington, Bush told members of the White House staff that he wanted Karen in the room whenever any major decisions were made. Being a journalist, she was fascinated by politics and inspired by people who sought elective office to improve their communities. When she married and became the instant mother of a nine-year-old stepdaughter, she realized her priorities had changed: Family mattered, and she didn’t want to live as if it didn’t. Thus her life became one of balancing her career ambitions and her deeply felt sense of service and duty with her responsibilities and love for her family. In various Republican campaigns in Texas, she worked from home with her young son, Robert, beside her. She planned the 1990 Republican State Convention from her driveway while Robert played in the dirt at her feet. Karen tried to bring the perspective of a working mom to the White House, often asking the question she first learned as a reporter: “What does this mean to the average person?” Her exhilarating life in Washington was unlike anything she had experienced before, yet the lack of balance between her service to the President and country and her service to her family was a daily struggle. By the spring of 2002, Karen found herself in turmoil. She knew the president needed her, but her family needed her, too. Her son was not happy in Washington; neither was her husband. After much soul-searching, she concluded that she could do a better job of serving the president from Texas than of serving her family from Washington. “I love you, Mr. President,” she told him, “but I have to move my family back to Texas.” She continued to serve Bush from her home in Austin and laughed about the so-called “balance” she found. When she looked at the wall calendar in her kitchen, she found the State of the Union address side by side with her son’s orthodontist appointments.
How policies forged after September 11 were weaponized under Trump and turned on American democracy itself In the wake of the September 11 terror attacks, the American government implemented a wave of overt policies to fight the nation’s enemies. Unseen and undetected by the public, however, another set of tools was brought to bear on the domestic front. In this riveting book, one of today’s leading experts on the US security state shows how these “subtle tools” imperiled the very foundations of democracy, from the separation of powers and transparency in government to adherence to the Constitution. Taking readers from Ground Zero to the Capitol insurrection, Karen Greenberg describes the subtle tools that were forged under George W. Bush in the name of security: imprecise language, bureaucratic confusion, secrecy, and the bypassing of procedural and legal norms. While the power and legacy of these tools lasted into the Obama years, reliance on them increased exponentially in the Trump era, both in the fight against terrorism abroad and in battles closer to home. Greenberg discusses how the Trump administration weaponized these tools to separate families at the border, suppress Black Lives Matter protests, and attempt to overturn the 2020 presidential election. Revealing the deeper consequences of the war on terror, Subtle Tools paints a troubling portrait of an increasingly undemocratic America where disinformation, xenophobia, and disdain for the law became the new norm, and where the subtle tools of national security threatened democracy itself.
A Washington Post Notable Book The definitive biography of the fiercely vigilant and politically astute First Lady who shaped one of the most consequential presidencies of the 20th century: Nancy Reagan. The made-in-Hollywood marriage of Ronald and Nancy Reagan is more than a love story—it’s the partnership that made him president. Of the pair, Nancy was the one with the sharper instincts about people, the superior radar for trouble, and the keen sense of how to secure his place in history. The only person in the world to whom Ronald Reagan felt truly close, Nancy understood how to foster his strengths and compensate for his weaknesses. Neither timid nor apologetic about wielding her power, Nancy Reagan made herself a place in history. But that confidence took years to develop. Nancy’s traumatic early childhood instilled in her a lifelong anxiety and a craving for security. Born into a broken marriage, she spent seven years yearning for the absent mother who abandoned her to pursue an acting career. When she met Ronnie, who had a difficult upbringing of his own, the two fractured halves became whole. And as Ronnie turned from acting to politics, she did too, helping build the scaffolding of his rise and cultivating the wealthy and powerful figures who would help pave his way. Not only was Nancy crucial in shaping Ronald’s White House team and in softening her husband’s rhetoric, she became an unseen force pushing her husband toward what she saw as his grandest purpose—to shake his image as a warmonger and leave behind a more peaceful world. This book explores the multifaceted character of Nancy Reagan and reveals new details surrounding the tumultuous presidency. The Washington Post columnist Karen Tumulty spent four years interviewing the people who knew this couple best and draws on overlooked archives, letters, memoirs, and White House records, compiling the most extensive biography of Nancy Reagan yet. From the AIDS epidemic to tensions with the Soviets and the war on drugs, this book shows how Nancy Reagan became one of the most influential First Ladies of the century.
A New York Times–bestselling author and former Los Angeles Times reporter’s account of a con artist and bigamist who resorts to murder to hide his double life. David Miller had a dream job and a beautiful family. But one perfect life wasn’t enough. So he pretended to be an attorney, then a CIA agent. And he secretly married another woman. He juggled it all quite well—until the day his two wives found out about each other. Miller groped for ways to hold on to his finances and reputation. But when he tried using a gun to silence his second wife, his carefully constructed facade of power and wealth exploded. In Deadly Pretender, New York Times–bestselling author Karen Kingsbury dives into the tangled world of deceit, greed, and lust to reveal what drove a seemingly upright citizen to live a double life, and then, to commit the unthinkable.
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