In her nearly three decades at NBC, Jane Pauley interviewed a lot of achievers — people with purpose and passion.
Indeed, she married one: Garry Trudeau, a man with whom she shares three children, a home in NYC and a sense of humor. “Garry is one of those fortunate people for whom my book isn’t that important,” says Pauley, author of “Your Life Calling: Reimagining the Rest of Your Life,” a baby boomer’s guide to finding a satisfying second act.
The couple were in the car one day when Trudeau told her his secret: “Whenever I find myself feeling bored, I retreat to the amusement park that is my brain.” A song came on the radio: “Hear that?” he asked her. “I’m playing bass!”
Here are four books that tickled Pauley’s own imagination.
The Magnificent Ambersons
by Booth Tarkington
I ran across Modern Library’s top 100 novels list and this was the 100th. It was written by a kinsman — Tarkington was from Indianapolis, like I am, and this is probably set in that city. It’s the story of the impact of modernization on a family that had money, status and prestige in the 19th century, only to retreat into obsolescence.
The Wreath, the Wife, the Cross
by Kristin Lavransdatter
I found myself sitting next to Alan Alda at an event and told him how frustrated I was when I finished a novel I liked. He suggested this trilogy. It’s a historical novel set in medieval Norway, and it’s epic. I don’t want to give it away, but the Plague arrives. Alan thought it would take so long for me to read it, but it didn’t! It won the Nobel Prize in 1928.
Alexander Hamilton
by Ron Chernow
Hamilton was a founding father of this country, a close confidante of George Washington during the Revolutionary War. He was Thomas Jefferson’s nemesis, but Washington needed them both . . . I’m tempted to reread this as I wait impatiently for Chernow to finish his book on Ulysses S. Grant!
The Dominion of Memories
by Susan Dunn
You learn about history in the spaces in between — we study the Revolutionary War, then slide into the Civil War and skip the decades in between. This tells the story of the Commonwealth of Virginia, “the mother of presidents” — five of the first six presidents were Virginians — and how it slipped into dysfunction and decrepitude after the war.