Dear Great Book Guru,  My family and I are going away for a Presidents’ week vacation and I am looking for a book to bring along.  With the primary elections so much in the news, I would like to read something with a political twist- preferably non-fiction.  Any recommendation? Obsessed with Presidential Politics

Dear Obsessed,  Daniel DiPietro gave me a fascinating book for my birthday: DARK MONEY by Jane Mayer.   Dark money is the term used to describe political spending by groups whose funding does not have to be revealed. Mayer details the enormous power and animus of these American billionaire donors and the subsequent rise of the radical right. She begins with a richly detailed history of the Koch brothers, tracing the family’s enormous wealth back to Fred Koch’s alliances with Stalin and Hitler in the 1930’s.  His sons Charles and David have gone on in a myriad of ways to control not just who rules the country but how the country thinks. In this highly readable account, Mayer underscores the means  these brothers and their billionaire allies have used to  to achieve their goals- whether it be climate change denial, the secret creation of the Tea Party, or the systematic takeover of local and state governments.  DARK MONEY  is ultimately a horrifying look at how the United States has been  fundamentally and probably irrevocably changed by this billionaire cabal.   Highly recommended!