we also read -- we read, we are just reading luster. i picked books that have really resonated for me and that have been a real range, a number of books that are written by authors that don't see -- american and not that i'm seeking it out but coincidently it turned out to be the case. also call it giles second book and people loved it. it's been a huge array and these are books i'm passionate about. >> and maggie o'farrell -- what is that about? >> this is a really remarkable book and it's about william shakespeare and maggie o'farrell goes into the story of shakespeare's son who dies during the black plague and it was right before he wrote hamlet so part of what she is speculating is his grief over the loss of his son is what triggered him to write this book. the book is really about a family with a very powerful mother who again is someone we never hear about. their children in their home life and their trouble with the own this that swept through europe in the black plague. >> tamika these are books that you picked up or been recomm

so to read two bucks a month i do enjoy reading weather but club or for my own pleasure. host: did you grow up a reader? >> i did. education is very big in my family. my mom is an educator she works in the school my father always preached the importance of educating and the power of books and that it's acceptable to you so from a very early age they have given me books to read and as i got older think the time that i had available became a little more limited but now i am recommitting. host: has your teammates joined? >> yes. i have some that are readers. but even my former teammates from college for my younger days we found a way through my book club meeting parents are friends so that is a cool thing there are so many people i did not necessarily imagine that you have great conversation about it. host: after the season we do have a second season of but club? >> that is still to be determined. there has been allied of enthusiasm in support so when the season ends we will see what comes into play. host: was a lot more work than you thought it would be quick. >> it was. bu

myself is to read one book. that's kind of speaking to social justice issues or just black culture and then another book just for pleasure about whatever topic so my goal is to read two books a month. and you know, i i do enjoy reading whether it's for book club or for my own pleasure and that's something i'm trying to stick to you jocelyn willoughby. did you grow up a reader? i did, you know education is very big in my family. you know, my mom's an educator in the more formal sense being that she's teaches in a school or works in a school and my father he's not an educator, but he's always kind of preached the importance of educating and the power of books in terms of anything that you want to learn. it's readily accessible to you whether you look it up online or crack open a book and start to read and so from a very early age my parents especially my dad were giving me books to read i was the type of person where at lunch time or recess i could be found sitting reading and i think you know as i got older i've

we read to her a lot and let her read.nd then we let her write things that she would like to read. james: when our son jack was eight, he wrote his first novel, illustrated, "death of the butterfly catcher." he travels across the country, does not catch a butterfly. gets on the boat, does not catch a butterfly. catches a butterfly on the train, steps out, gets hit by a train. the butterfly flies away. abby: amazing advice from both of you. ben from georgia would like to know -- president clinton do you have a favorite james patterson book? pres. clinton: that's hard to say, because i like a lot of them. the last one i read, i love his autobiography -- james: it is not out yet. pres. clinton: but you should get it, because it is the stories of his life and he knew a lot of interesting people. so i like that, like "walk in my combat boots," because he showed what motivates people to serve in the military, and when they are under fire and stress, what drives them. i like that. as i said earlier, i like virtually all of his bo

read comedic stuff, read serious stuff, read history. begin to think about what is this writer trying to do and how is it working andstart scribbling . i think it's useful if we were talking last night about the notion of kids in school every week writing about their family. writing the family story. everybody in the country did that, it would be really useful in schools. the kids could just write about their family or what the president was aimed, write about the differences, the different kinds of kids in the school. but be nice. the nice. >> when chelsea was eight, i still have it next door. i mean, in the next room. we did a little notebook where we would write a series of essays together. and i would write the first sentence and she would write the second one and if she misspelled the word i would correct it. we would wind up telling a story and we would do it again and again. she became a voracious reader . and now she knows more than i do about everything but at the time wecould still be helpful to her and i think we were . first

but you should read this, this that and that and read some of the classic poems and you need to readut technique. they don't know what a sonnet is from whatever. sometimes they'll write back and say you need to find another thing to do. and he's very direct about it. i actually love that about him. he doesn't suffer fools. if the stuff is horrible, he tells them and says, you know, you got to do something else. or he'll say, you do not have poetic sensibility. he'll be like being told by your drama teacher, you can't act. get out of here. you know? so correspondence is full of that stuff. and i do think -- i will be arguing eventually that he is probably the most important sort of broker of black artist and writer. he gives them access to white publishers, he's connected to all of them. anyway, he had battles too with some of the other great leaders of the time. and long, long from finished with this research, so we'll see. that's my next book. don't hold your breath. it will take a few years. but thanks for that question. i have yet to give a public talk except that beneke zoom thin

you have read. that was teaching. that was somehow putting together place with history, discovery and all you had to do was kind of show up and it happened. so you have no greater admirer than me and hopefully my profession. there's a whole lot of people now who want to decide what you should teach, how and which manner you should teach it and which subject you should teach it. teach it whatever it is, whatever they tell you. but the subject that i am addressing today is primarily frederick douglass and his ultimately anti-slavery interpretation of the constitution. it is an honor to speak to the james madison foundation. i've really enjoyed our interview this morning. jeffrey really read my book you can tell. [laughter] he knew it better than i did at this point. [laughter] when they start asking a question. i didn't write that and you realize i did. [laughter] now, so many subjects one can address. that is the oldest and most famous idea that he was a former slave that escaped and managed to write

read i might read from both of them in the same night. i might read one for few days and come back to the other but for me it's just learning something. sometimes link to my heart, sometimes for my head, sometimes learning from my soul. >> mickey is here, she's my cousin. she's a romance novelist and my neighbor. she lives are indicated we go to the same church, and mickey, she's another romance novelist and she's had a long fiction career. how has your interest in happily ever after change over the years? for this book was it hard to balance reality and optimism? no one wants to read a a book, thriller where it's like and then the main character dies slowly and painfully and the world is blown up and the puppy starved here that's not what we're here for. how do you balance the reality that you really do phase had on in this book with an optimism and a character you can really like, invest in? >> my romance i wrote romantic come first of all i got to kill a lot of people in my books. i even have a serial killer romance novel but because a

until he kept reading, and he kept reading. and he went to more and more meetings of the liberty party. and then the free soil party. and he spent more and more sunday afternoons in garrett smith's parlor in his mansion house in peter borrow where garrett smith would send him home with a $200 or $300 check and douglass began to realize, wait a minute, i need weapons. if i can use the constitution instead of always this argument that it's utterly and hopelessly come police to us with slavery and the covenant with the devil, oh, my god, think of what could be possible. maybe america could actually be reformed rather than totally overthrown. then he started reading salmon chase. you tend to know salmon chase mostly because he's a senator from ohio, he ends up on lincoln's cabinet. and then he tries to run against lincoln in 1864. he really wanted to be president all the time. and lincoln figures out how to get rid of him. he appoints him to the supreme court. good move. if joe biden ever wants to quiet barack obama down, put him o

i try to be that role model for reading, you know? just reading, you know, having books. i've within able to have a positive impact with my teammates, and i think that quote just speaks perfectly to, you know, who malcolm x was and who i'm continuing to grow into. >> host: now, mr. udoh, can anybody participate in your book club? >> guest: oh, of course. of course. back when we started, i would send out a sign-up for every book, but now i send out one maybe every other month, and once you sign up, you know, you get the e-mails for each book, the discussion time, the reading schedule and, you know, if we have an event, you know, on zoom -- like a couple years ago i started a series called author's talk whenea we read the book, and i'll invite the author to have a conversation with us. at this time i was in salt lake city, but now everything's on zoom. >> host: and would authors participate in your author talkings in were they glad to participate? >> guest: yes, sir with. yes, sir. i think i had six while i was with utah, and then just recently i had one with marlon peterso

talk about writing. >> the writing thingy i think especially in middle school, read, read, read and a variety, don't say well i want to you know read something you don't think you are interested. read comedic stuff, read history and begin to think about like when is this writer trying to do and how is it working and then start scribbling. i think it's useful if you know we were talking last night about the notion of kids in school and every week writing about the family, writing the family story if everyone in the country did that, it would be really useful in kids schools. kids should just write about their families or what the president was a saying, you know right about the difference-- the different kind of kids in the school and-- but be nice. be nice. >> when chelsea was eight, next door, i mean, in the next room we did a little notebook where we would write a series of essays and i would write the first sentence and then she would write the second one and if she missed a word i would correct it and we would wind up telling a story and then we would do it again and then we would

well the writing thing i i think especially in middle school read read read read read just keep and and and variety don't say well, i don't want to you know, read stuff that you don't think you're interested in. you know read comedic stuff read serious stuff read history and and begin to you know, think about like what is this writer trying to do and how does it working and and then and then start scribbling? i think it's useful if you know we were talking last night about the notion of kids in school every week, you know writing about the family. writing their family story that that way if everybody in the country did that it would be really useful in schools for kids to just write about their families. you know or what the president was saying, you know write about what the difference in the different kinds of kids in in the school. and but be nice be nice when chelsea was eight. for i still have it right next door. we i mean in the next room. we did a little notebook where we would write a series of. essays together and i would write the first sentence and then she'd write the second

i like to read about the history of the world. but the book club mostly delivers and lately a lot of memoirs. >> host: give us an example of one. >> guest: needed barack obama, "the promise land," that came with great stories. another of my favorite books of all times. the bookclub really enjoyed those two reads. >> host: people don't realize how a whole life can be changed by one book. malcolm x quote. is that something that appealed to you over the years? >> guest: i tried to be that role model for reading. i've been able to have a positive impact and it speaks perfectly to whom malcolm x was and continue to grow into. >> host: can anybody participate in your book club? >> guest: of course. i send out one maybe every other month and it would be like a master list and once you sign up you get the e-mails for each book and the discussion times and schedules. and if we have an event, a couple of years ago [inaudible] >> host: would authors participate in the talks? were they glad to participate? >> guest: yes, sir. i had six while

you know, they can read it again. it's worth a second read. it's one of those books -- if it's got a plot i read it so fast because i am a gobbler. another question that i think is great, stories can bring different kinds of people to a common understanding. do you ever hear from people who are not changed by your writing but that they are surprised they like your stuff? >> that's part of it [inaudible] whether it's my politics, advocacy, business work, my writing, i am not a proselytizer. i try to be someone who tells you why this makes sense and why i'm doing it and create a space for you to come inside and join me. when you write in a way that tells the story where people can find themselves, they may not but if they can find enough that it gives them comfort or entertainment or joy, then i've done my job. when i was writing romance, there was a group of men that would send me a note after they read the novel, they called it the brown paper bag club because the guy that started it was sick, his wife gave him my first book to read and he was

see if i can read words again. here we go. could you speak about the creative process that led you to consider these histories in reported prose instead of poetry? clint: i thought it would be a collection of poems. i thought that i would write a poetry collection in which the conceit would be that each poem would be about different monument in new orleans. my first book is a collection of poetry. i thought poetry is my primary form of sorts, or at least was for a long time. and then i realized that one, i think i wanted to go to places outside of new orleans. two, i realized that it needed more room to breathe in a poem -- to breathe then a poem would allow for. three, i realized that it cannot be only my own sort of extended meditations on my experiences at these places. it had to be in conversation with the experience of other people there. it had to have the voices of the guides, and had to have the voices of the public historians, the voices of the other people i was encountering on these journeys. i mean, like, the chapt

i read the entire book when i was 16. after nine years of speaking english i read the entire book and it changed the way i think about slavery. and when i became a history major in college it was a very easy thing for me to understand because in his book which you quotequite a bit , he was somebody that doctor king quoted. in terms of understanding that slavery was not an institution in which people who were, in which the enslavedpeople were not happy about it . they were not treated well and have you seen netflix recent show high on the hard? >> know but people keep tagging me and talking about it and they're saying they read the book and watching the show so i have but i definitely need to. >> there's one episode about jefferson in particular about how he gave me your rations to theenslaved people that he had .so they had to grow gardens in order to have sufficient calories to do the heavy work of outdoor labor. you think about a rich man like that, who was able and you say this very clearly in your book. he was able to

i read newspapers.lamb: stop there because in the early part of - i want to go back some - but, in the early part of your book, you cite whittaker chambers as having an impact on your life. rumsfeld: the book, "witness," was an important book for whatever reason, it - partly because it is an important book, but also, because i read it at an important time in my life. i was in college, and i watched the army-mccarthy hearings, and they had an impact on me. it was an opportunity to see the congress going beyond its proper role. lamb: go back to "witness" for a moment. what was it about that whole episode? rumsfeld: well, of course, it was - the cold war was on, and here was a man who was a communist, and a confessed communist, and the hearings, of course, and the congress, where there was alger hiss on the one side, a person who had been a clerk, as i recall, for felix frankfurter, and was attractive, and gone to the nice schools, and so forth, and you know had this man who was an admitted communist, who

20 pages from this i read, i couldn't stop reading it. it was beautifully written, exciting, much like the right stuff but a different era, branson and virgin galactic in the future of space space travel.c what sparked your interest in this? you were at the newti yorker at the time, 2014? >> that's when i got started. thank you, this>> is truly an honor to be in conversation and spent a lifetime here of my. when i started reading in front of pivotal books my dad gave me was friday night life so i sat down, when i thought about this project from the beginning, how to write take the subject matter and how to write approach it as if -- how to write approach it, how do i do a season with this company? that really started in 2014 which is a critical pivotal moment following 2014, virgin galactic was like the fourth supersonic test flight and the vehicle their spaceship, which may be helpful to show assimilation here you can see on the cover here there was this unique air launched system using a wife linked mothership character spaceship about

he has read the book. host: what did he think? you went pretty deep with him. >> after the new yorker piece which was raw some people said to him what are you thinking? are you still cooperating with this guy? but i think he felt like i was fair and i understood him and all of the personal stuff about his broken marriage and failed relationship with his kids. host: that was wrenching and a great part of the book. >> thank you. host: that is personal and you guide deep within and once again readers, the back story what he went through in his marriage and really with his kids is poignant isn't the right word but very deep. and it shows his flaws and those are much more interesting than perfection. >> thank you and the notion of the modern astronaut and that is the commercial space industry but every other portrait of an astronaut is the set job perfect complexion and character. >> like the john glenn stereotype. >> totally and here he was willing to own up to all of these political fallibility's and let this

did i read this wrong? i read this quite carefully— read this wrong?t varying the pay and it could be — would be about varying the pay and it could be below or above public sector— it could be below or above public sector pay~ — it could be below or above public sector pay. so it could go up or down — sector pay. so it could go up or down i— sector pay. so it could go up or down. i might miss reading this? i�*d down. i might miss reading this? be quite down. i might miss reading this? if. be quite surprised. a nice story below that on the front of the telegraph, penny. children's books go file of police was up this is a terrible story about five people who've been arrested on sedition charges. who've been arrested on sedition charaes. , , ., charges. this is about some children's — charges. this is about some children's book _ charges. this is about some children's book in _ charges. this is about some children's book in hong i charges. this is about some | children's book in hong kong charges. this is about some - children's book in hong kong which ch

this i read -- i couldn't stop reading it. i just found it beautifully written, computing, much like the right stuff but in a different era on, you know, the speed of branson and virgin grabbing tuck and the future of -- grabbing tuck9 and the future of space and space travel. so, nick, what sparked your interest in this? i know you were at the new york ther at the time, was it 2014, is that right? it's truly an hone in conversation and with our lifetime hero of mine when i started reading one of the pivotal books in my decade was started at five. when i thought about this project from the beginning it was how do i take the subject matter and approach it like friday night lights? and that really started in 2014 which is a critical and pivotal moment for me on halloween 2014, virgin galactic was find a supersonic test flight and this spaceship just to show real quick on the cover, they have a very unique airlines system which uses a wide wing mothership to carry this spaceship aloft to 45000 feet much like the explains. at that

this i read, couldn't stop reading it. i just found it beautifully written, exciting, much like the right stuff. but in a different era, the speed of branson and virgin galactic and the future of space and the future of space travel. jumping into it, what sparked her interest in this? i know you at the new yorker at the time. waser it 2014? >> that's what i get started. so look, thank you. this is truly an honor to be in conversation and buzz has been a lifetime hero of mine. we'll get to this later but one of come when i started reading and one of the pivotal points by dedicated what is going up was friday night lights. i kind of sat down, when i thought about this project from the beginning it was how do i take the subject matter of the right stuff and how do i approach it with kind of friday night lights? lights? and that really started in 2014 which is a critical and pivotal moment for me on halloween 2014, virgin galactic was find a supersonic test flight and this spaceship just to show real quick on the cover, they h

he was able to read write and think about democracy. because enslaved people were doing free labor for him and he didn't even feed them properly. yeah, so when you think about it that way like, how can we think about the ideals of democracy? at the personal hypocrisy of the architect of democracy right i mean it was so disturbing to me, but i was wondering about in terms of resistance the emotional resistance that people have to not being converted and there's a beautiful passage that you wrote on page 172. it is one paragraph and i was wondering if you could read it for us because you got everything in this one paragraph and i told you i memorized your book. yeah, i mean i can tell. 172 he's also a format that i'm not really done before sort of area. yeah. i'm just trying to keep you on your toes, you know, it begins with for many of the people and just that one paragraph. for many of the people i met at lanford. the story of the confederacy is the story of their home. of their family and the story of their family is the story of them?

probably not but i remember reading that and thinking it didn't make sense. a mistake i would make because i don't know anything buabout flying but has anyone er determined what might have happened? >> there was an extensive review by the national transportation safety board investigation of the accident and the conclusion was that in the end, no one knows. they spoke to his wife and tried to pick up was he tired, distracted? the workload, it's worth noting the workload during these rights is extraordinarily high and that's why even among test private community, there is a high degree of respect of the test pilots flying because in those 60 seconds, there is very little automated there is so much to pay attention to, margin of error is so thin. >> so very little is automated. >> a rocker motor -- rocket motor in the back. as a piloting experience, there is nothing -- nothing like flying spaceships, nothing is comparable. we could talk about this later but it raised questions about -- >> i am curious about that, one thing i want to mention, what is cool about

it is time for "tonight show" summer reads here we go [ cheers and applause ♪ ♪ summer read tonight showread any of these books. >> steve: really >> jimmy: we do book clubs differently on our show, but yeah [ light laughter ] eventually, i'll read one of them yeah we do love books here on the show but anyways, these are all fantastic books. what we -- these are -- six of these books i want you to vote, if you go to our website, count.tshow.com. and then on monday -- voting ends sunday night, so monday, we'll decide which one we're all going to read together [ cheers and applause and then we'll read those. we'll talk about it. it's like a summer read. what you need. yeah so here we go. here's the books i'll go through the plots fast emily henry, "people we meet on vacation." basically, these -- a guy and girl go on vacation together for years. and then they have a fallout they don't go one year then they decide to go back and go on vacation and just, like, fix the problems they have but they ask the question, can men and women actually be just friends? >> steve: ooh. >> jimmy: what >> ste

while i read marcus' book, and i read who bell wrote.bell's ideology was considered fringe at the time, now it is taught to our elementary school students and others. in anti-american, anticapitalism, pro marxist ideology. if you don't believe it, read it. now they are playing games with propaganda in media. this is what republicans are doing, they don't' to teach slavery, the republicans eliminated slavery. pete: the names like marcus and bell, most never heard of them, myself included, you talk about how they are happy to be in the background. and they interthe classrooms, and -- enter the classrooms, do they just have an understanding threw in army we call it a train the trainer approach, but you train the next generation, they go further with it. you recede to the background, is their plan to go from university level down, and use your openness and tolerance as a society against us? >> for some of them. the faculty in these universities are insistious, i are responsible for hiring each other and a book i wrote, plungd plunder and dec