we have michele norris and isabel wilkerson and i'm going to do a brief introduction fora both of them and that i'm going to askbo questions. i will leave time at the end sot that people can ask questions too. probably about three times the 31 and you can ask questions. sk. in the introduction to the grace of silence, michele norris writes should begin the process in 2009 because she became convinced an unprecedented hidden and robust conversation about race is taking place across the country in the wake of barack obama's historic presidential campaign and his extension to office. from this project, her painful family secrets from her father's shooting by the birmingham police, less than two weeks after his discharge from service of world war ii, to her grandmother's pancake mix as an impediment to aunt jaminma. she traveled from minneapolis to her childhood home in the deep south to explore the things left unsaid by her family when she was growing up. michele was chosen as a journalist of the year in 2009 by the association of black journalists and is a winner of a dupont columbia awa

the austin, a discussion with michele norris, author of "the grace of silence: a memoir," and isabelle wilkerson, author of the epic story of america'srno great migration. >> thank you for coming to the session today. we have michele norris and isabelle with wilkerson. hav and i'm going to do a brief introduction for both of them, and then i'm going to askem questions. and i will leave time at the end so that people can askime questions, too, so probably about 3:30 we'll stop, and you can ask questions. in the introduction to the grace of silence: a memoir, michele norris writes that she began this project in 2009 because she became convinced that anaus unprecedented hidden and robuste conversation about race was taking place across the country in the wake of barack obama's historic presidential campaignak and his ascension to office. from this project, michelle unearthed painful family secreto from her father's shooting by the birmingham police less than two weeks from his dischargevi from service of world war ii. michelle traveled from her childhood home in minneapolis to her father's childhoo

. >> host: isabel wilkerson. >> guest: isabel wilkerson was amazing. there were many nights i was supposed to be asleep, but a state of reading this lovely novel. and the other is cleopatra. >> host: both of which were covered by booktv this year. go to booktv.org. upper left-hand corner is the search engine, type in the author's name and the title. you can watch it online at your leisure. now, these are books that spent the most time at the top of "the new york times" bestseller list in 2010. number one, justin halpert, stuff my dad says. eleven weeks on "the new york times" bestseller list as number one. john holloman and mark halpert, game change, seven weeks. michael lewis, big six weeks. george w. bush, number one for five weeks. i'm laura bush, number one for four weeks. she went on a pretty extensive book tour as well, didn't she? >> guest: she did. she did. her book has been out since may i believe. and bush's book has only been out since the second week of november i believe. so keep in mind some of these books have and how that went to go. "t

completing a list is the warmth of other sons by isabel wilkerson. >> we are at the national press club talking to christine miller about what inspired you to write about president wilson's life? >> i have been writing about women and politics for the past 25 years and these two women were instrumental in the success of the wilson administration completely in a different way. ellen wilson got him to the white house and died in office. after his stroke edith wilson helped him stay in the white house. they are powerful women in their own day. >> what do the women have in common personalitywise? >> they were completely devoted to woodrow wilson and what he needed and wanted. >> was there anything surprising in your research? >> he had girlfriend too. this man was a romeo. >> did he have a girlfriend with each wife or just one? >> the first wife doesn't believe it would harm him politically so she acted so the girlfriend was a family friend and basically, what did her. there's no intention of sharing him with anybody and the relationship had come to an end before she came on the scene. >> h

>> coming up, isabel wilkerson presents the history of the great migration when approximately 6 million african-americans migrated to northern and western states from the south from 1915-they geothe the. retells the many reasons people had for leaving the south, the difficult journey that many in toward the man and the geographical shift in population due to migration. she discusses her book for an hour into minutes. >> that you so much. i am just giddy with all of the wonderful reviews that the book has received. i have waited 15 years for this moment. that is a very long time. i am honored and humbled to be here. i have spent so long steeped in the history of the great migration. for a while i was stuck in 1947 and thought i would never get out. for the record, just to be able to clarify what it is that the book is about the great migration was the biggest under reported story of the 20th century. it started in 1915 and did not end until the 1970's. all along the way people were taking, it must be over. in the world war one, it's done. in the world war ii, it's done. it carried away s