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Staff Pick
From the Corner of the Oval: A Memoir
Current price:
$28.00
Publication Date: July 10th, 2018
Publisher:
Spiegel & Grau
ISBN:
9780525509127
Pages:
352
Staff Reviews
I practically inhaled this book! There are a lot of Obama-era memoirs out right now ranging from serious policy discussions to gossipy personal stories and this book falls into the latter category. Beck Dorey-Stein was an Obama administration stenographer: a low-level staffer who just happened to be in the middle of some of the most important moments in the administration's history. She traveled on Air Force One, went all over the world and heard all kinds of things while staying as unobtrusive as possible and having some fun on the side. Her memoir brings you right into the inner workings of the Obama White House and tells the story of the young behind-the-scenes staffers who made it all happen. Dorey-Stein includes lots of tales about parties, late nights at the bar and who is sleeping with who. She has a gift for observation and an engaging way of telling her personal story within a very public background. A very fun read.
—
Claire
Description
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • What if you lived out the drama of your twenties on Air Force One?
“[This] breezy page turner is essentially Bridget Jones goes to the White House.”—The New York Times
RECOMMENDED READING theSkimm • Today • Entertainment Weekly • Refinery29 • Bustle • PopSugar • Vanity Fair • The New York Times Editors’ Choice • Paste
In 2012, Beck Dorey-Stein is working five part-time jobs and just scraping by when a posting on Craigslist lands her, improbably, in the Oval Office as one of Barack Obama’s stenographers. The ultimate D.C. outsider, she joins the elite team who accompany the president wherever he goes, recorder and mic in hand. On whirlwind trips across time zones, Beck forges friendships with a dynamic group of fellow travelers—young men and women who, like her, leave their real lives behind to hop aboard Air Force One in service of the president.
As she learns to navigate White House protocols and more than once runs afoul of the hierarchy, Beck becomes romantically entangled with a consummate D.C. insider, and suddenly the political becomes all too personal.
Against a backdrop of glamour, drama, and intrigue, this is the story of a young woman learning what truly matters, and, in the process, discovering her voice.
Praise for From the Corner of the Oval
“Who knew the West Wing could be so sexy? Beck Dorey-Stein’s unparalleled access is obvious on every page, along with her knife-sharp humor. I tore through the entire book on a four-hour flight and loved reading all about the brilliant yet hard-partying people who once surrounded the leader of the free world. Lots of books claim to give real insider glimpses, but this one actually delivers.”—Lauren Weisberger, author of The Devil Wears Prada
“Dorey-Stein . . . writes with wit and self-deprecating humor.”—The Wall Street Journal
“Addictively readable . . . Dorey-Stein’s spunk and her sparkling, crackling prose had me cheering for her through each adventure. . . . She never loses her starry-eyed optimism, her pinch-me wonderment, her Working Girl pluck.”—Paul Begala, The New York Times Book Review (Editors’ Choice)
Praise for From the Corner of the Oval: A Memoir
“[Beck Dorey-Stein’s] breezy page turner is essentially Bridget Jones goes to the White House.”—Peter Baker, The New York Times
“Obama administration memoirs are rolling in, but in a refreshing twist From the Corner of the Oval swaps policy for good old-fashioned workplace drama. . . . Readers won’t find state secrets so much as they’ll get a glimpse at what life was really like working for the most historical of administrations. There are countless flights on Air Force One, late nights at four-star hotel bars in far-flung locations, and a bravely honest retelling of her workplace affair.”—Entertainment Weekly
“Who knew the West Wing could be so sexy? Beck Dorey-Stein’s unparalleled access is obvious on every page, along with her knife-sharp humor. I tore through the entire book on a four-hour flight and loved reading all about the brilliant yet hard-partying people who once surrounded the leader of the free world. Lots of books claim to give real insider glimpses, but this one actually delivers.”—Lauren Weisberger, author of The Devil Wears Prada
“[Dorey-Stein] writes with wit and self-deprecating humor but is fully aware, too, of the pomposity and petty spite of official Washington. She’s at her best and funniest when recalling the physically unhealthy and vaguely ridiculous work of following the president wherever he goes.”—The Wall Street Journal
“Addictively readable . . . Dorey-Stein absorbs it all with a fine eye for detail and conveys it with freshness, candor and humor. . . . She may be a stenographer, but this is not typing; this is writing. . . . It is a testament to Dorey-Stein’s charm and her writing chops that we root for her throughout. . . . From the Corner of the Oval has been aptly dubbed The West Wing meets Devil Wears Prada. I see it more as C-Span meets Sex and the City—but with more drinking and even more sex. . . . Dorey-Stein’s spunk and her sparkling, crackling prose had me cheering for her through each adventure. . . . She never loses her starry-eyed optimism, her pinch-me wonderment, her Working Girl pluck. Which makes From the Corner of the Oval somehow, against the odds, a story of hope.”—Paul Begala, The New York Times Book Review (Editors’ Choice)
“A few weeks ago, what I always fear will happen actually did happen. I’d been reading Beck Dorey-Stein’s engrossing memoir, From the Corner of the Oval, out July 10, on my commute home. ‘Huh,’ I thought, as I looked up from my book and saw a slightly unfamiliar landscape whir by. ‘This train ride seems longer than usual.’ And it was. I had been so absorbed in Dorey-Stein’s insider recollections of the Obama White House that I’d missed my stop entirely.”—Refinery29 (Best New Books For July 2018)
“Dorey-Stein brings readers along for romance, heartbreak, and growing up.”—Bustle
“History lesson meets soap opera. In this poignant, brutally honest, and often-funny work of self-reflection, Dorey-Stein pulls no punches and tells all she learned from and about the president who ‘taught me to look up.’”—Booklist
“Hilarious . . . Dorey-Stein writes with honesty and panache.”—Publishers Weekly
