Sure, summer isn’t quite over. But now is when I have the executive function to actually put this list together, so here we go. You’ll see a trend: short of one fiction book, this list is all nonfiction relating to presidential history. When I say I have read these books, full disclosure — I listen to them on Audible. I spend 90 minutes a day commuting, so that’s when I have a guaranteed block of time to consume information. Plus, if I’m doing chores or working with my hands at all, I like to listen to podcasts or books. This summer has been far and away my most voracious period of reading.
Grace
By: Cody Keenan
Reread. I first read this book in 2024. Grace outlines the 10 days in 2015 when the ACA, gay marriage, and a eulogy for slain members of a Black church in the South kept Mr. Keenan busy. Keenan at the time was President Obama’s chief speechwriter. The book is well written, full of personal stories, and it goes inside the mind of a writer — something I’m very interested in. Keenan draws on themes from The West Wing when he talks about the “blank page” and bouts of writer’s block.
Thanks, Obama
By: David Litt
This is my first reading of this book. Mr. Litt was a writer on the aforementioned Keenan’s speechwriting staff. Litt tells the story of his hero worship of then-candidate Obama and the realization that President Obama is just a human being with faults like anyone else. The book is light, and Litt writes in a way that keeps your attention and has you shaking your head at his metaphors with a smile.
Punk’s Force
By: Ward Carroll
This is a book in the Punk series, which follows a fictional F-14 and F/A-18 pilot who becomes commander of naval air forces. Mr. Carroll is a former F-14 RIO (back seat — think Goose in Top Gun) and writes from a place of knowledge about naval flight operations. The book follows an exercise between the Air Force and the Navy and works in modern themes like AI and defense budget cuts for piloted aircraft. Mr. Carroll also has a YouTube channel where he talks about all things naval aviation and defense news.
White House Usher
By: Christopher B. Emery
In this book, Mr. Emery talks about his time in the often misunderstood job of White House Usher. Emery started his career in IT and moved into the Usher’s Office during the presidency of Ronald Reagan. He served in that job until he was terminated by the Clinton White House because he provided Barbara Bush with tech support after she and her husband left the White House.
Within Arm’s Length
By: Dan Emmett
This book ended my early- and mid-summer foray into the Secret Service. Mr. Emmett was a Secret Service agent during the late ’80s and ’90s, and he writes in the “back in my day we weren’t so soft” voice of a man of his generation. While he provides some interesting stories, the book is too hell-bent on showing how cool he is because he was a Secret Service agent.
The Kennedy Detail
By: Gerald Blaine
This book tells the stories of the Secret Service agents who protected the Kennedys while John F. Kennedy was in the Oval Office. It doesn’t just focus on the events in Dallas in November of 1963; it takes a 30,000-foot view of what it was like to protect JFK and his family, the assassination itself, and the aftermath for the agents.
In the Secret Service
By: Jerry Parr
Mr. Parr was Special Agent in Charge of the Presidential Protective Division on the day in 1981 when President Ronald Reagan’s life was threatened outside a Washington, D.C., hotel. Parr threw President Reagan into the limo and discovered the wound the President had suffered. The book follows the events of that day, with interludes covering Parr’s path to the Secret Service and his life afterward working as a missionary helping AIDS patients in a convent founded by Mother Teresa. The book is well written, and I very much enjoyed it.
The Final Witness
By: Paul Landis
Secret Service Agent Paul Landis was part of a two-agent team dedicated to the protection of Jackie Kennedy. Mr. Landis writes in a light and witty way that allows you, as the reader, to follow along with a young man who was working a dream job that turned into a nightmare in Dallas on November 22, 1963. Mr. Landis tells the heartbreaking story of driving Mrs. Kennedy to a waiting helicopter that took her to the hospital to deliver her son, Patrick, who died a few days later. Landis gave himself time to try to process the events in Dallas, and when he couldn’t process the trauma, he left the Secret Service.
20 Years in the Secret Service
By: Rufus Youngblood
First of all, this is the coolest author’s name on the entire Summer Reading List. Mr. Youngblood was in charge of Vice President LBJ’s detail that Friday in Dallas. When the shots rang out, he made sure the Vice President and his wife were protected traveling to the hospital and then to Air Force One, where LBJ took the oath of office. Youngblood became SAIC of the Presidential detail upon LBJ’s accession. While his time with LBJ is the highlight, Youngblood also writes about his life after protecting the Texan.
Five Presidents
By: Clint Hill
Reread. I have reread this book at least three times, and each time I find it more interesting than the last. Mr. Hill tells the story of his time in the Secret Service, from protecting President Eisenhower’s mother-in-law to the day he left the Service — mostly due to health issues from burying the trauma of being the agent who ran to the presidential car as shots rang out in Dallas.
Five Days in November
By: Clint Hill
Reread. This is my fourth reread of this book, which outlines that terrible November when Mr. Hill was SAIC of the First Lady’s detail — the awful moments in Dallas, the autopsy in Washington, and the funeral. Hill wrote the story with a passion and sadness that was infectious. I was born 20 years after those events unfolded, but Hill put me in his shoes in Dallas.
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