you're like 25, you're an old guy, so you can't go. but it was a whole college education. and because it was before computers and before jet engines, they explain almost everything that you can do, how to build a plane, it's kind of wonderful. and i love stuff like that. i like history too. i like reading the story of civilization. it's kind of wonderful. >> i read a lot of nonfiction. i also listen to a lot of nonfiction. i'm not so good at listening to fiction, but i listen to nonfiction. and my favorite book this year is hector tobar's deep, down dark. brilliant, brilliant book. >> here in miami. >> thank you. we have to bring the session to a close. i don't know if you wanted to wrap it up. >> no. >> and with any closing remarks. >> no wrapping. >> the audience looks sad. look at them. >> you can still hang out here and corner us with questions

afterwards except for nicholson baker who has to go off or go to his next session. thank you so much. >> let's have a round of applause for our panel. >> booktv is on twitter and facebook, and we want to hear from you. tweet us, twitter.com/booktv, or post a comment on our facebook page, facebook.com/booktv. >> now that 2014 is coming to a close, many publications are releasing their end-of the yearbook list. former secretary of state henry kissinger is on the list with his take on international affairs in "world order." then in "the teacher wars," dana goldstein provides a history of public school teaching. jeff hobbs recounts the life and death of his former college roommate in "the short and tragic life of robert peace."

jo becker in "forcing the spring," and in fire shut up in my bones, charles below recalls growing up in louisiana in the 1970s. >> one of the idiosyncrasies but also one of the beauties of small town america is that things kind of pass it by. and so you -- it is timeless in a way, and it is pastoral, and you do grow up very closely linked to nature which doesn't necessarily have the same kind of decade markers that the rest of the world does when you're looking at when you interact more with architecture as it moves forward and a lot of technology as it moves forward. we just did not have that. >> and that's a look at some of "the new york times" 100 notable books for 2014. to link to the full list and see selections from other publications, visit booktv's web site, booktv.org.

>> live from new york, it's saturday night. and the authors are james andrew miller and thom shales. mr. miller, what was the point of this book? >> we had written a definitive -- what we wanted to be a definitive history of saturday night live that ended in 2002, so we decided to go back and update it, and it turns out the last 12 years of saturday night live were very busy, and so we added another 200 pages. >> tom shales, you're a longtime tv critic for "the washington post". what was your contribution to this book? >> i kept encouraging jim to keep working. i think that was my basic contribution. well, i go way back to saturday night live's dawning. i was there not for the first show, but i used to go up to new york and sort of hang around, make a nuisance of myself because i was immediately attracted to it. it was something both new and old, and then it went back to the days of live tv which i remember from being a kid. but it also, of course, broke

all kinds of new ground in terms of what you could say and do and what subjects you could cover on television, especially in comedy. so the show's been dear to my heart since the very beginning, 40 years now. >> did cast members talk to you for this book? >> yes. mostly to jim. we both worked on the first book, but jim did this -- the this new version was jim's idea, and he talked to most of the new cast members who are a study in contrast to the old ones. >> but we had a lot of hosts, too, and writer and also people like governor palin, senator mccain. obviously, saturday night live had a great role during the 2008 presidential election. talked to tina fey as well about all of that. that was a lot of fun. and hosts from christopher walken to scarlett yo is hanson. so it's really interesting. probably more than 100 interviews. >> mr. miller, how important is saturday night live to politics or has it always been a

political show? >> well, it has. i mean, right from the beginning when chevy chase used to make fun of gerald ford and fall down, you know, i think it's an important part of the political process. every four years when there's a presidential election, you kind of look to saturday night live to see how they're going to, you know, characterize and even brand some of the characters. governor palin told me that she thought that people overestimated saturday night live's influence on voters, but i think it's -- it may not actually materialize in the voting booth, like somebody who was going to vote for mccain and palin doesn't say, well, i'm going to vote for obama and biden because of that one saturday night live sketch, but it does give us, like, an image of somebody. you know, will ferrell playing bush 43, dana carvey bush 41, you know, it just gives us a sense of who they are, fairly or unfairly. >> tom shales, you wrote for

"the washington post," down here in a political town. how important is the politics? in saturday night live? >> well, i think as jim said, a lot of interaction there, a lot of influence, and they sort of couldn't live without each other, i guess. the show has gotten, the show's always had a young audience and targeted at a young demographic, and i think for some of that young demographic, this is their main exposure to politics, or they learn a lot of political realities through saturday night live. they don't watch news really very much, i think. they maybe get stuff over the internet, but saturday night live is an actual source of political information for them, not just entertainment. i don't mean it's their only source, but i think it plays a major role in how they think of to things. >> the big difference is that when saturday night live first started, there was nothing else like it. so when they were doing the political satire, it was a big deal. now you have jon stewart,

stephen colbert, john oliver. there's a lot of people doing, you know, what they used to do. so the competition is much more fierce. >> jim miller, when you're not writing books, what do you do? >> i write for paper, and i do media consulting. >> jim miller, tom shales, live from new york: the complete, uncensored history of saturday night live. this is booktv on c-span2. >> up next, author and think tank b president arthur brooks. the former french hornist turned social scientist talks about his research on charity, happy and free enterprise. -- happiness and free enterprise. the head of the american enterprise institute is the author of four nonfiction books including new york times bestsellers gross national happiness and "the road to freedom." ... >> host: arthur brooks, where did the phrase "gross national happiness" come from?