Look What I Found at the Gaithersburg Book Festival 2023

Once again, I attended the ever more popular and ever more crowded GBF, but this year it was a very enjoyable 70 degrees. Yes! And here are my picks to write about. And once again, full disclosure, I have not read the books that the authors discussed, but I’m impressed enough to want to.

Empress of the Nile: The Daredevil Archaeologist Who Saved Egypt’s Ancient Temples From Destruction by Lynne Olson—I am a big fan of Elizabeth Peters and her Amelia Peabody series and when I first heard of Christiane Desroches-Noblecourt, the French archaeologist, I was convinced that Amelia Peabody was written with Desroches-Noblecourt in mind. I could be wrong, but she was indeed quite a woman. Lynne Olson author of 9 books about World War II, found her story while researching for a book and knew that Desroches-Noblecourt deserved a book of her own. In the 1930’s, archaeology was certainly a man’s club and when she tried to break into it she was not welcomed. But she persisted. And not only served as a resistance worker, sending messages from France to the Resistance network, but actually saving the Rameses II and the Abu Simbel temples from inundation by the Aswan High Dam, Nasser’s symbol of modernization of Egypt. She learned Arabic, she cared about the workers in her digs, she fought against the men who tried to take credit for her work and she never rested. Desroches-Noblecourt was active until her 70’s, and in January 2008, was presented the Grand Cross of the Légion d’honneur, the highest decoration in France.

The Old Lion: a Novel of Theodore Roosevelt by Jeff Shaara—Theodore Roosevelt, certainly an icon of America as well as a memorable president has been thoroughly documented and researched. Why write a novel about him? We need to hear TR’s voice, and he has a very distinctive one. Narrated from his deathbed in his last interview, Roosevelt tells the story of the life which we all are familiar, but in his singular voice.

 Shaara has done his research and it shows. This is a book for hungry historical fiction readers that want to hear the real Theodore Roosevelt and not a lot of dry historical facts. Certainly, listening to Shaara made me want to read this novel.

Jackie & Me by Louis Bayard—After reading Courting Mr. Lincoln and loving his prose, I am eager to read his newest novel. Again, the title is perplexing…Jackie and who? Jack Kennedy? Louis Bayard? No, the “me” is Lem Billings, a close friend of Jack Kennedy who became a close friend of Jackie’s. As an honorary Kennedy, his duty was to make sure that Jackie Bouvier would become Jackie Kennedy. But the more he got to know her, the more doubts he had about their relationship. The novel is narrated by Lem as an older man, looking back on his and their life. If you are a Jackie fan this may be a perfect beach book. Bayard has a way of making history into very readable historical fiction.

The Long Alliance: The Imperfect Union of Joe Biden and Barack Obama by Gabriel Debenedetti—When I think about presidential/vice presidential relationships, it is often about how they didn’t get along. Historically, starting with George Washington, it was a political relationship and often presidents ignored or even embarrassed their VPs…once even threatening to hang them…but I won’t go into that.

The Biden and Obama relationship was certainly an anomaly. It was Obama who was responsible for having weekly lunches together and spending sometimes 7 hours a day together. But their “bromance” was not perfect and far more complicated. They disagreed about Afghanistan and often Obama did not take Biden’s advice. And when Biden was deciding about whether to run for president, Obama was not an early supporter. But their relationship has lasted far longer than the eight years they served together. Gabriel Debenedetti, a correspondent for New York magazine has researched their relationship and given us some answers to the question…were they really friends?

Power Players: Sports, Politics, and the American Presidency by Chris Cillizza—Now here is an interesting premise for a book: which presidents were athletic and involved with sports and how did that affect their personality and their presidency? Chris Cillizza, former CNN correspondent, discusses which presidents were more athletic, which presidents were good sports and which presidents weren’t athletic but understood sports and knew how to use it, and which presidents were definitely not good sports. The answers may surprise you.

The Best Strangers in the World: Stories from a Life Spent Listening by Ari Shapiro—I’m not going to discuss this now because I’m in the middle of reading his fascinating memoir. Check in next month for my review.

Enjoy this beautiful weather, specifically with a favorite book and I’ll be back next month.