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This is from
one of the many people named George Bush, many
of whom you met in your delightful book.
I am enjoying it.
George Bush 41
41st President
United States |
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Is twenty-first century America
really a collection of polarized Red and Blue states in
neat little boxes -- Republican or Democrat, straight or
gay, right or left? In her remarkable debut,
Martha Boone Mattia begins to answer these questions by
exploring the lives of an amazing collection of
individuals linked by a single fact: they share
their name with the 43rd president of the United States.
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Personal anecdotes and political
musings run the gamut, and Mattia allows all
their say with equal measures of calm,
quietly
forging a poetics of what's in a name.
Publishers
Weekly
January 31, 2005 |
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This Week
October
22nd and 23rd, Mattia
will be in Houston for a
presentation to the
American Association of
University Women and a
private party book
signing, respectively.
After
that, she takes off to
Europe again from
October 31st - November
16th to continue
research for her next
book.
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To read Martha Mattia's new book is to enter into
a world of alternative realities. It asks again
the question, 'What's in a name?' If your name
is George Bush, the answer is: Plenty. With humor and high intelligence, Martha sets out
to answer this question - and what she uncovers
is a fascinating snapshot of America. Or at
least that part of it named George Bush. You
finish the book thanking your grandpa
Smith for
naming you John.
Mike Langford,
Author
"Life in Double
Time"
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"I'm an American. What
does that mean?"
Martha Boone Mattia spent much of her early life
traveling with family or husband in foreign countries,
and has struggled with her national identity for years.
When 9/11 stunned the nation, her old questions
resurfaced: Who are we? What does it mean to be a
patriot? What matters to us? What IS an American? Conversations with
George Bush — Beyond Polls and Politics:
Real Life in the USA is the result of her
search for answers.
Through a collection of first-person narratives, Conversations with George Bush (Brown Books, February 2005) provides a glimpse of
simple people living far-from-simple lives at a distance
from the political center of our country. The book
explores their values, their views on political and
social issues, and their life experiences. Mattia
traveled by car and by plane to spend time in people’s
living rooms, finding out what molded them, what
inspired them, and what frightened them. She asked about
their dreams and hopes for their children and for the
country we share.
Mattia discovered that every life, every life, explored in depth, comprises heroic acts, pivotal moments, terrible choices and beautiful complexity. And she discovered, finally, what it means to be an American.
Join Mattia on her journey of
discovery and discover
what
"being an American" means for
you.
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