Don't miss Silver Owls' Hoot on May 31 featuring award-winning journalist Farrell, all-female Irish fiddle band

John Aloysius Farrell, the award-winning author of one of the bestselling books of the year, and Malarkey, an all-female Irish fiddle band, are the highlights of the upcoming Spring Hoot at the National Press Club. The Hoot, sponsored by the Club's Silver Owls, will be held Wednesday, May 31, at 6:30 p.m.

The Hoot, open to all Club members and guests, begins with a 6:30 p.m. cash-bar reception followed by dinner at 7:30 p.m. The cost is $35 per person. Make reservations online or call 202-662-7501.

Farrell's current book, Richard Nixon: The Life, a biography of one of the most complex and controversial presidents in American history, has been on the bestselling lists of both The New York Times and The Washington Post. Farrell, an award-winning journalist, plans to explain the difficulties involved in researching, finding new material, and then writing about a man who has been the subject of several previous biographies.

In his research, Farrell found indisputable evidence that Nixon personally authorized a secret campaign to scuttle former President Lyndon Johnson's 1968 peace plan to end the Vietnam War. Nixon's interference in the peace initiative has long been rumored but never before proven.

Farrell's book on the complex personal and professional life of Nixon has been applauded by a wide and assorted group of reviewers: "Grand, indispensable," said Chris Matthews; "A true landmark achievement," opined Douglas Brinkley; "Endlessly revealing," claimed Kirkus Reviews; "A joy to read," added John Dickerson.

"John A. Farrell narrates this story with punch and insight...the best one-volume, cradle-to-grave biography that we could expect about such a famously elusive subject," wrote reviewer Aram Goudsouzian in The Washington Post.

Farrell has written two previous award-winning biographies, one on former House Speaker Thomas P. "Tip" O'Neill and the other on renowned defense attorney Clarence Darrow.

His biography of Darrow, entitled Attorney for the Damned, was awarded the Los Angeles Times book prize for the best biography of 2011. Tip O"Neill and the Democratic Century, Farrell's biography of the former Democratic House Speaker, won the 2003 D.B. Hardeman prize for the best writing on Congress.

As a reporter, Farrell has covered Congress, the Supreme Court and every American presidential campaign from 1980 through 2012. He has served as Washington bureau chief for the Denver Post and the Media News chain.

According to his bio, Farrell also has "driven an ice cream truck, shined shoes, waited tables, cared for the animals in a medical laboratory, worked as a construction worker, labored on an Israeli kibbutz and served as a gallery guard at the Masters golf tournament."

Malarkey, a group of eight professional women, can be seen mostly at Irish pubs in Arlington. Their saloon motto, according to Carol Guensburg, a writer-editor for Voice of America and group keyboarder, is: "The more you drink, the better we sound." But to show a more serious side to their music, they have performed at the White House during the Christmas season and at area nursing homes.

In addition to Guensburg on keyboard, the group consists of three fiddlers, two guitarists, a flutist and a percussionist. Their daytime jobs, besides Guensburg's role at Voice of America, are a cybersecurity specialist, an Arlington County executive, a violin teacher, a hematologist, a nurse, an economist and an elementary school teacher.