ledger goes from 1968 through 82. it is the most comprehensive collection of executed people from six tino eight in the united states until he stopped when he became ill. one of the things he would say is the start off as a proponent but as he did research and realized people who were in the seven were executed children, those who did not have the mental capacity to know what they

we're doing one of the interests did -- interesting things is the idea that some of the organization's records are groups of murder victims who are against the death penalty so that is fascinating a spouse or child was a victim of a crime would advocate not for the death penalty for them. this is the way journalists stores dollars research and write history with primary source documents as evidence to document the people and the organization say rightabout this is the raw

material for historians and historical researchers. i say the historian is similar to the argument for what the thesis is we try to manage all the evidence for research and writing purposes. >> the title of my book is the limits of representation it is about the limits of representation we wanted to

show when members of congress quote represent an quote their district it could mean different things to different congress people. not one-size-fits-all and i wanted to show the choices members of congress from making and "the reader" to think about the choices about what style of representation what "the reader" thinks is best. there on the 10 members of congress in terms of the local national distinction which wrote down the we found local politics still matter. there are any number of stories highlighting local

politics and members of congress but local is what we're used to seeing to bring projects to the district. and hanging out with constituents to highlight their roots to our constituents what literature has talked about. it is the maura breen discussions of national issues to bring a and national party help or figures to come from outside

of the district but anything going on nationally. in some ways politics has not changed. lots of congress people talk about local issues and congress people being partisan but to just be involved what is going on in. the contract of america, wins issues of minorities or immigration and in a lot of ways we are connected. politics was interesting to me and to i was surprised.

i know it is supposed to talk about politics but i was surprised how local politics still is and we talk members of congress are supposed to represent what does that mean? but to within that i was impressed how members grave able to put their stamp on what they we're doing. it mattered to a representative was this they differed from their predecessor by which issues they focused on and that

seemed to do for of before they came to congress. those faced by congress all across the country and the findings that the constituencies are so different influences say members choices and the background will play a role that generalizes across the 10 jury and i think when i interviewed 10 members of congress but to get the holistic perspective to add so much depth breyer appreciate the things that

the members do at the time when congress to is getting trashed it is heartening to have wrote to a book that makes you appreciate those members of congress is based on public record sources i took up of perspective i am day average constituent so of look negative internet services and public record documents i interviewed couple but i decided to stay away from that perspective and i tried to take the view i am the outsider i am

overly interested and i'm not typical but if somebody wanted to find out, what would they have to do? there is an amazing amount of public record sources and the enough to get a reasonable picture of what congress is doing. podium. [applause]

>> tnk you, ry >> making this a remarkable week. rema it is hard torkable believe it o sunday including a very special e. benton. james patterson who got myy kids ss her preschool and are now getting them through college to be frank. you'll understand why in a minute. "time" magazine has failed james patterson is the man who can't miss. of the new york magazine times on its cover proclaimed him as having had transformed publishing and here's why. he holds the guinness record for the most number one "new york times" bestsellers of any author ever. in 2011 it was estimated that one in four of all hardcover suspense thriller novels sold with the bad mr. patterson. selling over 300 billion copies of his books worldwide, that's

300 million copies. he's also the the first other to achieve 5 million e-book sales and by now has probably hit in william as we sit in this room. what is impressive about all of this though is that the successes and based solely on a similar site the ever popular alice crossed in the women's murder club at michael bennet series. he's also the current best-selling author and and a young adult and middle grade categories. it's not just about his success either. he's won the coveted edgar award, the bca mystery guild ruler of the year award from an internist thriller of the year award from the reader's digest readers choice award and the children's choice but councils children's choice award. i got through that. it has been said of james patterson and his work, no writer has ever created so many

lasting tiered there's poor grasp the interlocking power of thought and emotion. he pours forth stories that engross, and mays and move readers. at the same time they plumb the emotions we all live with, the power of love, family, friendship, the pressure of work, the inevitability of death, the meaning of good in the presence of evil. it's immortal stuff wrapped in side the highest level of entertainment. i couldn't agree more and as a bookseller and struck by how easy it would be for james patterson to sit back and rest on his laurels. instead he garners the gratitude and respect from all of us who love the literary life and care deeply about how we can develop the next generation of readers with his prodigious work over the past decade in championing books and reading. from the james patterson paige

turner ward to his website read kiddo read.com to his scholarships and regular donations of hundreds of thousands of books to troops overseas has passed on his passion for books and reading that supports those who do the same. and away the hilt essay for cnn.com he presented a call to action imploring parents to become active participants in changing the reading habits of their two. and on a personal note, when we received the news that james utterson will be with us at the miami book fair this year, i was more than thrilled when i was also not surprised that his primary reason for coming was not to close books, but instead wanted to make celebrating the notion of family reading and that's what were going to do this morning. mr. patterson is going to come out, say some words and then we'll sit down and engage in a bit of a conversation.

but that will also take questions from the audience, so how those wheels turning in a can of questions you might have to answer. if you're young, don't be intimidated. , not because i know he does to your questions from youtube. so please give a really, really warm, warm miami and miami book fair welcome to mr. james patterson. [applause] >> hi, i'm stephen king. [laughter] i was walking in here and this lady said new book much taller in your book jacket photos. [laughter] my boy jack came home from prep school yesterday, that thrill for me. it was devastating when he went

away. where have you been my blue-eyed son? what i want to talk about today something close to my heart, which is the power of stories in the way stories can affect the world, the way stories can change things for the better. in just the power of what can happen. a writer friend of mine was walking on burke avenue in new york city and he passed a blind man who was assigned the good please help me i'm blind. my friend is kind of walked by them and, but then he stopped and he saw this guy only had a couple coins in his hat was so he dropped in a couple of quarters and then he asked the man permission to just change the story a little bit for this guy, which he did and later in the afternoon he came back and pass the guy again and the hut was full of coins of those and

he stopped and talked to the guy in a blind man admitted have never had a day quite like this. you have to tell me what she wrote. how did you change my story? and my friend said i just added a couple of words and error please help me i'm blind and it's spring. it just change the whole story for the guy. we all have a story. maybe a couple stories people use to describe those. our families have a story about who we are to them and usually are often they involve a nickname we don't particularly care for. my father used to call me skippy. i have no idea why to this day. do we have many kids here? kids? a few. names we are known by in school

and our jobs and sometimes just a couple of lines. these stories can either push us forward or hold us back. i think for a while miami has some stories that help i am a bank and no miami has stories moving it forward. even our self-images, our personas are just stories that we tell about ourselves for that other hotel about us. about a year ago i met the actor and director tyler perry. tyler a couple years ago bought delta airlines headquarters in atlanta and needed to some its tv shows and movies. one of the amazing things about tyler and his story is a 1998 tyler was homeless and tyler perry searcy changed his story. i have kind of an unusual story

myself. i was born in a small river town on the hudson, newburgh new york. when i was growing up, look magazine called it the all-american city and at that time we had kind of an inner-city, but then we had a lot of harm kids and there was an air force base of the schools will follow the inner-city and harm can and kids who'd been around the world. it was an interesting place to grow up. earlier on my father grew up in the newburgh poorhouse. it was called the poggi. my father's mother was a charwoman at the poorhouse come which meant she cleaned the bathrooms or the other poor people and they got a room there. so that was our background and that's why feel i should be the next president of the united states. [laughter] [applause] anyway, i've been poor and have

been middle-class and then i was poor again and then i was middle-class again and now i'm kind of bridge. [laughter] i must admit to riches better. but i still believe that the satisfaction in our lives revolves more around who we are at the core. i think it's mostly we get comfortable in her own skin. for some it never happens unfortunately. and the best-selling author of the world. i have sold 300,000 -- 300 million books, but i'm not terribly impressed with that. i had a birthday party a few years ago and one of my best friends with all the way back to grammar school and they said come you know, you're still the same hassle you always were and i like that. i like that. i would've preferred that said you revolves to become a little

bit more dolt, but to me the important thing is emcees husbands and jack's dad wherever he went. and everyday i try to do the best i can and some days it even works. here's a story about working for a living, about balancing our working families, which is something most of us are always trying to do. and in the story, once again you imagine life as a game in which are juggling five in the air and you call them work, family, health, friends and charity and somehow you keep them all in the air, which is a struggle as you all know. and maybe at some point you understand and realize the work is a rubber ball and if you drop it, believe it or not, will actually bounce back. but the other four, family,

health, friends, charity are made of glass in the future of one of them, they are going to be scuffed or marked or next or maybe even shattered and will just never be the same again and you'll never get them back. once we get that image in our heads for that idea or concept and are hence we strive for balance in their lives they think. i certainly try to do that. nowadays most of the stories i read her fiction might especially enjoy writing books for kids. my publisher thinks my kids books are the best that i rate. a couple years ago as mitch was singing -- he is a great voice, disney? i was nominated for author of the year at the children's choice book award and at that point jock was 12 and they said don't get me wrong, dad.

i really like your books, but rick riordan is going to win. so jack and i and my wife went to the awards and i want and jack jumped out of his chair and then they went up on stage and told the story about how jack thought rick riordan was going to win. but then i held up the award and said this is for you, jack. i knew he would always have that memory for the rest of his life according to new york with his dad and mom and his dad say this award is for you. so those are very cool moment for all of us. jack is a born storyteller. at four he wrote and illustrated his first novel called death of the butterfly catcher and in his story, the butterfly catcher gets on a plane, travels halfway around the world, doesn't catch a butterfly. then he gets on a boat and travels the rest of the world, still is a catch a butterfly. and then he gets on a train.

jack loves trains. catches a butterfly. the train stops to make it the train and not really looking from the gets hit by a train going the other way. death of the butterfly catcher, butterfly flies away. so is god it. beginning, and, title, will ball of? i love to write. i'm very passionate about it. but the main reason i write books for kids and i have a bunch of serious about some kids who fly and hopefully universal is going to make a movie. they have a script a great producer. who knows. write them a letter. that's universal studios -- tell them what a great amusement park ride it will be. who would want to go on not? and middle-school, the worst years of my life, if you have kids or grandkids or nieces and whatever, it's a really good

series for kids i say may be seven to 13 or so. it's funny and they're illustrated and i'm really proud of those books. this december of another book of middle-school age called unfunny. it's also illustrated in it's about a kid who decides he wants to be a standup comedian so he memorizes every joke in the history mankind and studies every comedian and it's a pretty fun book. the reason i write books for kids is as individuals coming in no come as individuals we can solve the health care crisis and we cannot solve global we are dean or whatever's going on, but we can get our kids reading. we can do that. and i try to write books that kids will love and that are also good for kids that there's always something going on in my book but hopefully the kids turn a little something in their

brains on. it's important that parents get into their heads and i think i have been in my head now. it's not the school's job to go and find books for your kids. it's not the school's job. [applause] it's your job, it's my job. it's our job to find books for kids. your kids don't need another cell phone with her first cell phone. they need books. they really need books. [applause] the nice thing is books are free at the library. how cool is that? and books are available at stores like books and books in coral gables. is that where this? and they are available online. you should go to the bookstore. and i have to say.

i don't sell books but i have a site called reid could have read this a good place to go. there's hundreds of books on there and they are of age categories and their only books that will turn your kids on, not to drugs, to reading. parents come up all the time and say i can't get my kids reading. and i say, with all due respect, and you get them to the dinner table? you have to make it as a rule your house. we read in our house. we read in our house. that's the coolest thing because if your kids can't read well, if they can't read well, high school is going to be a lot tougher than it needs to be. whatever, science, history will all be harder. maybe you get to nap without reading and maybe not. if your kids can't read well, some of them will not get through high school. if your kids can't read well,

choices and opportunities in life will be limited. they're not going to have as many choices. but the cool thing about looks, the great and terrific thing is there's so many really good books out there for them to read. there's a lot of books that will absolutely blow the minds of your kid. you know, harry potter, terrific series. when the kids come and terrific illustrations. books about sports, fine. if you have boys, let them read anything. , looks, great, graphic novels, almanacs, cut books, share, why not. as long as they are reading because to get better at it. i'll go to schools and say who play soccer? who love soccer? the outcome of the. you better know? would play a lot. same with reading.

he read more, get better at it. it gets easier. you read better books. you have something that you love. so i though the will to get that in your hands that notion we read in our house. it's really cool that your kids see you reading. that's nice, but the most important thing that got to have books in their bedroom. i got to read the darn things. when jack was a, sue and i that's number -- the holidays are another good time, the three, four weeks they have. but they said you can read everyday. he said do i have to? assembly, unless you want to sleep in the garage. but we are going to find cool books for you. so we went out with us and percy jackson series, read: time. at the end of the summer, jack was a bright guy, but was not a

big reader and a good-looking kid -- his mother must be very, very pretty. but by the end of the summer, he had read a dozen books. about nine of them he liked a lot in his reading skills have gone to remove. so he went from eight yourself or he didn't like to read two when he took his sats, which they take, he got 800 reading, which is the highest score you can get. so that's what can happen. it's unimportant whether they get 800 or harvard or vanderbilt , the support they get through high school and they have options when they get out. so yeah, mitch, where are you? , now, we're going to shoot the breeze and awesome question. what happened with that movie, et cetera, et cetera. [applause]