The Last of the President's Men

An Amazon Best Book of October 2015: Watergate junkies may think they know all there is to know about Richard Nixon and the inner circle behind Watergate and its aftermath, but journalist Bob Woodward – one half of the team that made that whole sorry business public in the first place – has one more Watergate card to play: The Last of the President’s Men is a short and riveting look into the files and memory of Alexander Butterfield, who was Chief of Staff H.R. Haldeman’s deputy during that time. Probably best known to political junkies as the one who revealed that Nixon taped all conversations in the Oval Office, here Butterfield gives Woodward access to files and photos even the seasoned journalist had never seen before; while the resulting book doesn’t necessarily tell us anything we didn’t know about the foul mouthed, paranoid 37th president, it recalls his behavior with such specificity you can’t help but be upset all over again. This is more engaging, in its disturbing way (Nixon’s vulgarities and general ugliness of manner somehow shocked this usually unshockable reader), than the more wonky of Woodward’s recent tomes – and it’s plenty enlightening about an era we thought we already knew. – Sara Nelson