The President is Missing
By Bill Clinton and James Patterson
Little Brown & Co. and Alfred A. Knopf 2018
Pages 513  Price $30

Bill Clinton and James Patterson create a believable mystery in their  novel “The President is Missing.” It is a fast paced “Who Done It” work that is both fun and frightening. It is fun because we know it is not real. It is frightening because we think it could happen. The theme deals with the United States under a possible cyberspace attack.

President John Duncan faces impeachment for persistently escaping from the eyes of the Secret Service and of possibly calling a terrorist. A long and dull investigation takes place in the opening pages of the book. However,  it gets exciting when President Duncan decides to find out by himself who is responsible for sending a terrorist threat with plans to attack America through cyberspace. This would shut down government computers, subways, traffic lights, hospitals, the stock market, broadcasting stations, major business corporations, banks, as well as personal computers and possibly electronic voting sites across the nation.

President Duncan decides to meet personally with an intermediary of a terrorist group at a ball game in Washington to find out what is going on himself, in an attempt to stop the attack personally. He sneaks out of the White House and gives the Secret Service a slip. Fortunately members of the Secret Service follow him anyway. They save him from a set up, but the story on the next 400 pages, focuses on finding out who is behind this deadly serious threat to our nation. It takes President Duncan to find the guilty party. He is fearless in the face of danger, yet he is an intellect who controls his emotions underneath his easy going appearance.

Although members of his staff give him advice,  as well as the Secret Service, President Duncan runs his own  show. To find out who was planning a cyberspace attack on America in this fictional novel you will have to read the book. I could not put the book down!!!

***

Beyond the Shadows:The Holocaust and The Danish Exception
by Judy Glickman Lauder  Photographs and text
Aperture Foundation 2018
Pages 159 Price $50.

Judy Glickman Lauder has captured the memories of the Holocaust in Denmark with great dignity in her photographs in the elegant art book titled, “Beyond the Shadows.” Her book shows the different sites where concentration camps existed which were taken during her travels in Europe during the late 1980’s. Her purpose was to record these sites so that they would never be forgotten in history and repeated. Portraits of the people of Denmark who risked their lives to save Jewish people are an important part of the book. It personalizes history and brings history to life. I was moved by  the photographs of people who reached out to others to save innocent lives.

For example, the photograph of Tove Wandborg, a white haired woman now, who was a young night nurse in 1943 moved me. A photograph of an underground tunnel in a Cophagen hospital with an empty solitary bed on wheels in the ugly basement said more than words of the deprivation and desperation that people of Denmark went through during World War II.

Physical violence and hatred is still with us today as seen in the current tragedy of Oct. 27, 2018, at the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburg where 11 people were killed. Physical violence was seen one week later on Nov. 8 in a California bar where 12 people were shot and killed. What is happening to America? Many people have written books on the causes of abuse of power, physical violence, hatred, guns, and mental illness, but no one has come up with an answer to solve the problem.

Rabbi Harold Kushner on a television program was once asked, Where was God during the attack on America in 9/11? He replied, “God was with all the people who ran to help.”

For that reason, the Glickman Lauder, photography book is important. It records visually the people who helped others survive in 1943 in Denmark. It shows not only the sites of the atrocities which took place in Europe so that they will not be forgotten and no one can ever say they did not occur, but also shows the good people who helped Jewish people survive.

Perhaps the strongest photograph showing the character and  courage of the people of Denmark is the portrait of Jens Moller Gilleleje, a fisherman with pipe, who helped a whole train load of people to be placed on the farms of Denmark.

A closeup of the harbor in the centerfold of the book brought to my mind the dangers that enveloped people escaping through the harbor, not only from the advancing German army, but the natural waterway and its tides.This photograph can be compared to the art of Winslow Homer because its perspective shows a wordless lifeline found in the sea.

Poignant in the book are quotes from by Elie Weisel, before he died, an essay by Rabbi Michael Berenbaum, noted authority on the Holocaust, and Judith Goldstein author and historian.
Judy Glickman Lauder, said in an essay in her book:

”My photographic journey has been a lifelong one, much of my childhood having been in front of my father’s large Graflex camera…… Photography became important to me as a means of understanding and  expressing myself and deepened as I explored spirituality and my Jewish heritage.”

In this book, her photographs, explore her heritage and give insight into all the wonderful people of Denmark who helped save Jewish people. While her photographs record a dark period of history, they give hope in all the faces who stood alone against intolerance.

***

The RBG Workout
by Bryant Johnson
Illustrated by Patrick Welsh
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt 2017
Pages 127 Price $14.99

Ruth Bader Ginsburg at 85 and is doing well after a fall in her office on the evening of Nov.7. This short and wonderful exercise book describes her exercises and answers the issues of how exercise effects health!! Ginsburg and her exercise trainer, Bryant Johnson, work out twice a week. Their message is “You have to exercise!!”  Yes, in this compact book,you will find good advice, cheerful illustrations, and  simple exercises you can actually do at home at any age. Hurray! I am not an athlete, but love this book because the exercises are easy to follow, just don’t do them all at once.

An intellectual task master of the law, equal rights, Civil rights, and equal pay for women, Ginsburg is a no nonsense person when it comes to exercises.
Justice Ginsburg hired Bryant Johnson to hero her exercise after cancer surgery years ago, and although carrying a heavy load of responsibilities on the Supreme Court, she always exercises at a pace she can manage on a regular basis.

The pushups were not for me in this book but the chair exercises looked fine and occasionally I do them. I am not an exercise person but I am a great admirer of Justice Ginsburg. As I said before the good thing about this book is you do not have to go to a gymn. You can do selected exercises at home. Just do not select exercises that are too difficult for you right away.

Bryant Johnson, Ginsburg’s certified trainer, meets with her twice a week at the gymn at the Supreme Court Building in Washington D.C. Johnson states in the book, “We usually listen to the PBS NewsHour while we work out, and she always gives her all. Her determination has been inspiring. She is a living example of what she stands for, including the fight for equal rights for women.”

Johnson continued, “Whatever you do, do something. Whether you are a Supreme Court Justice, a clerk, or a janitor, exercise is a great equalizer. A push up, a squat, a lunge, a plank dosen’t care who you support or don’t support. It doesn’t care about your race, religion, color, gender, national origin or sexual orientation. You may have the most powerful job in the world but your body will still have veto power over you. You are the only one who has jurisdiction over your body. So if you don’t use it, you will lose it.”

The message in this book is to try to exercise regularly. I agree with Johnson to be sure to exorcise and I admire Ruth Bader Ginsburg’ philosophy, but my advice is go lightly. I prop the book up in my bedroom under a lamp to remind myself I should exercise every day!!!iI don’t always follow that, but I try and love this book!!

Pat Davidson Reef is a graduate of Emerson College in Boston. She received her Masters Degree at the University of Southern Maine.She taught English and Art History at Catherine McAuley High for many years.She now teaches at the University of Southern Maine in Portland in the  Osher Lifelong Learning Institute, Classic Films. She recently wrote a children’s book,”Dahlov Ipcar Artist, and is now writing another children’s book “Bernard Langlais Revisited.”

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