release seasons of them all, and this is our 2011 fall book preview show. we're joined by two industry watchers and book followers, bob minzesheimer is with "usa today," he's the book critic for that newspaper, he's in new york city, and jason boog is with galley cat which is a web site that covers books and the publishing industry. gentlemen, thank you for being on booktv today. and i want to start by asking you which book you're most excited about or looking forward to this fall. bob minitz smiler, we'll start with you. >> okay. peter, i'll mention three books, i'll try to do them briefly. one is already out, and for a book critic that's sort of a no no-no, it's called "what it feel like to go to war." the author wrote a novel about vietnam last year that was published called "matterhorn," which i thought was extraordinary. it also took him 20-some years to get it published. he shifted to nonfiction to write both for a military and a civilian audience what combat is really like which he thinks the military really doesn't prepare, um, soldiers for. they prepare them for the sort of technological and physical demands of war, but not for some of the emotional and philosophical. he's very good at writing about other writers and novelists about war. that's one book. um, shifting, there is a book coming from david -- [inaudible] who writes for "vanity fair" called "elizabeth and hazel," and it's about two women who were captured in a famous be photograph, there's a black student entering little rock central hospital, and there's a white student yelling at her. and this is the story of their sort of improbable first friendship and years later and how that friendship fell apart. they made a movie of this, it would probably end with the friendship. and finally, like a lot of people i'm looking forward to seeing what jacqueline kennedy had to say to arthur schlessinger shortly after the assassination of president kennedy. that's an oral history that's coming out, i believe, next year. >> the caroline kennedy book -- >> well, she's the editor. >> conversations on life with john f. kennedy. is that the book? >> that's the book, right. >> bob, why did the two women from little rock, why did their friendship fall apart? >> that i, i haven't gotten that far in the book yet. we'll have to stay tuned. [laughter] >> jason boog of galley cat, what are you looking forward to? >> i'm looking forward to susan arlene's new book about run tin tin, the famous dog that starred in a number of movies. when i first heard about the book, i have to confess, i was a little skeptical. i said who would want to read about a dog on tv, and i read the first excerpts in the new yorker the other week, and it just blew me away. i'm really excited to see this story. it's a fantastic story, and i'm really looking forward to it. >> well, you both mentioned biographies, so let's look at some other biographies that are coming out this season, and that includes christopher hitchens, arguably essays by christopher hitchens. jason boog, what can you tell us about this? >> well, hitchens hasn't put together a collection of essays like this in a few years, i think 2004 was the last time, so it's going to coffer a lot of ground, everything from his controversial stance on the iraq war to al-qaeda, even to some more current events. and he's right now fairly ill with cancer, so it's one of his, this book's really going to be, put him out in the public and, i think, be a very important book in his career. >> if i could add to that -- >> please. >> excuse me, peter. i was going to add, i've been dip anything and out of the hitchens, and the great thing about him is whether you agree with him or not, whether he's writing about a topic that's in the news or not, he's just a lot of fun to read. >> michael moore has his biography coming out, "here comes trouble." he's also going to be our "in depth" book in october. >> i'm really excited about that book, actually. >> go ahead, mr. boog. >> yeah. he's a michigan boy. i grew up watching his work on flint, and this actually shows his life before he was a film maker. so i'm really looking forward to seeing these stories from his life. >> bob? >> i was going to say he is, we did a short interview with him in the paper, i think it was actually today which would be by the time you see this, last thursday, and he describes it as -- he says it's not a memoir, that's sort of an anti-memoir, just some stories including, um, i think he was 13 years old wandering around the capitol and got lost, and he ran into bobby kennedy. >> now, gentlemen, a book by michael moore, will that automatically be a large print run? >> i would say, yes. >> i'm sorry, jason, go ahead. >> oh, he has such a big following online already. if you go to his web site already, you can see all the people that are talking about this book. i think it's going to sell a lot of copies. >> well, two other well known authors who might generate automatic large print runs, and they're economic books. sylvia nasser and michael lewis. sylvia naser's coming out with grand pursuit: the story of economic genius. michael lewis, boomerang: travels in the third world. what can you tell us about these two books, bob? >> well, sylvia nasser is probably best known for her last book which is "a beautiful mind." it was a bestseller about a mathematician, john nash. it was helped by the fact that it became a movie with russell crowe, so she has a big following. i think what she's trying to do is take economics which has been called sort of the dismal science and add some humanity, personality to it. i just began, and she comes across -- this, to me, was a new idea that 150 years ago or so the idea that most people were doomed to live lives filled with poverty and despair was an accepted given. and she traces how that has changed over 200 years or 150 years. >> jason boog, what about michael lewis? >> i'm really looking forward to this book, actually. his last book, "the big short," looked at the economic meltdown and how the stock market crash affected our lives here in the united states, but his next book is going to go around the world and look at the different ways it affected other countries from europe to the developing countries around us. and it's really an important thing to do right now, i think, to just not forget that we're not the only ones suffering through economic crisis right now. there's a lot of countries struggling, and i think looking at the way that it's affected global commerce is a really important thing to do right now. >> and mr. lewis -- go ahead, bob. >> okay. also his subtitle, he talks about the new third world which is the idea that there was this strict division between the developed world and the developing countries, the poor countries. and i think he's trying to get beyond that and show what easy credit did to a lot of economies including our own. >> now, there's a third -- >> he's also a delightful -- excuse me, he's also a delightful writer. >> there's a third economics book coming out by nicholas wapshot, keynes and hayek. what is this book about? jason? >> yeah. i'm actually really, this is something that really interests me personally. i'm actually working on a book of my own about the great depression and how writers in new york city survived that. and this book looks at a very critical moment when economists in the united states were trying to decide how we should respond to the great depression, and the two different views that came out. one was we should spend a lot of money and put these programs to put the country back to work, or we should be more cautious. and we're going to see these two dynamics play out all through 2012 during the election. so i think it's really a good time to read up on these issues. >> right. and frederick hi wreck who i believe was an austrian economist who didn't believe that government should intervene was recently on the bestseller list thanks to glenn beck who's a big advocate of hayek's theories. >> well, jason boog, a book that's gotten a lot of attention out here on the east coast, and i want to get the west coast perspective, it's already out. it's dick cheney's book, "in my time." is that getting a lot of buzz or noise on the west coast? >> believe it or not, the last time i checked it's the number two book in the history section of amazon, and it's about the number ten book on amazon overall, so, yes, i think people all over the country are really interested in reading this book. cheney served during a crucial time in our country, and it doesn't look like he's apologizing much, and he's caused all sorts of different reactions from officials who worked with him saying he took cheap shots, some people think. and you've seen him on television which also helps. >> go ahead, bob. >> on "usa today"'s list it was number four, and our list includes both paperback and hardcover fiction/nonfiction. however, to put it a little bit in perspective, "the help," the novel that's now a movie, was outselling it four to one. but still i guess next week or week after next it will be number one on "the new york times" nonfiction hardcover list. they separate into various categories. >> bob, a book like this by a vice president even though it was maybe controversial vice president, does it have staying power? >> well, probably not. i don't know. i mean, is this -- this is, they talk about journalism being the first draft of history. this would probably be the second draft of history. um, will a lot of people be reading it in ten years? i doubt that. >> well, the second half of condoleezza rice's memoir is coming out, and this is about her years in the white house with the bush administration. >> right. in fact, peter, i was going to suggest c-span should get maybe ms. rice and mr. cheney to interview each other. [laughter] >> i would watch that in a second. [laughter] >> well, we have bob woodward interviewing dick cheney for our "after words "program, so we'll have that for our archives. and, but what about condoleezza rice's book? have you heard anything about this? jason boog, she's out at stanford. >> yeah. it's actually quite a heavy tome, 700 pages, more than that. and she served as a very historic time. she was the first african-american woman to be the secretary, to serve, and so i think it's going to be a very historic book. she has a lot of scores i think she wants to settle. 700 pages worth. so i think a lot of people will be looking at that book too. >> mr. boog, will you read that book, or is that a book that one might do a washington read and go back to the index and look for names? >> yeah. in my job at media bistro writing for galley cat, we tend to do the index read where i will look at the portion of the book that interest our audience the most. we've already done that with cheney's book. it's a really interesting way to look through it. but i'm interested to find out the books that interested her and the books she wants to answer with this memoir. >> bob, will you read condoleezza rice's book? >> will i read it? no, i probably will not read the whole thing. i'll be curious about it. it's been embargoed which means there are no advance copies of it. i did read most of her first book, her memoir about growing up in segregated alabama and thought that was rather interesting. i know what the publisher put out, they talked about it as a sort of master class in diplomacy and talked about her humility and, um, humanity, and i was wondering if that is some sort of dig at the former vice president who, um, humble was not an adjective often attached to him. >> and condoleezza rice's second volume of her autobiography is coming out november 1st. booktv interviewed her for the first half, her first, her first book, and you can watch that interview if you're interested at booktv.org, simply use the search function in the upper left-hand corner of our web site home page. well, one former governor, one current governor currently have books out. we'll begin with mitch daniels, "keeping the republic: saving america by trusting americans." was this a pre-presidential run book, bob? >> probably, i don't know for sure. i'm sure the people at penguin, his publisher, were disappointed that he did not decide to run for president. i'm not sure if a book by a presidential candidate, very rarely do they become bestsellers. i think people write these books for a variety of reasons. some just the idea of getting their ideas out there. um, we probably haven't heard the last of mitch daniels even though he's not running for president. >> well, former two-term michigan governor jennifer granholm has a new book out "a governor's story: the fight for jobs and america's economic future," it's being put out by public affairs in the september. jason boog, former governor of michigan. you going to read it? >> >> i am going to read it, actually. i'm from michigan, um, and she just took the state during probably the roughest time in that state's history. um, i've been, i was living in the new york before this, so i wasn't in michigan during her tenure, but just talking to my family it was such a rough time, and it's a really interesting period. and her focus on jobs really interests me. i like that approach better than kind of mitch daniels, he actually has a blurb from jeb bush that calls him the anti-obama. and i don't like it when someone takes a book just to postsit against -- posit against someone. the struggles that she faced in the job market, i'm really looking forward to checking that out. >> bob, herman cain, republican candidate for president. october he has his autobiography coming out. "this is herman cain, my journey to the white house." >> right. notice the exclamation point there after this is herman cain. it's the latest incarnation of someone who has been successful in business, i think it was grandfather's pizza. he calls himself abc, american, black and conservative. i wouldn't, i think most people would not bet on his presidential campaign. he has some interesting ideas, and, um, i'll leave it at that. >> so with a book like this about a candidate who may not be that well known, what kind of a print run do you have? >> well, one of the dirty secrets of publishing is publishers are always exaggerating their print runs, and there's really -- it's very hard to know exactly. they'll say we're printing 20,000 copies, they're probably printing 10,000 copies. and can it's all relative. i mean, this is such -- books in our culture are such a, i mean, they're influential, but by numbers alone they're a drop in the bucket. a book can sell 25,000 copies in a week and be a bestseller, but in a country of 300 million people, that's not a lot. so i don't put a lot of stock in print runs, um, mostly because they're unverifiable. >> jason? >> i do want to add one thing. herman cain is, also, a very sure bet for publishers. anytime some author comes in irregardless of a presidential campaign, if they come in with a strong following on the radio like he has, a built-in audience that are really interested in read what he has to think, publishers love that. and they're making a lot more bets on people like him that have a pre-forum platform. >> and that's being published, jason boog, by threshold. what is threshold? >> threshold is, i believe, a more conservative imprint. we're seeing more of these form, we -- actually, glenn beck actually has his own imprint to publish the people he likes. it's a strong movement right now, more conservative-focused publishing. >> and along with sent them and regnery, bob, does a conservative book have, as jason boog said, a built-in audience? >> i think so. in fact, well, there's this odd thing, and there's probably no way of proving this, that the party out of power does better at bookstores. so, for instance, during the bush administration, the second bush administration a lot of books critical of the president did well in bookstores. the same thing for bill clinton. there were a lot of sort of you could say critical anti-clinton books during his administration. now we're seeing conservatives do well at the bookstores while in the obama administration. again, the numbers are a lot different. i mean, again, a lot more people vote than buy books. one other thing about a book by herman cain, i'm sure he did not write that book to make much money. in fact, he may not be making hardly any money off of it, so that's also an attraction to the publisher. they don't have to pay the author much money. at least up front. >> this is booktv on c-span2, and this is our 2011 fall book preview show. bob minitz -- bob minzesheimer and jason boog. gentlemen, one other political book that's coming out or politicians book that's coming out is just recently announced, representative gabrielle giffords and her husband, mark kelly. jason boog. >> yeah. i put that news up earlier this week, and i was amazed by the response. people circulated that all around the internet. people are very excited to see what happened in her life since that tragic shooting, um, and then also her husband just took a trip to space. so it's such a powerful combination. you'd be hard pressed to find a more exciting memoir this season. >> and that is coming out by scrivener in november. bob minzesheimer, anita hill has a book coming out this fall. >> right. this is her second book. remember, anita hill, for those of you without long memories, was the witness against clarence thomas in his confirmation hearings in '91 is or so? i'm trying to remember when that was. sometime in the early '90s. and she wrote about that experience in her last book. i think she's trying to get beyond that, beyond the he said/she said sort of story. and it's a book that seems to be a blend of both her own life, she grew up poor in a huge family in rural oklahoma, and the stories of other women who rose above their circumstances. and beyond that a little more sociological, philosophical view of gender and racial discrimination. >> well, there are two books with titles that lend themselves to the same, same theme, but by vastly different authors. and tom friedman and michael mandelbaum have a book coming out called "that used to be us." and pat buchanan's newest book, "suicide of a superpower." what can you tell us about these two books, gentlemen? >> can i can take pat buchanan is an apocalyptic book. i haven't read it yet, but he's really taking the view that our country's in trouble, which we are, and kind of saying he's going to be looking toward the tea party and the conservative movement as a way to get us out of this. um, i think it's going to be taking a lot of shots. i think it's going to be trying to stoke the fires that push the division that we're seeing right now in our country and kind of deepen that divide which i really feel is not the appropriate way to, i think we need books that can bring us together a little bit more right now. and his book seems like it's going to be quite a polarizing tome when it comes out. >> mr. minzesheimer? >> i would add there's another title that might fit into that category, it's by tom brokaw. i forget the title now, but it addresses all three books from different perspectives are addressing this sense that this country is sort of adrift. we're not addressing fundamental problems in an era which is a little hard to define. we went through world war ii, we knew who our enemies were. we went through the cold war, we knew who our enemies were. now in a global war against terrorism, we're not so sure who our enemies are. and i think a lot of authors from different perspectives are addressing, um, addressing that. and i think it gets to the point of does the country fundamentally know what it's doing and where it's headed? >> >> the subtitle of the friedman/mandelbaum book, how america fell behind in the world it invente