Top journalists, authors highlight Politics and Current Affairs section at Club Book Fair, 5:30 pm Nov. 15

PBS anchor Jim Lehrer will serve as the honorary chair of the National Press Club’s 34th annual Book Fair & Authors’ Night on Tuesday, Nov. 15, from 5:30 – 8:30 p.m.

Lehrer will be one of the authors featured in the Politics and Current Affairs category, along with Pamela Constable, Ronald Suskind and Ann Coulter. Admission to the fair is free for Club members and $5 for non-members.

Club members Alan Bjerga, Joanne Bamberger, Jane Hampton Cook and Paul Dickson will be among close to 100 nationally known writers autographing and selling their books at the event, which is organized by the Club's Book Fair & Authors' Night Committee.

For a contribution of $25, you can become a “Friend of the Book Fair” and join fellow patrons in promoting a love of books and reading.

“Friends” will receive a complimentary raffle ticket (a $10 value) for a chance to win one of a group of exciting prizes, including gift certificates to Georgetown Cupcake, Chef Geoff's, Clyde's and Cowgirl Creamery, a wine tasting at Sunset Hills Vineyard, a curator's private tour of National Portrait Gallery and Dodona Manor and a Saturday night stay at the W Hotel.

Your generosity will support the National Press Club’s Journalism Institute, a 501 (c)(3)that provides training, research and resources for news professionals and scholarships for the next generation of journalists.

Go to http://press.org/library/book-fair/friends to become a Friend of the Book Fair.

No outside books permitted. A full list of participants can be found on the Club’s website: http://press.org/library/book-fair/authors-and-books

Authors in the Politics and Current Affairs category include:

Joanne Bamberger – “PunditMom's Mothers of Intention: How Women & Social Media Are Revolutionizing Politics in America” $24.95

Born out of websites and blogs, “Mothers of Intention” is a collection of essays by passionate women who have strong, powerful, thoughtful and humorous voices about what it's like to be a mother in today's political world.

Jeremy Ben-Ami – “A New Voice for Israel: Fighting for the Survival of the Jewish Nation" $26.00

Ben-Ami, whose grandparents were first-generation Zionists and founders of Tel Aviv, tells the story of his own evolution toward a more moderate viewpoint. He sketches a new direction for both American policy and the conduct of the debate over Israel in the American Jewish community.

Ben-Ami is the founder and president of J Street, an advocacy group and political action committee that is both pro-Israel and pro-peace.

Pamela Constable – “Playing with Fire: Pakistan at War with Itself” $20

Journalist Pamela Constable peels back the layers of life in complex modern Pakistan, from the opulent, insular salons of the elite to the brick quarries where soot-covered workers sell their kidneys to get out of debt. This is a portrait of a society steeped in inequality and corruption, and increasingly divided by competing versions of Islam.

Ann Coulter – “Demonic: How the Liberal Mob is Endangering America” $28.99

In what is being called her most provocative book yet, Ann Coulter argues that the way to understand liberals is to look at the psychological characteristics of a mob.

Catherine Crier – “Patriot Acts: What Americans Must Do to Save the Republic” $26

Television journalist Catherine Crier gives her analysis of America’s political crisis and suggests what will and won’t work for America today. She looks at everything from the disconnect between the financial health of corporations and the lot of consumers to why the nation’s health care system is mismanaged and bloated.

Georgie Anne Geyer – “Predicting the Unthinkable, Anticipating the Impossible: From the Fall of the Berlin Wall to America in the New Century” $39.95

In “Predicting the Unthinkable,” Geyer has assembled her columns to show how the world keeps changing and that it will not soon run out of human folly. Mostly made up of interviews with the famous and notorious, her reporting took her to every continent except Antarctica and several dozen countries.

Bob Kemper – “Rubble: How the 9/11 Families Rebuilt Their Lives and Inspired America” $27.50

Bob Kemper first met the families of 9/11 shortly after the attacks. In “Rubble,” Kemper tells the story of how the families compelled Congress to investigate the catastrophic failure of America’s national defenses, helped reshape the nation’s intelligence network and changed the way the United States combats terrorism.

Jim Lehrer – “Tension City: Inside the Presidential Debates, from Kennedy-Nixon to McCain-Obama” $26

Veteran newsman Jim Lehrer provides a ringside seat for some of the epic battles of American political history in this look at presidential debates from the man who has presided over 11 presidential and vice presidential debates. Lehrer isolates and illuminates what he calls the “Major Moments” and “killer questions” that defined the debates, from Kennedy-Nixon to Obama-McCain.

Gayle Tzemach Lemmon – “The Dressmaker of Khair Khana: Five Sisters, One Remarkable Family, and the Woman Who Risked Everything to Keep them Safe” $24.99

When her father and brother were forced to flee the city, Kamila Sidiqi became the sole breadwinner for her five siblings. She picked up a needle and thread and created a thriving business. Former ABC News reporter Gayle Tzemach Lemmon spent years on the ground reporting Kamila's story.

Ron Suskind – “Confidence Men: Wall Street, Washington, and the Education of a President” $29.99

Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist Ron Suskind introduces readers to an ensemble cast, from the titans of high finance to a new generation of reformers, from petulant congressmen and acerbic lobbyists to a tight circle of White House advisers—and, ultimately, to the president himself, as you’ve never before seen him. Based on hundreds of interviews and filled with piercing insights and startling disclosures, “Confidence Men” brings into focus the collusion and conflict between the nation’s two capitals—New York and Washington, one of private gain, the other of public purpose—in defining confidence and, thereby, charting America’s future.

Joby Warrick – “The Triple Agent: The al-Qaeda Mole Who Infiltrated the CIA” $26.95

In December 2009 a Jordanian double-agent who had infiltrated the upper ranks of al-Qaeda detonated a 30-pound bomb strapped to his chest, instantly killing seven CIA operatives. In “The Triple Agent,” Pulitzer Prize–winning reporter Joby Warrick explores how this happened.