News Bytes: the Obamas' and former AG Eric Holder's soon-to-be published books

FYI: My podcast, "One Mother's Voice: In the Name of Justice,"  (Spreaker.com and Sound Cloud) will resume posting episodes in January 2018 with enhanced content, better production quality, and revamped formatting. In addition, I hope to feature guest interviewees (e.g. social justice advocates/activists) and enable listener call-ins. Until then, I will post criminal news, events, updates at this site. Stay tuned.

News Bytes2018 pub dates for Obamas' and AG' Holders books Two books on my "most-anticipated" list are forthcoming from former President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama. The couple signed book deals with Penguin Random House for a combined total of $65 million dollars. I eagerly await behind-the-scene stories about their years in the WH; however, I am most interested in their experiences as the first black president and first lady. Frankly, I want to hear about all the stuff that didn't make the news!The Obamas will donate 1 million books to First Book, a Penguin Random House non-profit partner and Open ebooks.Barack Obama has two previous best-sellers, Dreams from My Father and The Audacity of Hope.Another much-anticipated book is Pursuing Justice by Eric Holder, the nation's first African-American attorney general, who served under the Obama Administration from 2008 until his resignation in 2015. His personal and political memoir will recount his immigrant roots--his father was born in Barbados--and his strong advocacy for criminal justice reform. Holder will work on the book with journalist Douglas Blackmon, who won a 2009 Pulitzer Prize for his book, Slavery By Another Name: The Re-Enslavement of Black Americans from the Civil War to WWII.In November 2017, Politico wrote:"The keenly legacy-conscious Holder has never been in better standing, leaving on arguably the highest personal note of his tenure, after a year of progress on his plan to reform sentencing laws and just after his well-received, calming-the-waters trip to Ferguson, Missouri, during the riots in August."Of course, Holder had detractors who opposed the Justice Department's use of subpoenas and search warrants "for phone records and other information of journalists involved in reports about leaked classified information..." as reported in 2013 by CNN Politics online.It is these contradictions that make Holder's story all the more complex and read-worthy.