“Sen. John Fetterman’s (D-PA) new memoir Unfettered sold zero copies in his own hometown’s Barnes & Noble store the first few days after launch,” Mediaite reports.
“Despite Fetterman and his ghostwriter reportedly receiving more than a million dollars in advance money from publisher Crown, Unfettered has so far sold poorly, both online and in retail stores.”
Just published: The Social Media Playbook For Local Elected Officials by Sam Toles and Joe Turner.
“This isn’t about going viral—it’s about building trust, humanizing your work, and connecting with the silent majority you were elected to serve.”
Just published: The Einstein Conspiracy by former Rep. Steve Israel (D-NY).
In this novel, two FBI agents are pitted against a ruthless undercover German operative on a mission to abduct Albert Einstein, who Hitler believes holds the key to building the atomic bomb.
Olivia Nuzzi, who claims to have had a nonphysical affair with Robert Kennedy Jr., denied in her new book that he had a worm in his brain, NewsNation reports.
Wrote Nuzzi: “I loved his brain. I hated the idea of an intruder therein.”
She claims he told her: “Baby, don’t worry. It’s not a worm.”
Just published: Positive Politics: A Proven Playbook to Get into Politics, Change Your Life, and Change the World by Neil Thanedar.
The sneaky secret of politics is that the people on the inside want it to look complicated so you’ll leave it to them.
New York Times: “Olivia Nuzzi loved him. She loved the politician, even though she was a political reporter and he was then a presidential candidate she had written about. She loved his eyes, ‘blue as the flame.’ She loved that ‘the sight of something as trivial as a rose’ could move him to tears. She loved his insatiable appetites and his ‘particular complications and particular darkness.’”
“But she said ‘I love you’ only after he said it first. He called her ‘Livvy’ and wrote her poems. He said he wanted her to have his baby. He promised to take a bullet for her.”
“This is what Nuzzi writes in her book, American Canto, never naming the politician who readers will deduce is Robert F. Kennedy Jr.”
Recently published: American Contradiction: Revolution and Revenge from the 1950s to Now by Paul Starr.
How did Americans come to elect Barack Obama—and then Donald Trump?
Just published: The Trillion Dollar War Machine: How Runaway Military Spending Drives America into Foreign Wars and Bankrupts Us at Home by William Hartung and Ben Freeman.
“America spends nearly a trillion dollars a year on its military. This extraordinary spending not only detracts from our ability to address pressing social problems but compels us into foreign wars to justify our vast arsenal. Sold to us in the name of ‘security,’ our military industrial complex actually makes us far less safe.”
The Washington Post says that Sen. John Fetterman’s (D-PA) new book, Unfettered, is “a story exceptionally well told, enlightening and often humorous” but also “a rather persuasive argument that Fetterman may lack the fortitude, temperament and commitment” to serve as a U.S. senator.
Fetterman also appeared on Bari Weiss’ podcast to discuss the state of the Democratic Party. And he talked to NPR about his struggles with depression.
New York Times: “On a crowded shelf of memoirs by sitting politicians, John Fetterman’s new book has to be one of the strangest. The cover of Unfettered features a headshot of the Democratic senator from Pennsylvania as he frowns into the camera, his dark gray hoodie conspicuously speckled with debris. Inside the book, you’ll find none of the genre’s usual tropes: no can-do optimism, no affability, no evidence of a politician’s instinct to glad-hand for the next election.”
“But then it’s not entirely clear from Unfettered whether Fetterman, who has spoken openly about his mental health issues, plans to run for office again.”
Coming next year: Where We Keep the Light: Stories from a Life of Service by Josh Shapiro.
“Reflecting on what he’s learned by knocking on doors, serving his community, and tackling the tough problems that no one wanted to touch in new and different ways, Shapiro reminds us that government can be a force for good, that conventional wisdom is rarely wise, and there’s more that unites Americans than divides us.”
Just published: Great Power Diplomacy: The Skill of Statecraft from Attila the Hun to Kissinger by A. Wess Mitchell.
“From the beginning of time, human societies have found themselves confronted by enemies too numerous or ferocious to defeat solely by force of arms. In these dramatic moments, wise leaders have turned to diplomacy to rearrange the gameboard in their favor and stymie seemingly unstoppable foes.”
Out next week: Fateful Hours: The Collapse of the Weimar Republic by Volker Ullrich.
“Democracies are fragile. Freedoms that seem secure can be lost. Few historical events illustrate this as vividly as the failure of the Weimar Republic.”
Out next week: The First Eight: A Personal History of the Pioneering Black Congressmen Who Shaped a Nation by Jim Clyburn.
“Today, South Carolina congressman James E. Clyburn is renowned as a Democratic kingmaker and our nation’s most august Black political leader. But behind him stand eight other remarkable men.”
Just published: Hope in Action: A Memoir About the Courage to Lead by Sanna Marin.
“When she became prime minister of Finland at just thirty-four years old, Marin was the youngest world leader at the time, captivating international attention with her progressive ideas and decisive action in a crisis.”
Just published: Notes on Being a Man by Scott Galloway.
“Boys and men are in crisis. Rarely has a cohort fallen further and faster than young men living in Western democracies. Boys are less likely to graduate from high school or college than girls. One in seven men reports having no friends, and men account for three of every four deaths of despair in America.”
“Even worse, the lack of attention to these problems has created a vacuum filled by voices espousing misogyny, the demonization of others, and a toxic vision of masculinity.”
MSNBC runs an excerpt from Injustice: How Politics and Fear Vanquished America’s Justice Department:
“Knowingly taking classified documents outside of a secure government facility was a crime, plain and simple, she explained. Trying to conceal them after receiving a May subpoena to return all classified records, as Trump had, made the crime far worse, she argued. But Olsen’s team knew that with Trump, all bets were off. The Justice Department would invariably treat the former president more gingerly.”
Just published: Gilded Rage: Elon Musk and the Radicalization of Silicon Valley by Jacob Silverman.
What happens if the world’s richest and most powerful men decide to dismantle democracy?
Taegan Goddard is the founder of Political Wire, one of the earliest and most influential political web sites. He also runs Political Job Hunt, Electoral Vote Map and the Political Dictionary.
Goddard spent more than a decade as managing director and chief operating officer of a prominent investment firm in New York City. Previously, he was a policy adviser to a U.S. Senator and Governor.
Goddard is also co-author of You Won - Now What? (Scribner, 1998), a political management book hailed by prominent journalists and politicians from both parties. In addition, Goddard's essays on politics and public policy have appeared in dozens of newspapers across the country.
Goddard earned degrees from Vassar College and Harvard University. He lives in New York with his wife and three sons.
Goddard is the owner of Goddard Media LLC.
