Al Franken, giant of the Senate

Al Franken, giant of the Senate / Al Franken, read by Al Franken, 406 pgs.

After a 35 year career in comedy, Al Franken decided to run for senate.  He won in the closest race in history and set to prove to his constituents that he was up for the job, willing to work hard, and stay true to his progressive values. In this memoir, Franken tells about the issues dear to him, talks about what it is like to be a senator and reveals some of the jokes that he was unable to tell on the senate floor because his staff has forbidden it.  Franken is no Stuart Smalley but parts really give you hope about politics, politicians and the direction of the country...right up until November 2016.  Oh well, still a great book and the audio version is wonderful.

Angry Optimist

Angry Optimist: The Life and Times of Jon Stewart by Lisa Rogak, 288 pages

Jon Stewart doesn't get why Rogak wrote this book. That's clear every time he's quoted in it, talking about how boring his homebody life is, and about how he's just a comedian and not trying to change the world, for crying out loud. But I'm glad Rogak did write this. It was an interesting insight into Stewart's life before The Daily Show, as well as life within the show (the book was published before he left in August 2015). Sometimes it veered away from a biography of Stewart (who didn't share much of his life post-marriage and kids) and into an oral history of The Daily Show itself (I really didn't need all those details about what food the interns had to buy for the green room every day), but all in all it was an interesting and illuminating book.