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Some of you are probably like me, right now: simultaneously watching the Inaugural proceedings on while surfing the net for more news about them. So I understand if no one gets over here today. The books will keep!

I mixed things up a little this week because of this. I wanted as may people as possible to read my interview with Stephen Hess about his new book, What Do We Do Now? A Workbook for the President-Elect (Brookings). 

(Oooo, you’ll have to be patient with me for a moment. I’m watching the Obamas enter the White House for coffee with the Bushes. Michelle Obama brought them a gift — don’t you wish you knew what it was?)

We’ve got ten copies of What Do We Do Now? to give away to the first ten readers who respond with what President-Elect (very, very soon to be President) Obama might do to support literacy and/or the arts during his time in office. (After the economy, natch.)

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Before you make any New Year’s resolutions, here’s a book you might want to take a look at: Dick Meyer’s Why We Hate Us: American Discontent in the New Millennium. Meyer, a longtime CBS News producer who joined NPR as their VP of Digital Media in 2008, has written a “man-on-the-street-ifesto” (forgive me) about what it is in modern life that is not simply crass and superficial, but that makes us stressed out and unhappy.

According to Meyer, the growth of what he terms “omnimedia” and “omnimarketing” have broken down the ties between people, making it easier for us to be discourteous and disrespectful at our various technological removes and making it harder for us to come out of our individual shells and “only connect,” as R. Buckminster Fuller would remind us to do.

That thesis may not be new, but Meyer’s treatment of it from a media professional’s perspective combined with his personal gentlemanly temperament, is. It’s a treatise that manages to be analytical and personal at the same time. Example: One of the most elegant sections of the book is a chapter about Meyer’s father-in-law and how that man created community and meaning throughout his life.

If you read Why We Hate Us, your New Year’s resolutions might, just might, look a little less about you and a little more about the people around you. Some friends of mine have a printed list of ways to create community displayed in their home. I’ve searched online for that list but can’t find it; if anyone out there has a link, I’d love to see it! The point is (and I’m not stating this as well as Meyer does, so read his book), having a community around us is important, and even vital. Doing something for somebody else is one of the fastest and easiest ways to get rid of discontent (NB: I’m not recommending philanthropy as a cure for depression; I’m talking about a less pernicious form of discontent).

We’ve got ten copies of Meyer’s book to give away to the first ten readers who share their favorite way of creating community — even online ways apply!

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Happy 60th Birthday, Prince Charles! One of the things that has always intrigued me about this man who would be king if only his mother weren’t so darned lively is that he’s a genuinely geeky intellectual who has nonetheless translated his interest in the world of ideas to the realm of action. For example, he was an early and passionate convert to all things “green,” and not only promotes various charities that support eco-initiatives — he’s actually converted his own vintage Aston-Martin to run on ethanol made from leftover British wine (yes, I heard that on the TODAY Show, and yes, I realize the phrase “British wine” will strike many of us as funny).

Tonight WETA-TV will be running “Born to Be King: Charles at 60,” and I thought it might be the perfect opprtunity to offer a list of some good books about Charles and about his interests and endeavors. Here’s one place to start. A few more:

Charles, Prince of Wales: A Birthday Souvenir Album: Why not begin by seeing the child who became the man? Watching the progression of Charles from endearing toddler to awkward teenager to self-assured adult will help make subsequent reading richer.

A Year with the Queen: Just think — Charles has spent 60 of them! In order to understand what the Prince’s life is like, you should understand what his mother’s life is like, as her embrace of duty (inherited from her stalwart parents, who remained with their daughters in Blitz-broken London) defines her.

The Elements of Organic Gardening: Here’s a book written by Prince Charles about one of the practices closest to his heart. While some of the Prince’s ramblings about “rhythms” of the earth may strike you as a bit New Age-y, the techniques and their explanations are sound.

Radical Prince: The Practical Vision of the Prince of Wales: Even more about the New Age-y Prince - but this is a comprehensive look at what makes Charles tick, and it’s pretty interesting stuff. He has deep convictions that are bolstered by a great deal of reading and thought. You may not agree, but…

Charles & Camilla: Portrait of a Love Affair: No one will ever forget Diana Spencer/Diana, Princess of Wales/Princess Diana. However, by now we all know that Camilla Parker-Bowles is the love of Prince Charles’s life, and understanding how they met and why they’re still together is crucial to his character.

As always, I’m eager to see if you have suggestions to add. I hope everyone out there gets some time to read something for fun this weekend!

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Regardless of which candidate you supported in yesterday’s presidential election, today we all woke up to an historic moment: Our President-Elect, Senator Barack Obama, is the first African-American voted into our nation’s highest office.

Some of the most fun we’ve all had in the months leading up to the election has been from the nation’s comics, who created dead-on impersonations of national figures. One of those was Queen Latifah, whose performance on SNL as vice-presidential debate moderator Gwen Ifill (our very own Gwen Ifill!) was the perfect counterpoint to Tina Fey’s wackily egotistic Sarah Palin. (Ifill responded on “Meet the Press.”)

Latifah-as-Ifill “shilled” for The Breakthrough: Politics and Race in the Age of Obama, riffing that her book would be published on Election Day.

Alas, it won’t be out until January. Timing is everything, after all. But you can pre-order it!

Today, Ifill looks not just prescient, but relevant. In an era of change, that’s key. I predict strong sales, and I hope we’ll be able to feature Ifill here on Author, Author! too…

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Since WETA is currently running this series about England’s royal family, I thought it only proper to provide viewers with a list of books that you can read while you watch, after you watch, or even if you miss the series entire (although I’d never recommend that and, just so you won’t have an excuse, here are the broadcast times.)

I’m going to get this started now, and add to it over the next few days, so please come back — and please offer your own suggestions for books about the Windsors in the comments.

Majesty : Elizabeth II and the House of Windsor by Robert Lacey is the best introduction I know to this enigmatic monarch and her lineage.

The Firm: The Troubled Life of the House of Windsor by Penny Junor is a comprehensive but softpedal look at the challenges (including all the scandals) that the contemporary royal family has faced - sometimes well, sometimes not.

The House of Windsor by Andrew Roberts and Antonia Fraser is part of their A Royal History of England — although the book isn’t as in-depth as others, it is a helpful and well-illustrated way to get to know the “players” on this particular stage.

The Rise and Fall of the House of Windsor by A.N. Wilson is a loyalist’s look at how a great British institution has survived its troubles.

Back with more quite soon, but looking forward to your recommendations.

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Read Part One of “Book Maven Interview: Annette Gordon-Reed”

BP: You also believe that Tom Jefferson brought up the sons he had with Sally to live out sides of his own personality and passions that he could not fully live out himself.

AG: His real love was woodworking. He spent most of his time with his carpenters, like Sally’s half-brother John Hemings and John’s apprentices. Tom made them sort of versions of himself that are not the exalted version, but if they were white as they were by VA law, carpenters, musicians, etc. They are a part of him, in a way, but it’s not the part that we focus on.

BP: Why do you think that people who deny Jefferson’s long relationship with Hemings do so? Is it good, old-fashioned racism?

AG: I am turning this over in my mind. There’s a puritan streak in the American consciousness, and Jefferson is one of our “pure” figures — or we want him to be that way.  For him to have had sex with a partner he wasn’t supposed to is problematic for many people on several levels, especially for those people who draw his power from the notion that he was celibate after his wife’s death — after all, women sap your wisdome and strength, and all that notion.

We all draw boundaries around our families. It just happens that most people care about their immediate families most, but in the case of Jefferson, his fame makes him loom larger. There’s a racist and a sexist aspect about denying Sally Hemings and her family’s influence in Jefferson’s life, but for the family, it’s about protecting that membrane, that boundary, around who is in and who is out.  In the case of this issue, I live a sort of 18th/19th century life; I don’t follow it completely. I had an interesting conversation with one of the Hemings-Jefferson descendants, who asked his great-grandfather if the whole story were true. The response? “Of course it’s true, but they’ll never prove it.” What you finally have is the people who show up, and speak up.

BP: After all of your research, how do you regard Jefferson today? How do you believe we all should regard him?

AG: He is one of the greatest Americans who ever lived, flaw and all. I just don’t think you can find an aspect of life in America that he did not have a hand in some way: slavery, race, women, agriculture, the arts, government…I find him a fascinating individual. I plan to write one more volume about the Hemingses, and then a biography of Jefferson that will be at least two volumes, maybe three.

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This morning I was speaking to a colleague who is about to leave for three weeks in Gloucester, and she’s eager to read The Last Fish Tale by Mark Kurlansky. As she should be! Unlike Kurlansky’s famous books Salt and Cod, which focused on commodities through the lens of numerous places, this book focuses on one place using a number of lenses: the fishing industry, immigration, demographics, preserving culture, geography…it’s a fascinating and fully realized portrait of an American place that is beyond sui generis. Gloucester’s separation from the rest of Massachusetts is more than just a canal-cut deep; it’s a place that thrives on being unto itself.

I hope you’ll enjoy watching my interview with Kurlansky. He’s very smart, and his ideas about how Gloucester can survive and thrive in a post-fishing economy have bearings on other places in the U.S., too.

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Happy Monday! That’s a “fish tale” in and of itself, isn’t it? Of course, real “fish tales” may be lies in and of themselves, but they’ve always got a great story attached.

However, Mark Kurlansky’s new book, The Last Fish Tale: The Fate of the Atlantic and Survival in Gloucester, America’s Oldest Fishing Port and Most Original Town holds no lies at all. Kurlansky has written engagingly and beautifully and factually about subjects ranging from the Basque country to salt to cod to the summer of love; the main “fish tale” characteristic of The Last Fish Tale is that there’s a great story attached.

We’ve got ten giveaway copies to hand out to the first ten readers who tell us your last favorite nonfiction read.

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I apologize for the delay in posting; there’s a new version of WordPress in town at WETA.org, and I’m afraid its organization briefly flummoxed me. Here, now, is Frances Kiernan, talking with me about The Last Mrs. Astor: A New York Story. After the interview, I truly wished that Brooke Astor were still alive so that I could meet her; Kiernan makes her sound like such an amazing person.

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Happy Post-Fourth-of-July, everyone…this week, we’re featuring a nonfiction title: The Last Mrs. Astor: A New York Story by Frances Kiernan.

Not only that…but we’re giving away ten copies of this biography of one of New York’s greatest philanthropists to ten readers. This time, we’re going to keep it simple: ten copies to the first ten readers to respond and leave a comment telling us what your favorite New York story is. Novel? Film? Apocryphal anecdote? You can choose, but please make sure to leave the comment on this post.

We’ll have an interview with Frances Kiernan posted on Wednesday, too. I hope you’ll come back for it, because Kiernan has some wonderful stories to share about Brooke Astor.

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