Another TONSIL book giveaway! Eli Saslow’s fascinating TEN LETTERS, addressed to you!

Somewhere near the White House, on a non-descript floor of a non-descript office building, an entire team of people sift through President Obama’s mail — thousands of letters daily. This is actual mail, the kind people put stamps on and mail carriers deliver. (I know! Despite everything you’ve heard, people still do that.)

Out of those thousands of letters, 10 are selected and sent over to the White House. Obama reads them each night. He likes it — even the ones that begin “Dear Jackass.”

Eli Saslow is a reporter on the national staff of The Washington Post. He’s insanely talented. (He doesn’t know this, but I secretly nicknamed him “A New Hope.”) A while back, Eli wrote an amazing story about how those 10 letters are chosen and sent to Obama and what motivated some of the people who write to the president to send their letters. (And how amazed or even puzzled they are when they get a handwritten reply.)

It was one of those stories that’s so good you think “This should be a–” and you’re already too late. The agent has called, the book contract is already signed, and off Eli went to report more about the lives of the people who wrote to Obama in 2010.

Now the book is out. Ten Letters: The Stories Americans Tell Their Presidents. I’ve started reading it. It’s good. It’s also the purest sort of old-school feature writing. It doesn’t announce any grand theme in the first 10 pages. It’s not about the writer writing the book. It just goes. You get the concept right away, so now you want to go deep into people’s lives, without judgment or heavy commentary. Every book claims to be “about America,” but this one just might be.

Want a signed copy of the actual book — the kind you hold in your hand and turn the pages of? I’ve got three copies here waiting for Eli to sign. One of them could be yours. All you must do is send me an e-mail (send it to hank [at] this web site dot com) and ask me nicely and I will mail it to you.

Hurry! Once they’re gone, they’re gone.

UPDATE: They’re all GONE. That was really fast. Thanks, everyone.

4 Comments

  1. Tracy Farrell on October 21, 2011 at 5:06 pm

    I read the description above to make sure I wouldn’t be getting a book I don’t want. Mostly because if someone else could enjoy it more I think they should. I decided this would be a good book for me to read and get some insight (maybe) on what real people want from our current President and I may even wantto share some thoughts with my kids.
    Thanks Hank.

  2. Norma Tomlinson on October 21, 2011 at 5:30 pm

    Really? A free book from my favorite author? Woo-woo!!

    • Hank Stuever on October 21, 2011 at 5:53 pm

      Norma — to win I need you to e-mail me at the address in the blog entry … hank [at] …

  3. James on October 23, 2011 at 12:18 pm

    Sounds like an interesting book. Imagine these days people willing to handwrite a letter and use snail mail have a rather passionate opinion of the reason they are writing.
    Would be a good read perhaps on old fashioned paper to honor old fashioned writing.

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