Why am I passionate about this?

Jonathan Alter is an award-winning author, political analyst, documentary filmmaker, columnist, television producer and radio host. He has interviewed eight of the last nine American presidents and lectures widely about the presidency and public affairs.


I wrote

Book cover of His Very Best: Jimmy Carter, a Life

What is my book about?

I have long written about American presidents but for decades but I had little exposure to Jimmy Carter. Then, in…

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The books I picked & why

Book cover of An Hour Before Daylight: Memories Of A Rural Boyhood

Jonathan Alter Why I love this book

Carter grew up amid Jim Crow segregation on a farm in Archery, Georgia. While his family wasn’t poor, the farm had no running water, electricity or mechanized equipment until Carter was 11. Carter has written 31 books, and this is his best: It’s warm, evocative and revealing of his character development.

By Jimmy Carter ,

Why should I read it?

2 authors picked An Hour Before Daylight as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

In this powerful memoir, former President and bestselling author Jimmy Carter writes about the powerful rhythms of countryside and community in a sharecropping economy. He offers an unforgettable portrait of his father, a brilliant farmer and strict segregationist who treated black workers with his own brand of 'separate' respect and fairness; and his strong-willed and well-read mother, a nurse who cared for all in need. He describes the five other people who shaped his early life, only two of them white; his eccentric relatives; and the boyhood friends with whom he worked the farm and hunted with slingshots and boomerangs,…


Book cover of Always a Reckoning and Other Poems

Jonathan Alter Why I love this book

During one of my interviews, Carter told me that he had trouble expressing his emotions outside of his poetry. While Carter is not an outstanding poet, he succeeds here in offering glimpses of his inner life and fraught race relations in the American South. And he explores his relationship with his father, wife, son and others.

By Jimmy Carter ,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Always a Reckoning and Other Poems as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

The first collection of poetry by former President Jimmy Carter, who shares here his private memories about his childhood, his family and political life, with illustrations by his granddaughter. Always a Reckoning sets a precedent since no other president has published a book of poetry. Gift packaged with ribbon marker. A portion of the proceeds from sales will be donated to charity.


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Book cover of And Then They Were Gone: Teenagers of Peoples Temple from High School to Jonestown

And Then They Were Gone by Judy Bebelaar,

Of the 918 Americans who died in the shocking murder-suicides of November 18, 1978, in the tiny South American country of Guyana, a third were under eighteen. More than half were in their twenties or younger.

The authors taught in a small high school in San Francisco where Reverend Jim…

Book cover of The Great Shark Hunt

Jonathan Alter Why I love this book

After Carter left office, it was hard to remember what made him so exciting when he first became a national figure in 1976. In his patented “gonzo” style, Thompson’s flattering and entertaining articles on Carter in this collection shed light on what made Carter compelling and cool. Thompson's stature among young journalists was so great at the time that his coverage of Carter helped make him president.

By Hunter S. Thompson ,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked The Great Shark Hunt as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

'Well . . .yes, and here we go again' Dr Hunter S. Thompson

Indeed we do. Here, in one chunky volume, is the best of gonzo. From Private Thompson in trouble with the air force, to the devastating portrait of the ageing Muhammad Ali. Taking in the Kentucky Derby, Freak Power in the Rockies, Nixon in '68, McGovern in '72, Fear and Loathing at the Watergate, Jimmy Carter and the Great Leap of Faith - and much more. An indispensable compendium of decadence, depravity and horse-sense.

'Hunter Thompson elicits the same kind of admiration one would feel for a streaker…


Book cover of Thirteen Days in September: The Dramatic Story of the Struggle for Peace

Jonathan Alter Why I love this book

The Camp David Accords brought enduring peace between Israel and Egypt after 25 years of war. Wright’s taut narrative—later adapted as a play—conveys just how close the summit came to falling apart. Along with normalizing relations with China, obtaining ratification of the Panama Canal Treaties, and advancing a path-breaking human rights policy, Carter’s triumph at Camp David suggests he was a better foreign policy president than many critics acknowledged at the time.

By Lawrence Wright ,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Thirteen Days in September as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

In September 1978, President Jimmy Carter met with Israeli prime minister Menachem Begin and Egyptian president Anwar Sadat to broker a peace agreement between the two Middle Eastern nations. After thirteen tumultuous days a treaty was forged which would go on to last for more than three decades.

With his hallmark insight into the forces at play in the Middle East, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Lawrence Wright takes us through each day of this historic conference, illuminating the issues that have made the region's troubles so intractable and exploring the scriptural narratives that continue to frame the conflict. Featuring vivid portrayals…


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Book cover of Twilight of Impunity: The War Crimes Trial of Slobodan Milosevic

Twilight of Impunity by Judith Armatta,

An eyewitness account of the first major international war-crimes tribunal since the Nuremberg trials, Twilight of Impunity is a gripping guide to the prosecution of Slobodan Milošević for war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide committed during nearly a decade of wars in the former Yugoslavia.

The historic trial of…

Book cover of All Fall Down: America's Tragic Encounter With Iran

Jonathan Alter Why I love this book

Sick, Carter’s White House adviser on Iran, offers a cogent, deeply insightful account of the 1979 Iranian Revolution, the seizure of American hostages in Tehran, and the Carter Administration’s inadequate response to the unfolding crisis. In a later book, The October Surprise, Sick falls just short of proving that the Reagan campaign conspired with the Iranian government to delay the release of the hostages until after the 1980 election. But he is convincing in his claim that the truth in this sordid affair has never fully come to light.

By Gary Sick ,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked All Fall Down as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

A former naval intelligence officer and National Security Council staff member provides a day-to-day account of the Iranian revolution, the hostage crisis, and America's failure to deal effectively with both


Explore my book 😀

Book cover of His Very Best: Jimmy Carter, a Life

What is my book about?

I have long written about American presidents but for decades but I had little exposure to Jimmy Carter. Then, in 2015, my book group in New York was reading Thirteen Days in November by Lawrence Wright. Someone there knew Carter’s grandson, who brought the former president to our group to discuss the Camp David Accords. Afterward, I concluded that anyone who could pull off that virtuoso performance must be a more complicated figure than the easy shorthand: bad president/good ex-president. But my obsession with understanding Carter didn’t fully kick in until Donald Trump became president. For all of his flaws and political failures, Carter is the unTrump: honest, decent, accountable, far-sighted.

Book cover of An Hour Before Daylight: Memories Of A Rural Boyhood
Book cover of Always a Reckoning and Other Poems
Book cover of The Great Shark Hunt

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Book cover of Twilight of Impunity: The War Crimes Trial of Slobodan Milosevic

Twilight of Impunity by Judith Armatta,

An eyewitness account of the first major international war-crimes tribunal since the Nuremberg trials, Twilight of Impunity is a gripping guide to the prosecution of Slobodan Milošević for war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide committed during nearly a decade of wars in the former Yugoslavia.

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Book cover of The Gates of Polished Horn

The Gates of Polished Horn by Mark A. Rayner,

What happens when you’re face-to-face with a truth that shakes you? Do you accept it, or pretend it was never there?

Award-winning author Mark A. Rayner smudges the lines between realist and fabulist, literary and speculative in this collection of stories that examines this question—what Homer called passing through The…

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