>> this summer book tv is asking, what are you reading? >> peter is the founder of public affairs books. what do you plan on reading this summer. >> one of the first books i plan to read is kay blow's top which is being published by public affairs. everybody tells me that it's absolutely marvelous. he was a reporter for "the washington post" for many years and he tells the story of nikita khrushchev's visit. when he came here at the time the cold war was at its peak and he was the quintessential russian. when he went out to iowa and looked at the corn and

disneyland. the author tells the story with enormous great humor and it's full of history. the second book i'm going to read is chris buckley's mum and pup. i think all of us who read some of this, it has a now famous line to his mother on his death bed and he looked at her as she was about to take her last breath, he said i forgive you. but when i read the excerpts of the book in the "new york times" magazine i realized how truly revealing it is about the way in which families of a certain kind live together and how you come to terms with the fact that these extraordinary people that you grew up with have reached the end of the line. it sounds like something really worth reading.

so i will. >> to see more summer reading lists and other program information, visit our website at booktv.org. if that >> a former self-described anarchist and punk rock stripper talks about how her life changed after marrying a military intelligence officer. lily burr ranna writes about living at west point and post-traumatic stress disorder and building new friendships in "i love a man in uniform" from tattered cover bookstore in denver, this program is about an hour. [applause] >> i am genuinely thrilled to be here in supporting a wonderful institution of tattered covered

books. it gives so much support to authors around the world and it's absolutely delightful to be here for a second time. i do have to be candid this is the end of a book tour for me. so i am somewhat exhausted so i may invent an entire new language tonight. i'm not really sure how coordinated my eye to speaking relationship is at the moment. i'm actually so tired that i reached for one of my herbal hippy chill pills in my little pill case and i came this close to taking an ambien which which would have made a quite mellow reading. at the very least i can promise you that i will stay awake. so, yes, this is from my "i love a man in uniform." it's about my marriage to my husband, army military intelligence officer.

and we'll start off where courtship leads to marriage. a couple months after moving in together we started talking about marriage. i had fantasizeds of a traditional medal, a white dress, things old, new, borrowed, blue we'd leave the chapel by watching under an arch of sabers and as i passed the last one he would tap my rear saying welcome to the army, ma'am. his proposal predicated not so much on will you, what if. the jungle drums of war were beating and he sensed a deployment was imminent. we had to act fast. we discussed the situation. you know, that if there's a war in iraq, i'm going, right, he asked me? i nodded and his tone turned solemn and you know what might

happen if i go. so we made an appointment to city hall to say i do just in case. i didn't have time to stay as mrs. army fashionista so on the big day i pieced together an ensemble post-punk bride, wide mesh fish neither, round toed sling backs. i grabbed my vintage leopard print trench cup to cover up in the november chill and we were off to city hall. i didn't pass under an arch of sabers like a traditional military bride but i did have to go through a metal detector. the security guard exhibited the heart of a true romantic. upon hearing that we were there to get married he whispered to mike, the emergency exit is that way. on the way up to the chapel in the elevator, i realized that i wasn't a war bride. i was a war on terror bride.

i appreciated the image it suggested like i was a gore and blood bristling matrimonial zombie freak. if it came down a cat fight, war on terror bride versus bridezilla i would win. i wasn't weighted down with 10 pounds of fluff and uncle sugar was there. our only wedding attempts was eight men in orange prison jumpsuits with their ankles and wrists left. mike and i met in a graveyard and here we were getting hitched in immediate proximity to men in handcuffs. symbolism was working overtime on our behalf. we found the little chapel on the fourth floor. mike put his hand on the doorknob, are you ready? i held up our marriage license, ready. he opened the door and we looked around the vacant room. it was so, so, sorry. worse than anything you'd see on

a vegas bender. even the cheesiest elvis impersonator would have taken a look at the home depot pvc arch was bad. i was glad my parents were not here to see it. my mom would have we want at the faux fruit with the misting of gold spray paint. the swayings of tull herb which marked off a dead aisle of a partition walls were graying over a thick coat of dust. we crossed the threshold. our heels sank into the maroon carpet. we sat on the white folding chairs and held hands while we waited for the efficient to show up. my palms started to sweat. i knew that marrying a soldier was like marrying the u.s.

government and if a conflict in iraq did happen, the influence of our marriage would broaden still. if the army was an attractive third-party the war would be a fourth. it started to feel awfully crowded in that empty chapel. i had a nervousness of a new bride but with an added overlay of fear. what would the future would be like for us. could i give him what he needed? did we really know each other well enough to make this work? i had almost gotten this far with someone else and backed out. was i really army spouse material? statistically speaking, yes be the average army spouse is under 35. 95% of spouses are female. and the majority of wives work. but was i really up to the task? the justice of the peace came into the room and we stood. i swallowed my fear and we stepped up to the cheap garden store wedding arch. we exchanged our vows under the banks of fluorescent lights.

we added our names to the city registry and with a kiss it was official. in sickness and in health, in war and in peace we were wed. not just from singleton to wife but from free flying civilian chick to trailing spouse. the household member who packs up house and goes along wherever the army sends the shoulder. the day i really became an army wife carried the mark of bureaucratic flourish when i received my military id otherwise known as my deers card. with my marriage certificate in hand mike and i went to the issuing office at fort meade where the clerk greeted us warmly. mike said she's here for her dependent id and the clerk. i'm sorry, i said to her, what? we don't call spouses dependents anymore.

military spouses had sufficiently cast off their dependent label. i passed her the necessary paperwork, my social security card, my passport, mike's military id and our marriage certificate. from there my information will be processed and reduced to a digitized code on the back of the card that could only be read by a scanner, a detail that felt at once impressively advanced and vaguely orwellian. yes, dear. in no time the clerk entered my vital data and the was already ready to print. she pointed a small webcam my way. okay, straight into the camera and on the count of three smile. while we waited for the card to print she said don't lose this. you need it for everything to get on post to shop at the commissary, the px, the liquor store and to get your medical i may not be dependent on my husband but i was dependent this card. my card started chugging out of

the print. this is going fast than any trip to the department of motor vehicles. it reminded me the time when i posed for playboy. i was shock how time and labor intensive a pinnip could be could be. who knew getting in the military and playboy involved lots of planning. while the experts trying to fit me within an existing template. in 1995, it was women of the internet. the internet was still something of a novelty and playboy does love the novelty, women, mensa, women of olive guard. i hosted some online conferences in a nerdy internet community which seemed like a good enough qualficake and i sent my photo and didn't hold out much hope but a couple months later i got

an call from stephanie barnett. she said we'd like to shoot and you offered me to fly out -- offered to fly me tout los angeles later that month. the good citizens of bunny land do not mess around. they sent someone to lax to take me to my hotel by the beach and gave me a list of preparations for the suit, show up saved, your hair clean and your face free of makeup. the following morning a car picked me up at 9:00 and took me to playboy studio west where i was shown the set they built for me. a makeshift stage, a stripper pole and a bank of video monitors, typecast again. they had a contract and a photo released ready to sign. i changed into a white terry cloth slippers and showed in the makeup room. i emerged two hours later with lacquered hair, pamela anderson makeup job, brows tw z eze and

thick lipstick. i felt like i was wearing a clay mask and i looked like a drag queen and a fem bot. i belted my robe and wandered around the wardrobe area while the stylist decided to dress me. the clothes were stocked in a two story storeroom with lingerie high every possible configuration of fluff, lace, feathers, leathers, velvet and animal print. it was like peeking inside barbie's dream closet. the stylists considered my build and coloring and using their own esoteric chose to out me in nothing of piles of rhinestone necklaces, belly chains and a rhinestone-driveled black mesh shrug. the photographer was steven who was a playboy legend which was a blessing and a curse. i knew i could count on him to take wonderful pictures. he spent five hours shooting just for one image.

but he was clearly used to much more experienced models and his frustration with me became obvious. madonna erotica played on, lengthen your waist, chin up and grab the pole. shut up, madonna. i'm stretched so far up i'm about to break half. i was so anxious i clunk to the pole like the shyest girl on amateur night. the most humiliating thing was how he asked me to pose with my arms over my head. i knew this trick. it lifts your breasts. sorry about the gravitational pull, dude, they're real. when we took a break for lunch one of the photographers said we got a bag of mini rhesus peanut butter cup. i'm a nervous eater and i couldn't keep away from them.

i ate a good dozen to this shoot and whenever i hear madonna's erotica i grave peanut butter. i was exhausted feeling like i'd completed a systemic circuit. this once in a lifetime event was business as usual for everyone else in there. another day at the cheesecake factory. but i weighed the issues release and honored that was part of a particular feminine tradition. finally in april of 1996 the spread was slated to run. there was only one thing wrong about the photo, it didn't look like me at all. when the issue hit the stands my dear friend deb who i'd known for 20 years called me and said i had to flip through the magazine four times to find you. you look like some texas oilman's wife named babs. [laughter] >> the clerk handed me my new military id still warm from the laminating machine. here you go, ma'am. i had officially become a ma'am. i was part of the big green army

machine. i looked down at the photo, a black and white shot floating on a light brown background, yep, just as i suspected, it didn't look a thing like me. i put the card in my wallet. as a right of passage, the process of integrating into the army's system felt oddly powerful not like i was gaining the support of my husband but the fortification of institutional might. the sense of a foundation beneath my feet offset the nervousness i fete about the sacrifices i would be asked to make in aid to mike's career. i was now a member of a team that was more than a million strong. and to me, as with legions with other women married to military men, the lovers breathless pledge i'll follow you everywhere was no abstract romantic notion, it was now a way of life. on the january day in 2003, when mike received his deployment orders he was eerily calm. we'd already had the what if a

war looming over us for months. had i expected him to be more emotional as deployment drew nig. the night he got his orders i shoveled around the kitchen baking chocolate chip cookies until 2:00 am. i sealed them in a plastic ziploc bags. when he found them in the counter he came in the bedroom with tears in his eyes. he moaned i don't want to see any more dead people. he had only told me once about the hundreds and burned of mangled corpses he'd seen as a platoon leader during the gulf war. at the end of the exhausting 100-ground war mike's unit was making its final drive east when it ran directly across the highway of death. the iraqis fleeing kuwait city had jammed highway 80 as they tried to get back to safety.

mike and his soldiers arrived upon the scene just four hours after the road was attacked by sorties of coalition aircraft. vehicles were smoking, some licked by orange flame. the orange stank of burning fuel and flesh. he described the sight there were prayer rugs, televisions, candles, silver war, women's dresses and war booty that had been panicked. in the backseat of an old green car mike discovered the body of a kuwaiti hostage. his hands bound behind his back. blood and chunks of brain splattering the car's apoll industry. his faced a peaceful expression by his side was a photograph of a lovely woman bending over birthday cake next to a toddler. mike wasn't sure if the man had used the photo in a failed attempt for mercy while he

pleaded for his life or he simply begged to see it before he was shot. i never asked mike about anything he'd seen in combat before that or after. i didn't feel it was within my rights to press him for details and womanly intuition guided me to soothe rather than pry. his reluctance to talk about such personal things didn't seem uniquely male but rather entirely human. i accepted that my husband, like many people, preferred to process misery in private. the inducement to divulge you'll feel better to talk about it but whenever i hear that, i think instinctively, no. he will tell me what he wants to tell me when he wants to, if he wants to. but i wouldn't ask even though i was curious to see over the wall between us the one that separated my experience from his. he was part of a world that i could not and likely would not ever know. he would be entering that world again very soon and i'd be shut out.

i would know little more about it than the space it would span on our calendar, 365 days, 52 weeks, 12 months. a year, a year. the big green canvas bag lay on the floor and opened wide. mike tried to convince me that this deployment wasn't big deal after three weeks of predeployment and training, the battalion would start out doing a stint in kuwait then go north and spend the rest of the deployment providing intelligence support in baghdad. as the battalion executive officer, his job was to support the battalion commander in matters of logistics, and personnel. while he ensured me over and over he wouldn't be in danger, i wasn't convinced though i was more frightened to go to baghdad, the camp addari was over the kuwaiti borders and who

knew how far this conflict would spread. i wish i could fit you in here, mike said as he folded his undershirts in the kick bag, well, technically you could fit me in there when you'd let me out i would be so pissed that i would attack you like a rabid chimp. i was joking out of fear which ballooned out in front of me that humor was the only way i could see around it. i was afraid of so many things, being alone, not knowing what to do in his absence, not knowing if he'd be safe. just not knowing. i gave him my small battery-operated digital alarm clock to keep by his bedside. think of me when you're talked in, okay, it's got a thermometer, too. he tested the button trying the night-light on that could be interesting. the temperature can get over 120 degrees over there. . you're kidding, right? no. while he continued packing i held a set of his dog tags turning them over and over in my

palm. stamped into the tags was information that reduced my husband to statistical basics, name, social security number, blood type, religion. i'm enchanted with blood -- with dog tags, a timeless military symbol until i remember they're designed to function as a toe tag should he be killed in combat. two days before mike deployed the battalion's family were summoned for a family readiness group meeting. here we were briefed on every aspect of life during separation from facing logistical challenges. it was easy for me to tell the newer wives from the old. new ones like me sat alert taking notes. our eyes round like a bunch of owls while the more seasoned among us sat back looking as if they heard this spiel before. the meeting was run by volunteers from fort meade army community services. during the briefing, a stern

older woman urges to be fiscally responsible. don't buy a new coach or a new tv. while her younger compatriot told us it was our job as women to make sure our returning servicemen didn't feel threatened by our wartime autonomy. she said she'd shored up her man's confidence by screwing burned out light bulbs so he would have something to repair when i came back. i smirked i would keep our household together and my man together. no assistance from ge would be needed. as wives we may be overwhelmed and agitated by news reports about the war so we shouldn't feel bad about wanting to avoid newspapers, radio, and television. if being in the information loop frightened you or made your family anxious a self-imposed news embargo would be okay. mike joined me just in time for

the marital relations portion of the presentation. sex and intimacy can be strained what soldier returns home we were told. the elder woman urged us in a thick massachusetts accent to let nature take its course. back at our apartment, mike took down our fireproof lock box. here's our marriage certificate, he said, taking it from the box. i smiled. i had brand the certificate in front of my delighted parents at thanksgiving dinner announcing our marriage to their applause. we then moved on to new york stopping by his mother's house in duchess county then his father's place in queens spreadingate news. -- spreading the good news. mike dug further of the lock box. here's your power of attorney. you'll need this, too. what is it? it's my will. he held it out to me but i didn't want to touch it. i refused. he lay it on the bed.

i don't know if my refusal was supertici superstition or denial that we were forced our end of life together before it had even begun. [applause] >> that's such a downer and i would like to read somebody a little peppier but i'm not sure you guys are being held microphone hog. hey, dave. shout out to dave on the mic to c-span. that's what that when you come to my reading. okay. he's deployed. he comes home in reasonably good shape, reasonably good shape. let's just say all the scars were on the inside. and that immediately after he comes home we move to west point together. and that to me is like being

drop-kicked into a foreign culture because i don't have a personal connection to the army. so it's almost as if i boarded a rocketship. i was wistful for my former life as a stripper if you're looking back at that with fondness simply because it seemed familiar to me. it was a territory that i knew so i had a little bit of yearning for something familiar. so this is what happens. the lady gets in for free. in a fit of nostalgia i dragged mike to a local strip club by stewart air force base called paradise island. paradise island is a boxy joint, a single floor place with funky smelling carpet and dark walls. totally nude which meant they served no alcohol. the bouncer checked our ids and waved us in we gripped our $5 plastic cup of diet coke and tried to get into it. going to a strip club with your

man is an interesting litmus test and when we sat down at the bar, i could tell mike was uncomfortable. he whispered to me, i don't know where to look. [laughter] >> the girls worked their way down the war. shimmy, shimmy spread. there's nothing really excited about seeing total female nudity. maybe i don't care because i've got that particular kit myself. so the sight is kind of being at bed, bath and beyond and seeing the exact kind of blender at home i laid out $5 for each dancer. i hadn't had a wad of cash in my hand for a long time. god i miss a gamblers money where you had so much money your fingers would turn black. this was not one of those jolly big money nights when the music was blasting and the impossibly

hot smiling athletic girls were sprouting 100 bills from their garters. this was another bum tuesday night where you'd have to rattle your can to earn enough cash to cover your utility bill. the next dancer stopped in front of us at the bar startled me. i'm open-minded. you can pretty much fetish by me but i hate to see a pregnant women in a strip club. i know they can run 5ks and run the appalachian trail but still when i see a woman popping a belly, teetering in high heels and a silver mini dress pulled down to expose her dress and cover her bump i want to pick her up whisk her way to a tropical island where she can sit with her feet up and be fanned with palm fonds. get this lady a pedicure stat.

we tipped her 20 bucks. starry-eyed cultural critics insist in a strip club has the power. it's a lovely fantasy one that seduces me. sure if the club is packed and the dancers are all busy and everyone wants your fine, fine booty it's your racket. if one guy gets a little out of line you motion to the bouncer and see you later, sucker. you know that customers are like trolley buses. there'll be another along shortly and no one is going to get over on you. but your power is only as great as your demand. if you got no takers you got no game. and you're tempted to make compromises, put up demeaning comments about your body, suffer through conversation with a man who's got roaming hands and raptor breath. maybe let another customer get a little closer than the rules allow. when the money's tight the pickings are slim and the pressure's on you eat crap or you go home break broke.

you've heard the expression beggars can't be choosers, exactly. whatever beauty or sex appeal you've got it's hard to enjoy it when you strip because there's a dozen sexier prettier newer girls pouring in every day. it's a constantly renewing source of not good enough. a big mouth anywaying its way through high-speed chase of young bodies. men show up hoping against hope that the girls are into it and most of the time they are aren't. her motivation is the bottom line but if you catch them on a good night and they're into it they may even be loving it, that small percentage is just enough juice to keep the machine running. and there is something about dancing that sets you free even if you otherwise feel like a slave to the job. in the smoke and neon and darkness you have a sacred space on the stage where you can put aside the gender politicking and all the powerock why go enmedal with the music. no bending over, no touching yourself with your hands, stay 3

feet away from the customers. but within that is the simple joy of movement, of shedding clothes and inhibition bigs feeling yourself huge and dramatic walled off from the silly judgments. the shy girl, the geek, whoever somebody thinks you are doesn't matter because this is your song, your stage, your time. even though you're attractiveness is on the club's auction block, sometimes there's a song or two that's yours and yours alone. like the caged bird sing, the dancing girls dance. it's not a ballerina's discipline or a modern dancer stretching the boundary of beauty it's the harlot's hard bargain. here's what i've got, take it or leave it. but if you take it, know you're not getting all of me. this little piece the beauty of the moment in the dinghy spotlight is my own secret pleasure, my own sweet escape. whatever dirty business might

happen in the audience the performance stays pure. thank you. [applause] >> i'm opening the floor to questions. i certainly welcome nosey questions. that's why we're here after all. if you could just pause so the boom can come to you. before you ask, then we're good to go. >> so, lily, my first question is, what was your biggest misconception about marrying into the military? >> my biggest misconception is -- was very informed by hollywood where a lot of scenes with military personnel are filmed where there's a lot of yelling so i don't think many military people had an inside voice so i sort of that it was going to be sarge from beetle bailey, here's our date and this is awesome and 10 minutes of our date i would have a migraine from all of this and sort of

fine that they are such self-deprecating people and so thoughtful and committed to what they do. there's a gentleness to it that was absolutely startling to me 'cause i really was expecting, you know, various and sundry gradient shades of knuckle ape -- and the heart that comes to commitment with their service was startling and it's been such a continuing experience of having my worst assumptions proven wrong and it's something that i'm actually most pleased with about it as well. so it's a lot more intellectual. it's a lot more emotional and it's a lot quieter. good question. thank you. >> what was the reaction of those closest to you when you decided to write this book? and what was their reaction when it came out and their reaction to what -- how revealing it was.

>> you know, when you write a memoir, you really -- you think you can anticipate the response and you really can't. of course, this is a memoir about my marriage so i thought the better part of sportsmanship would be let my husband read it first before it was published and i understand there are some people who are very territorial about their work and it sort of really doesn't matter who it's about. they feel like it's their right to tell their story the way they want to tell it. one of my larger goals was to stay married so i thought perhaps i should give him a boat. and there wasn't much that he wanted changed. but there are a few parts that are a little touchy for him. they say he had ptsd. i don't know that he has a disorder because he missed a day of work and because became so anguished that he couldn't function so i would say he had ptsd and he had an incident where he had a flashbacks.

i know there's so many wives whose hundredses had a flashbacks. even though this is a guy who's an intellectual. he eats rusty nails for breakfast and having that one flashback makes him feel vulnerable. there's that and then also honestly he kind of hates the strip club scene. but you were the cool guy. you weren't like -- i didn't discover some side of you that, you know, i was mortified by so it wasn't, you know, it doesn't reflect poorly in any way. i think most thinking, feeling men wouldn't know where to look if they went with his wife and it's a fairly typical response. what's startling to me is -- this is my second memoir. and the sheer volume and intensity of the responses from the other wives is blowing me away. i mean, i get women who say this

book had me in tears and it has stuff that makes me think about because army culture is so conscibes you don't talk a lot of sex money it's a lot of recipe swaps and we're frank how our husbands are doing and how that's difficult about us but there is so much that's left out. so that sense of readiness and being able to handle anything and that game face kind of leaks over to the wives as well so there's a whole level of conversation that we just don't have. and if you're lucky to make really good friends where you can break through that wall formality and get to real friendship that's great but a lot of us, for whatever reason, you get to a certain post and you just don't meet those women, they kind of feel like they're having that conversation with me when they read the book and it's going to places they been but don't dare verse at coffee group. and that for me -- you also don't know when you write a

memoir what's going to be the most rewarding thing and for me the most reawarding thing is not having crafted it well or getting good reviews. it's hearing from the other stuff from the other wives because they're responding with the rough stuff and how do you respond to your man when he comes back from the war and he's different and you don't opine about the war and you don't, you know -- there's an assumption of friendship 'cause military wives are very outgoing, but one of the top stresses in anybody's life in the top three stresses is moving and you do that every two years so you're living in this constant churn and we have this driving slogan of suck it up. suck it up and drive on. but there's so much in life that i don't feel you should suck up because that belittles your feelings. if i can get against the suck it up salvo and get these women to feel like they've been spoken to candidly from a friend from what

they've been through, it's beyond anything i could have imagined. so i would say in that respect the response that be positive. one negative response is, you know, my husband and i have been part of the west point community since 2003 and i've had graduating female cadets dress for my weddings in their quarters and take mentorship from my husband when they'd chosen the same branch so i feel west point and feel like it's part of my heart and soul and certainly part of our marriage. and i had a reading scheduled there for april 28th and they cancelled it just because i used to be a stripper. so that is shocking to me because as a writer i've been so committed to taking the issues of the military family and trying to place them as visibly as possible like the times op-ed page or the "l.a. times" op-ed page so making that sort of a personal platform and then having all that overlooked for some time machine factor of let's go back to '94 and dismiss you because of that. it made me really sad because it

makes me feel like who i was then overshadows any contribution i make now. so that's a reaction that i definitely could not have anticipated. at first they didn't say why they were canceling it and this book sucks and this is a bird cage liner. [laughter] >> there's different page a day like a calendar. and then when i found out it was a moral judgment, i was really shocked 'cause, you know, west point -- it's an institution of higher learning and it's where we're educating the future leaders of the army. so i feel that, you know, academically -- and because i write about sex work not on the position of advocacy, none of you could say i'm writing a conversion dialect particular

for young soldiers to abandon their position to hit the pole. it was startling and it is what it is. and one of the chapters in the book is about my fear of my past coming back to bite me in the butt as an army wife and lo and behold, ta-dah the day of reckoning has come. yeah. >> i feel like a cat. >> exactly. >> first of all, that's messed up if they cancelled it. my apologies on behalf of them. but i wanted to ask you when you set out to write this, did you feel like -- 'cause writing is such a delicate and weird thing did you feel like you had to self-censor. did you have to be aware that you might do that? >> oh, absolutely. i think every writer contends with that especially when you're writing, you know, about your life and the people in it and who are still there and you're not writing about your imaginary friends or making up a fictional

universe. although even then you have people reading it going, you know, i know aunt gertrude is really the lady down the street. there are people who are always trying to define what's real when we love to be readers and detectives at the same time. it's part of the sneaky joy of being a reader. i had a couple of concerns one was if i was going to write about people i knew in the army i had to conceal them appropriately. and i've been so successful people keep coming up to me going, the guy whose wife -- you know, she found out she was cheating through myspace, that's the smiths, isn't it? it's so totally not the smiths. every time they ask me it is they're wrong i feel like it's a small victory. in fact, one guy who i did write about all roads lead to facebook so everybody you ever dealt with in the army is going to find you on facebook and my former neighbor -- they were so wonderful to me when my husband and i went through a tremendous marital crisis and he was like, hey, is this me and my wife? i said yeah, it's you.

he didn't recognize himself and it took a while for him to figure it out. it's all for the good. but also i was so freaked out about what army people and army family members don't talk about. that that actually became one of the running themes and topics in the book is instead of being intimidated and limited by it, why not talk about what those restraints are. so in a way that impulse to self-censor became something of a driving force for the book because i was like rather than bow down to these -- that sort of invisible perfect stepford army wife who only talks about acceptable things like kids and baskets and recipes and loving her country and her family, why not talk about why we don't talk about it. so it actually sort of became the snake eating its tail and it

just helped me really roll along. yeah, here's another thing we don't talk about. 'cause one of the ways i wrote the book is, i have a lot of good friends online. and they're civilian and some of them are military brats but most don't have a connection to the military. so i was like if you had the opportunity to corner a military wife and ask her anything that you wanted to, what would you ask? and i got this list of 40 questions and that formed the background for the book of satisfying this curiosity. and one of the major questions was, you know, is your behavior policed? how closely are you watched? what can you talk about? what can you not talk about? so not only was it something that i was first intimidated by and then interested in, sort of something that became very obvious very quickly nonmilitary conversent people wanted to know that too. we always see those movies where there's some creepy beetle brow general saying don't you tell anybody. you don't know how the highest thing is going to go. so we -- we have that image of

sort of a entity and part of it is professionalism and discretion in a radically diverse organization like the military, we have different races, different religions, different backgrounds, different regional backgrounds, you know, there is something to be said for being polite about flash topics and also, you know, military people professionally have taken an oath to serve the civilian society so you don't criticize the mission it's talking smack about your boss and you just don't do it but it also creeps out and affects the civilian people like the wives and the kids and the people in the community. so it's fascinating stuff because at first i thought, they were having secret talk about the war meetings but don't invite lily 'cause she always bring a lame dessert or something? i thought there were these amazing think tank conversational bunk co groups getting together. and i started asking my friends on posts and they are like to

one, you know, honestly i've never had a conversation about what we think about the war. what it does to our families and the deployments and the struggles and the loneliness and the isolation. we're quite frank about that but there is no punditcracy. if you don't have an opinion you might as well sit down and eat the bridge mix because, you know, you can't even play. so it was very strange for me to have that complete reversal of conversation and engagement. and i still struggle with it. i mean, i have put my foot in my mouth so many times i'm sort of tempted to keep a running tally and grade them like how bad was that faux-pas. i don't know what the reward would be for a worst like exile. yeah, i really stepped ankle deep in it couple times. it's fairly common for people who are new to military culture. good question. thank you.

we're going to wrap up. let's wrap up, everybody. thank you so much for coming. this was great. it's so nice to have you here. [applause] >> lily burran -- she's a contributing editor for "spin" magazine and the new yorker observer. for more information go to lilyburana.com. ♪ >> this summer book tv is asking, what are you reading? >> peter is the founder of public affairs books. what are you planning on reading this summer? >> well, one of the first books i plan to read is kay blow's top by peter carlson which is being published by public affairs but

i concede i haven't had a chance to read it yet. everybody tells me it's absolutely marvelous. peter was a reporter for "the washington post" for many years and he tells the story of nikita khrushchev's visit to the united states. when he came here at the time the cold war was at its peak and he was the quintessential russian and he came here and he traveled the country and he went out to iowa and looked at how the cornstalks were and he went out to hollywood and went to disneyland. peter tells the story with what i gather is enormous great good humor. it's also history of a very, very intriguing kind so that's the first book i'll read. thank you. second book i'm going to read is chris buckley's mum and pup. i think all of us who follow this kind of thing have heard a little bit about the book or seen one way or the other has a

famous -- now famous line is what he said to his mother on her death bed. he looked at her as she was about to take her last breath and he said i forgive you. i hope my grandchildren don't say that to me. when i read the excerpts of the book in the "new york times" magazine, i realized how truly revealing it is about the way in which families of a certain kind live together and how you come to terms with the fact that these extraordinary people that you grew up with have reached the end of the line and it sounds to me like something really worth reading so i will.

>> bookexpo america in new york city 2009. we're at the yale university press book with the director of yale university press. what do you have coming out this fall? >> i've got a number of great books for the fall starting with the making of americans by e.d.hirsch i think you probably remember wrote a bestselling book called cultural literacy and he cares very much about what role education has in actually defining what it is to be american. and this book is sort of, i think, a capstone of his career which has included many best sellers and many decades of activism and education to talk about the centrality of information and knowledge and what it means to have a shared corpus of knowledge and how important it is to our national identity and how it's being threatened by the way education seems to be splintered across the country. it has a lot of argument and advocacy, a lot of ways to look forward to what the new

administration can do about education. >> the other book you have g.a. bradshaw elephants on the edge. what they teach us about humanity? >> this is a really marvelous book. it's very moving, very touching. what she does here -- and she has quite a platform in doing this. she's been on 20/20 and 60 minutes and what she tries to do is understand how human behavior affects the global population of animals from wild and in captivity and it's a very, very touching subject. i think people who have read on these kinds of issues will really respond to this book because our actions do have consequences and especially on those creatures that can't argue for themselves. in books. like elephants, for instance. so she talks about sort of elephants having nervous breakdowns and that's what the title refers to. inner emotional life of animals and actually how our own empathy towards understanding how they behave teaches us something about what it is to be human.

so it's a very interesting sort of turn-around there. in our efforts to understand animals we actually begin to understand us. >> two biographies the yale university press has out two artists, charles dickens and andy warhol. tell me about charles dickens. >> everyone thinks about that we've learned everything we need to know about charles dickens but there actually hasn't been a biography in over 20 years. this is a cradle to grave biography of dickens in a couple of decades and we're really, really excited about this. there's new information and research. and i think, you know, dickens is a kind of christmas book. >> and andy warhol biography. >> arthur is a very distinguished art historian and critic. and this is a wonderful biography really of kind of his legacy that warhol left behind. a lot of people think actually

that it's more interesting to think about andy warhol ton look at his paintings and his art and this book actually talks about what warhol did to the meaning of an american icon, how he has become our most significant american icons and an unlikely one and how did that happen and he did it through working very savvy with iconic graphic subjects, you know, whether it's the campbell soup can or liz taylor and this is a book that takes a look at how -- redetermined or redefined what it is to be iconic. >> you're the director of yale university press. what decisions do you make on a day-to-day basis? >> maybe it would be easier to say what i don't make. basically, all the departments run up to me, operationally, editorially, marketing and financially, so starting, of course, with the books. we have a staff of about 14

editors. the press is only as good as the book it publishes so that's the most important decisions i think we make day-to-day. we're the largest book-based american university press in the country. and the only one with a significant london base as well. >> yale university press celebrated its 100 why the university last year. give me a history on the press. >> it started in the left drawer of the lawyer who graduated from yale who worked on lower fifth avenue. and over the decades, it became more and more famous for its lists in humanities and art history. in the 1960s it was appropriated in the university itself and we're a department of the university. we have in the '70s there was a big london office that was built in bedford square and still there today. and as i said we do about 400 books a year. mostly in the humanities and social sciences. >> you're the director of yale university press. thank you. >> thanks very much. ♪

>> this summer book tv is asking, what are you reading? >> hi i'm nick gillespie i'm i'm a editor and chief of reason tv. the monthly -- the nation's only monthly magazine of free minds and free markets. we've been around since 1968. we're a small libertarian magazine that's interested in things like free minds and free markets, open borders, drug legalization, economic deregulation, basically letting it rip. laissez-faire across-the-board. i read a lot. this summer my favorite book so far which is hitting books in august, everybody is stupid except for me and other astute

observations. peter is reasons official cartoonist. he does long form reported comic essays for about the ten years and everybody is stupid -- everybody is stupid except for me has already gotten rave reviews from places like esquire. it's a great read. other books that i've read r.u. sirius everybody must get stoned, rock stars on drugs which i reviewed for "the new york post." it's a list and complition of snippets and rock stars and their misadventures of drugs. it's a sobering book as well as a hell of a lot of fun all at the same time. i also recently finished clinton heylin babylon's -- babylon's burning and how the punk movement slowly spread and eventually transformed itself into a commercial enterprise in grunge in the very late '80s and early '90s.

a fascinating read. i also recently reviewed joe scarborough the nbc host morning joe called the last best hope. i'm a big fan of joe scarborough on tv. i was disappointed a bit in the book which seemed a little bit superficial particularly in its stated goal to offer a true alternative to a kind of big government program that's coming out of washington from both republicans and democrats. there's a few other books that i have in my reading cue. two of which are ayn rand who's derided an awful stylist and writer. but she's getting a long look from a couple of serious scholars. these books are due out in october. one is called ayn rand and the world she made by anne heller.

and the other one is by jennifer burns and it's called goodes of the market, ayn rand and the american right. it's fascinating to see rand finally getting a serious evaluation from american intellectual. rand in the '50s -- i felt she was much more -- she always saw herself apart from the mainstreams of american society but she fits very well with an antiauthoritarian that you see from other writers or on the left of other intellectuals and people like the lonely crowd, david riceman's book or the man in the gray flannel suit. rand has been doing extremely well over the past couple of months partly because of things coming out of d.c. but she's a writer and a figure more importantly who we should all study with care if we want to have a roadmap to why people are

feeling the way that they are right now. and then because it's summer and i'm going on vacation in august, i always try to take a couple of novels to read. and i go back almost every year to the great french novelist whose comedy humane are a series of interrelated novels tell the story moving into an industrial revolution economy. the move from the farm to the city and all of the great possibilities that holds open for self-transformation. i'm a big fan and the book i'm looking at is the black sheep and later partly because my older son, jack, who's a high school student, read this for his upcoming sophomore year in high school, ha jin war trash which came out in 2004 and is told from the point of view of a chinese soldier who was held in an american p.o.w. camp during the korean war. it is a haunting sobering tale which give us an insight into

china which is clearly one of the countries that will be defining our lifetime and probably centuries to come. so that's my summer reading and i hope to get it all done by the end of -- you know, by labor day weekend. >> to see more summer reading lists and other program information, visit our website at booktv.org. ..