now, the fighting was in the next mountain beyond that was not a mile away. that town was very nice and our house was very fun. river behind us and the town had been captured with very handsomely but the mountains beyond it could not be taken. i was very glad the austrians seem to want to come back to the town sometime if the war should end because they did not bombarded to destroy but only a little in the military way. people lived on it and they were hospitals in cafés and artillery of the side streets, and to buy houses, one for the troops and one for the officers. with the end of some of the cool night in the fighting in the mountains beyond the town, the show marked iron of the railway bridge, where the fighting had been, the trees along the square, the long avenue of trees that led to the square, these were things, the king passed in his motorcars sometimes now seeing the face, the little longnecked body and the graybeard like a goat chin. all of these were sudden interiors of the house that had

lost, and sometimes in the street the whole thing going very well made the fall very different from the last fall when we had been in the country. the war was changed, too. "a farewell to arms," thank you so much. [applause] >> has anybody got anything else to read? no? then i want to thank the readers and i want to thank the audience for listing. and i'd like to invite you to have a snack in the main gallery and to discuss books and why they are banned. and thank you very much to c-span and to joe and to the camera ladies name who i don't know. [applause] >> [inaudible conversations]

>> you are watching booktv, nonfiction authors and books every weekend on c-span2. >> i wish you both a very happy christmas and a bright and prosperous new year. spent it's a pleasure to meet you, mr. santa claus, and to have you open the seals which begins on thanksgiving day for this year. >> would you mind autographing some of the christmas seals as a special favor for santa claus? >> why, i should be delighted. it's one of the things i do best. [laughter] >> that's a good thing you've got, santa claus. spinning yes, indeed,. >> must have for poor -- performed like this before. >> my father gave it to me.

>> some dog care in. >> season to, this week edith roosevelt to grace coolidge, weeknights at nine on c-span. >> joining us on booktv on c-span2 is josh dubois. before we get into your book, what is your day job? >> i led the face on 10 faith-based for president obama's first term. >> do you have a church? >> i don't have a church now but i attended a wonderful congregation here in d.c. >> how did you get josé with the president and his faith-based initiative? >> i started with them early in the senate term 2005. i was just doing outreach like a lot of other folks and i decided one day this guy needs some

rethinking about his cell. decide to send them anyway -- into one morning. to know if we would respond. it was reflection on the 23rd psalm but it will be back and said this is exactly what i needed today. would you do it every single day? that was six years ago. >> when we read "the president's devotional" to what will we find? >> 385 devotionals that of a meaningful to present obama to help him start his day with joy and to get through tough times. you find stories of faith in the white house. president obama like we haven't seen before, vulnerable points, how he helped me, how he was there for the country i and touh times like after the newtown tragedy. in addition to the daily devotion. >> when did you decide to put this together and did you need his permission to? >> i did. i asked them he thought it would be a good thing to inspire other people in same way these have inspired him. he said absolutely. about a year ago i started putting this together.

>> what's been the response? >> phenomenal. people no matter if the republicans or democrats are saying we all need to start our day in a place that is disconnected from politics and the business at any given day, focus on a purpose in life. >> why did you leave the white house? >> i wanted to put this together and share with people and guide other writing i wanted to as well. also expect to spend more time in my personal life. got married a couple months ago. >> joshua to balk him here is his book, "the president's devotional." in fact, the president has a blurb on the front. hang serving on the booktv. >> thanks for having me. >> yoyou are watching c-span2. we gauge featuring live coverage of the assistant to a weeknights watch key public policy fans, and every weekend the latest nonfiction authors and books on booktv. you can see past programs and

get our schedule a out a website and you can join in the conversation on social media sites. >> with just a few weeks left in 2013, many publications are putting out their year end list of notable books. these titles were included in "forbes" magazine's the best books of 2013.

>> for an extended list and links to various other publications 2013 notable book selections, visit booktv.org. >> joining us now of booktv is a james reston, jr. is the newest book is the accidental victim. what do you mean by the real target and alice? >> it's a kind of convoluted story but we've had 50 years of conspiracy theories on the jfk assassination.

and i think all of them are nonsense. i think we have to bring it down to the psychology and mindset of lee harvey oswald, the killer. and what i've attempted to do here is to go to the core of his motives for picking up the weapon on that november 22. you have to put two things together. the first is the attitude towards kennedy where he had absolute no animus towards the present at all. in fact, admired the president for his policies, but with john conway of texas who was in the car with kennedy, he had a long-standing grudge that had to do with the change in his military discharge, honorable and dishonorable. and he blamed conley for this because he had appealed to college to change back in 1962, and that hounded him for the next year and a half.

and i believe he put the faith of conley on his frustration. so he had a rage and an anger against conley but no such an attitude towards kennedy at all. >> how did you do this research 50 years later? >> i published a biography of john connally in 1989. in fact, i was on booktv back there in 1989 on that, but this was a 680 page biography and the dallas assassination sided with the conley and center some ago lost in all of those pages about the whole life. and so i very much wanted to be part of the conversation of the 50th anniversary commemoration, and that's why i went back to this material and dug deeper into the motive of oswald. and now i think i've made a compelling case that oswald was

going after connally and not after kennedy. >> james reston, jr. is the author of "the accidental victim: jfk, lee harvey oswald, and the real target in dallas." >> and it's a rare constant in american political life. but if you look at congress in 1901, less than 2% of members came from working-class background. got into politics and that eventually wound up in congress. fast-forward to the present day. the average number of congress met less than 2% of the career doing manual labor jobs, service industry jobs. and so this is one thing that really hasn't changed, you know, different aspects of the political podcast. big money in politics and the decline of unions and while all of this is happening, there's one of the constants during the, during the ls