President Obama's summer reading list

President Barack Obama waves as he leaves the Bunch of Grapes book store with his family Friday, in Vineyard Haven, Mass.

/ AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster

While the President may be enjoying what many describe as a working vacation, a White House official says he did take time to buy precisely two books for himself yesterday during a visit to Vineyard favorite Bunch of Grapes bookstore with daughters Sasha and Malia.

Three more books were brought to the island from home.

The five books average 512 pages in length, and are predominantly fiction.

Whether or not Mr. Obama will have a chance to actually read them is another question altogether, but behold, the Presidential Summer Reading List:

1. "The Bayou Trilogy," by Daniel Woodrell (496 pages) Crime novels featuring detective Rene Shade.

2. "Rodin's Debutante," by Ward Just (272 pages) A coming-of-age novel set against "the crude glamour of midcentury Chicago."

3. "Cutting for Stone," by Abraham Verghese (560 pages) A first novel telling the story of twin brothers "born of a secret union between a beautiful Indian nun and a brash British surgeon."

4. "To the End of the Land," by David Grossman (592 pages) Fiction involving "a mother's powerful meditation on war and family."

5. "The Warmth of Other Suns," by Isabel Wilkinson (640 pages) The lone non-fiction title tells of the migration of Black Southerners to Northern and Western cities in the mid-20th century.

[RobAla]

There is a lot of talk about huge government waste, while President Obama threatens Americans with higher taxes.

Here is an article from the Weekly Standard, which most Americans may find interesting:

"The report was written by the White House's Council of Economic Advisors, a group of three economists who were all handpicked by Obama, and it chronicles the alleged success of the "stimulus" in adding or saving jobs. The council reports that, using "mainstream estimates of economic multipliers for the effects of fiscal stimulus" (which it describes as a "natural way to estimate the effects of" the legislation), the "stimulus" has added or saved just under 2.4 million jobs — whether private or public — at a cost (to date) of $666 billion. That's a cost to taxpayers of $278,000 per job.
In other words, the government could simply have cut a $100,000 check to everyone whose employment was allegedly made possible by the "stimulus," and taxpayers would have come out $427 billion ahead.
Furthermore, the council reports that, as of two quarters ago, the "stimulus" had added or saved just under 2.7 million jobs — or 288,000 more than it has now. In other words, over the past six months, the economy would have added or saved more jobs without the "stimulus" than it has with it. In comparison to how things would otherwise have been, the "stimulus" has been working in reverse over the past six months, causing the economy to shed jobs."

This is President Obama's bogus stimulus at work. In September he will give us another speech on the economy and jobs - and I certainly hope that will not suggest another stupid stimulus. I certainly hope he will not suggest that taxpayers have just not given him enough money to help the country. I certainly hope that he will not suggest that government programs are the answer to job growth. We can't afford more of this nonsense.

The federal government must reduce the horrible expenses and regulations that have been laid on it by President Obama's administration. Using his words, he needs to take the "boot off the throat of American business" (he bragged at one point about placing his "boot on the throat of business"), and allow the private sector to breath again. We need private sector job growth. Period.

[Forbus56]

"America's Top 100 Vacation Spots" by Barack Obama

[RobAla]

I know he feels like he needs an escape, but I would have hoped one of the books would have been by a serious economist - or something that would have offered him insight into our horrible economic mess. Prior to obtaining the highest Executive office in the world, he had NEVER held an executive position of any kind; not on the state or local level - or even in a small business. Prior to being responsible for the largest economy in the world, he had NEVER held a position overseeing any budgetary responsibilities.

Maybe it is too late for him. Maybe all we can HOPE for is CHANGE in 2012. We certainly need a President with proven experience in private sector job creation - or, at least, creating an environment that fosters private sector job growth.

If we all remember, earlier even the Democrats in Congress agreed not to increase taxes because it would jeopardize the small amount of private sector job growth in the US. However, President Obama continued to voice his desire for more higher taxes - and now he continues to push for it. The single best thing President Obama could do to open up private sector job growth would be to repeal the health care law - which imposes both huge expenses and additional regulations on businesses, both are a drag on private sector business. I am not going to hold my breath on that one.

[Normbo]

Yeah; but what is daddy reading?