Events

Mann’s Rise of the Vulcans was a definitive account of the Bush administration’s inner circle; his new book is a similarly comprehensive look at President Obama’s team of foreign-policy advisors. Mann outlines the challenges the group faces in framing and implementing a new global role for the U.S. and discusses the group’s own internal and generational conflicts.

Washington Post associate editor, Pulitzer Prize-winner, and author of acclaimed biographies of Clinton, Clemente, and Lombardi, Maraniss employs a wide lens to capture President Obama. Starting in Kenya and Kansas before Obama’s birth, Maraniss traces the influences the future president absorbed in Hawaii, Indonesia, New York, and Chicago, influences which shaped his developing political career.

This debut thriller by the former Atlantic journalist features Mike Ford, a young lawyer who grew up among small-time con men. Determined to live another kind of life, he worked hard and landed a position with a prestigious Washington, D.C. consulting firm-only to find himself back among liars and cheats, but with the stakes dangerously higher.

Leotta, a former federal prosecutor, follows her acclaimed Law of Attraction with another dynamic legal thriller. Opening with a woman’s fatal plunge from a balcony of the U.S. Capitol, the novel grows more complex as investigators trace the victim to a high-end escort agency and a high-level District official.

In this fresh take on the American presidency, Merry, the editor of The National Interest and author of A Country of Vast Designs, invites readers to participate in the ongoing assessment of past presidents. Most historians consider Washington, Lincoln, and FDR “Men of Destiny,” while Jefferson, Jackson, Truman are “Near Greats” and Buchanan, Fillmore, and Pierce are among the failures. Harder to classify are the “Split-Decision Presidents,” such as Wilson and Nixon.

Sinclair’s credentials include an MBA and eight years of experience with Grameen and other microfinance organizations, along with extensive travel throughout Africa. But the more he learned about the NGOs, banks, and investment funds, the more disillusioned he became, to the point of tipping off The New York Times to a series of scandals in the microfinance world. In this memoir/exposé Sinclair recounts his experiences—both good and bad—in detail.

Sinclair will be in conversation with Tom Devine, Legal Director at the Government Accountability Project

Then-Washington City’s August “snow storm” was the 1835 race riot that set fearful white mobs against free blacks after a confrontation between a slave armed with an ax and the woman who owned him. The alleged attacker was prosecuted by Francis Scott Key, who was the district attorney for eight years—and a staunch defender of slavery. As recounted by Morley, Washington editor of Salon and author of Our Man in Mexico, this little-known episode is a vivid story of race and justice.

In this richly imagined alternative history, the novelist and Yale law professor dramatizes what might have happened if Lincoln had survived the attempt on his life. First, Carter envisions the president being impeached for overstepping his constitutional authority during the Civil War. Next, a lawyer working on behalf of Lincoln is murdered, and two of his colleagues—a black woman and a white law clerk— are caught up in the ensuing scandal.

When an archeological team uncovers a body with a bullet in its head, they know they haven’t found the Cro-Magnon remains they were after. Walker’s fourth mystery featuring Dordogne-based police chief Bruno Courrèges involves not just a local murder mystery, but an international summit that attracts both world leaders and subversives.

Are you tall? Do you have an odd hobby or a singular talent? Thank—or blame—your DNA for these and other traits. As he did so entertainingly with the periodic table in The Disappearing Spoon, Kean makes science accessible and fascinating, using history and anecdotes to uncover the powers of deoxyribonucleaic acid, aka the building
block of life.