Inauguration Reading List: 4 Books to Read This Week
A new President and Vice President take office today, and we’ve got 4 books (including one Spanish-language title) from independent publishers to read following today’s inauguration.
If you’d like to purchase any of these books, we’d highly recommend seeking out your local independent bookstore. Your business helps ensure the survival of these vital cultural institutions during this difficult time.
1. Kamala Harris: Quotes to Live By
This book collects together over 150 inspiring quotes from the new Vice President: the first ever woman to hold the office.
Throughout her distinguished career, she has been recognized for speaking the truth, standing up to the powerful, fighting against injustice and inequality and advocating for those who could not defend themselves. Her support for Black Lives Matter and women’s rights, as well as healthcare and immigration, along with her courage and determination, has made her a powerful force in politics and on the world stage.
2. Dear Kamala: Women Write to the New Vice President edited by Peggy Brooks-Bertra
Women of all ages, races, and nations share their hopes, fears, desires, advice, and support with the new Vice President.
As the first woman of color elected as the Vice President of the United States, Kamala Harris broke through many barriers and made history, energizing a host of women who have a lot to say. Seeing a model of themselves filling the second-most-powerful office in the Free World, women from Africa to California, Canada to Florida began writing to the new Vice President.
Dear Kamala: Women Write to the New Vice President showcases a selection of these heartfelt and moving letters. Girl Scouts confide their fears for a future ravaged by climate change; a business owner in Harlem offers unflinching advice about the need for real investment in inner cities; civil rights activists share their stories, struggles, and successes over the decades.
3. Joe Biden: Su vida, su carrera y los temas relevantes by Evan Osnos
In this Spanish-language edition of Evan Osnos’ Joe Biden : The Life, the Run, and What Matters Now, Osnos, who won the National Book Award in 2014, draws on nearly a decade of reporting for The New Yorker to capture the characters and meaning of 2020’s extraordinary presidential election. It is based on lengthy interviews with Biden and on revealing conversations with more than a hundred others, including President Barack Obama, Cory Booker, Amy Klobuchar, Pete Buttigieg, and a range of activists, advisers, opponents, and Biden family members.
Este libro logra dimensionar con destreza al hombre y al político, para presentar un retrato inaudito del candidato demócrata». The Washington Post El reconocido periodista Evan Osnos, ganador de los premios Pulitzer y National Book Award, combina su minuciosa investigación con el tono íntimo de las entrevistas que sostuvo con Joe Biden en varias ocasiones. Osnos logra revelar los matices del personaje a través de más de un centenar de conversaciones con figuras como Barack Obama y miembros de la familia Biden, activistas y oponentes ideológicos. Esta biografía ilumina la vida personal del hombre que perdió a su familia en un accidente automovilístico, a la vez que muestra una admirable trayectoria política: su carrera en el Senado, sus ocho años como vicepresidente de Estados Unidos en el gobierno de Obama y su decisión de postularse a la presidencia por el Partido Demócrata.
The English-language version of this book is available from Scribner.
4. Inaugural Addresses of the Presidents: Volume 2
“I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the Office of the President of the United States, and will to the best of my ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.“
With these words, every U.S. President has taken office and, by this rite, become a living part of American history. Equally as monumental as taking the Executive Oath of Office, but as varied and unique as each President, is the inaugural address. Inaugural Addresses of the Presidents of the United States provides many memorable and inspiring passages, and their history is as interesting as it is important.
This revised edition of The Inaugural Addresses of the Presidents of the United States, Volume Two, begins with the first inaugural address of Theodore Roosevelt in 1905 and concludes with the 2021 address of Joseph R. Biden Jr. These addresses constitute a collection of American leadership, highlighting the policy and vision that surround the institution of the U.S. Presidency. Outlining the life of a nation through its most famous speeches, United States presidential vision and policy is seen here through the addresses of the Presidents.
