booktv asked what are you reading this summer? >> i've just finished a book that i would recommend forever and called five who came back. it's about the five hollywood directors who went into the service during world war ii jon ford george stevens william weidner and jon houston. it's a fascinating look at both hollywood and also world war ii and their experience in trying to document what went on and also trying to motivate people and fascinating the characters of these brilliant artist who literally went to war. jon ford was wounded. he found the actual attack on the island and received an academy award for his documentary. william wyler film the classic

documentary about a b-17 and infect himself was injured because of his service. it's a fascinating portrait of that era and combining both so the glitter of hollywood and the grim reality of the war. the second book that i'm reading at the moment that might take me most of the summer is dark -- doris kearns book the bully pulpit. in some respects it's a powerful archive because what roosevelt was facing was a significant inequality in terms of wealth. he was trying to make progressive changes. he was dealing with some of the issues we are dealing with today the role of corporations in the political process. he has his whole progressive agenda but the interesting thing is the contrast between he and taft. both respected each other

immensely. in fact roosevelt had a different temperament and it plays out very significant ways that the contribution not just the intellect but the temperament and politics in any type of endeavor. to fascinating characters. i knew a lot more about teddy roosevelt then i did william howard taft but they are both fascinating figures.

>> my son paul was in the hospital at children's national. we were waiting to have his open heart surgery and he'd been diagnosed with benign congenital heart defects and had to have the surgery otherwise he would die. part of waiting for the surgeon to come back from overseas was being in the hospital realizing all these other families at their and you are kind of in the trenches with them. this family, maggie's family. maggie had been through nine surgeries in nine months with various different problems. as daunting as their situation was we were really feeling for them and we were in the waiting room every day. we walked past maggie spent on the way to paul's bassinet and the day of paul surgery we came in and maggie's family was not there. she had passed away the night before. it was really really hard to imagine that the family had

spent so much time waiting for her to get out of the hospital and she didn't make it. so we went into surgery that das first open heart surgery of three. as we are sitting in the cardiac intensive care unit watching through a clear plastic bandage my son's heart beating which was a moment in and of itself the nurse comes over and says you have a phonecall. they brought me the phone and it was maggie's mom checking on paul surgery. the strength and the grace and the fortitude it took for a mother who had lost her child the night before to call and check on our child i think was a moment that we will always remember.

booktv asked what are you reading this summer? >> first i have to say i'm a book fan. at home i love to spend a little bit of time in the library and i actually recently found a couple of great books that i would recommend. i just finished bill sony. this is the story about a -- who ends up getting a education is a hydrologist and can get a job. he does end up with one in egypt and he brings out all of the artifacts many of which have historic artifacts from egypt.

it's great rich history and acquires them and brings them back with his skills are the british museum. then another one i think folks have seen the movie. if you have seen the movie, see saving italy. this is by robert edsel. this is an incredible story of saving the art treasures in italy, the movie focuses on northern europe but what took place in italy is absolutely incredible. saving some of the great art treasures throughout italy. the final chapter of this, it was interesting to find that they cover what had happened with mr. heller, dean heller who was one of the principles of saving the italian art and mr. mr. heller was a painter and

also a professor before he got into the service to save the art but i could've been knocked over with a feather when i found that one of his most famous works is in the reception room in the u.s. senate. he painted one of the portraits. there are five portraits there are afterwards so robert heller did tasks. i just finished brunelleschi's dome. a great book about the construction of one of the incredible monuments and then a couple of others i would recommend if you have got time. conquering gotham if you're into transportation infrastructure the story of building penn station in new york than getting the tunnel from new jersey into manhattan. an incredible feat. we think we have infrastructure problems now. this is awesome by jill johns

and the last train to paradise about bringing the train into florida. it's by florida's artist les standiford who is a professor and he's also done burning washington. in my office i have actually one of the engravings from 1819 of the capital that he used in the book so les standiford, washington bernie or les standiford last train to paradise. this summer i've been going to the library of congress series. the last one was on wilson. i look forward this summer to finish this volume. i'm pretty excited about that.