Good evening.

I hop all is well for you and yours, and that you have had a chance to do some reading today.

As always, thanks for watching our sho and for supporting PBS Kansas.

The home of seriously good book talk.

Tonight, I want to feature yet another gem discovered at my Little Free Public Library.

True Compass by Edward M Kennedy and Ron Powers.

I really enjoyed this book, and if you are interested in history, politicians, and the American political system, I suggest you will as well.

It is now time to go inside the cover.

The book begins with a prologue that refers to the sunny spring day of Tuesday, May 20th, 2008, when a doctor tells Kennedy that he was about to die from a malignant brain tumor.

Senator Kennedy explains ho he responded to this diagnosis with determination, courage, and optimism, using the opportunity to speak at the August 2008 Democratic Convention in Denver in support of Barack Obama's campaign to become president as his driving motivation.

Kennedy had signed a contract to write his memoirs in the autumn of 2007, for which he received a reported advance of $8 million.

After he received the cancer diagnosis, Kennedy halted work on the book for a brief period, but he soon returned to the project with a renewed vigor.

Sadly, he died the day a final copy of his book was delivered to the family home in Hyannis Port, August 25th, 2009.

If you have memories of the 60s, you know that there was a certain and clear aura surrounding the Kennedy family collectively and individually.

The New frontier, the attractive young family living in the white House.

I certainly remember my Republican-- but basically nonpolitical-- mom, loving the Kennedys.

Edward ‘Teddy Kennedy certainl lived a truly remarkable life, one with great success and accomplishment, multiple personal and family tragedies and human failings.

As I read I felt that Kennedy and Powers attempted to relay this story with candor and directness.

The book covers so many aspects of the stor of Teddy Kennedy and his family.

Joseph Kennedy's rol as ambassador to Great Britain prior to World War Two.

The death of oldest son Joe Kennedy while flying a dangerous mission towards the end of the war.

The heroism of John F Kenned as the skipper of PT boat 109, the presidency of John F Kennedy, the assassinatio of President Kennedy in Dallas, the presidential campaign of Robert F Kennedy, and his assassination in Los Angeles, Edward Kennedy's multipl political campaigns for the U.S.

Senate and the presidency, his relationship with his first wife Joan, and her drinking and his drinking.

The health struggles of his children.

Son Teddy lost a leg to cancer, the death of Mary Jo Kopechne at Chappaquiddick, his survival of a plane crash near Southampton, Massachusetts in December of 1964.

His work in the Senate, where he served from 1962 until the time of his deat in 2009, where he and his staff wrote more than 300 bills that were enacted into law.

His thoughts and comments on Nixon, Reagan, Carter, his great love of sailing, his academic career including being expelled for cheating and playing football at Harvard.

His courtship and relationshi with his second wife, Victoria, and Reggie, a Washington lawyer and divorced mother of two.

His role on the Senate Judiciary Committee regarding numerous appointments to the United States Supreme Court.

There is so much information in this book.

I found it to be an interestin and compelling and informative book, and I heartily recommend it to you.

Tonight's book has been True Compass by Edward M Kennedy.

Good night and see you next time.