HOW ABOUT A BLURB?

Fans of James Bond know that it was the inclusion of From Russia With Love on a list of JFK's recent favorite books that propelled Ian Fleming to literary celebrity.  One hopes the same will happen to Netherland, which the Times reports the president has begun reading:

At the end of our conversation, when I asked him if he was reading anything good, he said he had become sick enough of briefing books to begin reading a novel in the evenings — “Netherland,” by Joseph O’Neill.

(Thanks to Reese Kwo