The Last of the President's Men by Bob Woodward

Bob Woodward along with Carl Bernstein helped uncover the Watergate scandal. They co-authored the famous book "All the President's men". Bob Woodward has won two Pulitzer awards for his work in investigative journalism. To be honest, I have no particular interest in Bob Woodward but I do find the man that he bought down fascinating, Richard Nixon, 37th president of the USA. My interest in Nixon piqued while doing my study on the 1971 India Pakistan War over the freedom of East Pakistan, now commonly known as Bangladesh. A couple of years back I read and reviewed the fascinating book "The Blood Telegram", which goes into explicit details of how Nixon, Kissinger and America supported the genocide of the Hindu minority in Bangladesh perpetrated by the evil Pakistani military dictator Yahya Khan, a close friend of Nixon. Since then I found Nixon to be an intriguing enigma albeit an immoral one, which the most interesting ones always are. Finally with this book I had a chance to find out more about Nixon and his administration.

The book, a short one, hardly 180 pages, takes us through the life and times of Nixon while he is in office as President. We see Nixon's presidency through the eyes of Alex Butterfield, a top aide of Nixon. In early meetings Alex sees Nixon as cold, distant and awkward. The two of them have a shaky relationship at the start which is largely due to the distrustful nature of Nixon, a fact corroborated by other sources. Nixon and Butterfield eventually warmed up to each other and maintained a distant but working relationship, although Butterfield could never let go of the initial insults that he was subjected to. Later he helped bring down Nixon and his administration.

It's all about Islam by Glenn Beck

Glenn Beck is a right wing, conservative commentator in the USA. He has his own radio show and appears on several news channels with his critiques and opinions on all things political. Beck was recently in the News for his attacks on republican presidential nominee Donald Trump, Trump later hit back by berating Beck, mockingly calling him "A weird dude" who is "always crying".

Glenn Beck, a republican supporter and a christian fundamentalist, takes on Islam in his book "It is about Islam". Several years earlier Beck had predicted the creation of ISIS, he was mocked and was looked down upon as a political commentator and journalist. Beck's prediction of course came true and with it he was elevated in the eyes of the media as an astute and visionary erudite on the subject of Islam and terrorism. In this book, Beck takes us through the history, present and future of Islam. The book is deeply critical of Islam and its followers!

Beck often verges on Islamophobia, he has an irrational fear of Islam and that is quite apparent in this 200+ page book. Beck takes to heart the plan of some Al Qaeda crack heads, the 20 year plan which is entirely spectacular and if you look at it in retrospect seems to be eerily coming true, but it does not stand up to rational critical analyses. For those of you interested can find it here: