“Who Thought This Was a Good Idea?” by Alyssa Mastromonaco with Lauren Oyler

When we were growing up, my sister Kathleen was a huge fan of Laura Ingalls Wilder’s “Little House on the Praire” books. Four years older than her and very into David Cassidy, I found “praire lit” and tales of churning butter way too slow for me. I liked my teen books to come with a harder edge to them, like the way S. E. Hinton or Judy Blume wrote about love and rival gangs. However, as adults, my literary tastes have grown closer to my younger sister’s.  I always want to know what she is reading. Earlier this summer we were at the beach together and I saw her carrying this book, “Who Thought This Was a Good Idea?” by Alyssa Mastromonaco with Lauren Oyler. This is the memoir of the former deputy chief of staff to President Barak Obama, and it sounded fascinating. Unfortunately, a month later when I saw Kathleen still carrying this book I had to make a literary citizen’s arrest. “Get rid of it!” I said. “This book must be terrible if you can’t finish it. Don’t waste your time with a bad book.” To that she paused and said, “No. No. The problem is that it is so good I don’t want it to end.” So then I was hooked. For those of us in America who are nostalgic for the elegant two-term presidency of Obama, this is a funny and poignant walk down memory lane. Mastromonaco is clearly very smart and a skillful writer, but she also has a self-deprecating side that is laugh-out-loud funny. She worked for Obama for more than a decade, which included his years in the White House as well as his time as a United States Senator. You will get to know Obama as well as the author, who honestly describes her love life as well as her struggle with Irritable Bowel Syndrome. The story about her IBS attack at the Vatican is not to be missed. I love funny people with stomach problems and I miss Obama very much, too. Don’t forget to read this and always vote. To purchase this book on Amazon click here.