Ambling Into History: The Unlikely Odyssey of George W. Bush

In Ambling into History, New York Times reporter Frank Bruni has drawn an informal, evenhanded, largely anecdotal, and revealing portrait of George W. Bush, whose presidential campaign he covered. Bruni initially describes Bush as "part scamp and part bumbler," but his respect grows, and he finds that, with the September 11, 2001, attacks, Bush "inherited his true purpose," thereby spurring his emergence as a leader. Bruni is not especially concerned with Bush's political philosophy, preferring instead to relate many "small moments" to show what Bush "looked and acted like on the edges of what was usually considered news." Bruni is at his best when describing--often humorously--the exhausting life of the media corps during a campaign: the 24-hour days, the harrowing deadlines, and the brutish tedium of listening to and reporting on the same speech over and over again, a process he likens to "aerobic stenography." An equal-opportunity cynic, Bruni decries the "superficiality" not only of American politics but the media's coverage of it. This is an amiable and seemingly trustworthy peek behind the presidential dais and into a reporter's notebook. --H. O'Billovich