SHRUB The Short but Happy Political Life of George W. Bush

This book is a pre-2000 barbecue of the current president, whom Ivins sees as a "wholly owned subsidiary of corporate America." Ivins reads with a lady cowboy lilt, which she slathers on according to the intrinsic hominess of her Texas homilies. Of Bush's luck, she says, "If they tried to hang him, the rope would break." A former lieutenant governor is a "wily old trout," and "meaner than a skillet full of rattlesnakes." Ivins is also a hard-nosed investigative reporter who, back in 2000, taught us everything that Dan Rather later revealed "for the first time" in 2004. This is a great gift for Democrats and disaffected Independents. If you don't cry, you'll laugh--or "cut my legs off, and call me Shorty." J.W. (c) AudioFile 2004, Portland, Maine [Published: DEC 04/ JAN 05]