Welcome to Litsy!

Using a memoir by Cody Keenan, President Obama‘s chief speechwriter, to check off this prompt in #Nonfiction2024: “Speak”

I picked this first off my #AuldLangSpine list from @MallenNC because I spent 2023 watching all 155 episodes of “The West Wing,” and I thought it would be a nice segue to read a memoir by President Obama‘s speechwriter. And it was. But it was also a story of hope, redemption, the power of forgiveness and how we can make the world a better place if we try. That‘s a message that‘s been lost in the past 8 years. Oh, how I miss this president. 😕

Raising a mug of tea (ok, yes, it‘ll be more than one—I‘m planning on a long, lazy day on the couch) to @MallenNC as I embark on the first read from your #AuldLangSpine list. Cheers!

I'm so intrigued by my #AuldLangSpine list from @MallenNC. I've only read #1 and 5 so far, so there's a world of possibilities to explore! I've put holds on several of them at my library, and I'm pretty sure I already own #11. I want to commit to at least one fiction and one NF. I think I'll start with #13 (because I'm nearly done with the last season of “The Crown”) and #18 (because I spent my summer watching all 154 episodes of “The West Wing“).

I had a melancholic experience reading this. Given the state of the world, it‘s hard not to miss Obama‘s leadership, even with his administration‘s faults. This book works not just as an insider memoir but also a philosophical musing about what America is and can be.

One of the local Barnes & Noble stores is moving to a new location and they had most books available for 70% off a few weeks ago. These are the books I got and I am just getting around to sharing. The fiction shelves were mostly cleared out but I found one novel from my TBR and all these nonfiction books. I read Grace from the library and loved it but the rest are new to me.

This is a memoir focused mostly on the week during which Keenan‘s office had to write a eulogy after the racist killings at a church in Charleston and in response to two important Supreme Court decisions. He also weaves in some other significant speeches from his time in the Obama White House. You really get a sense of the stress of trying to find just the right words and to prepare for different outcomes.⬇️

Grace…President Obama & the Ten Days In the Battle for America by Chief White House speech writer, Cody Keenan. Incredibly insightful,
touchingly honest insights, Insider information, personal tid bits, moving, With the ability to both move me to tears ( listening to the accounts by the survivors of the horrific mass shooting at a Charleston South Carolina church) and make me laugh out loud ( in referencing name "appropriateness"(cont in comments)

Keenan was Obama‘s chief speechwriter for a time and focuses this book on ten days in Obama‘s administration when they were waiting for Supreme Court rulings on ACA and marriage equality all while writing the eulogy Obama gave after the Mother Emanuel Church shooting. A time when the stakes were so high and the words of the president mattered. A story of collaboration and a reminder of that there can be hope and idealism in politics. Loved this.

I so miss Obama and his elegant oration! His second head speech writer covers the 10 days following the shooting at the AME church in Charleston. It was also the week when the Supreme Court upheld the Affordable Care Act and allowed marriage equality, but Cody wondered whether Obama would deliver the eulogy of the church‘s minister. He struggled with to say about race as a white man. In the end, the eulogy and their collaboration was beautiful.