Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * What if you lived out the drama of your twenties on Air Force One?
"[This] breezy page turner is essentially Bridget Jones goes to the White House."-- The New York Times
RECOMMENDED READING theSkimm * Today * Entertainment Weekly * Refinery29 * Bustle * PopSugar * Vanity Fair * The New York Times Editors' Choice * Paste
In 2012, Beck Dorey-Stein is working five part-time jobs and just scraping by when a posting on Craigslist lands her, improbably, in the Oval Office as one of Barack Obama's stenographers. The ultimate D.C. outsider, she joins the elite team who accompany the president wherever he goes, recorder and mic in hand. On whirlwind trips across time zones, Beck forges friendships with a dynamic group of fellow travelers--young men and women who, like her, leave their real lives behind to hop aboard Air Force One in service of the president.
As she learns to navigate White House protocols and more than once runs afoul of the hierarchy, Beck becomes romantically entangled with a consummate D.C. insider, and suddenly the political becomes all too personal.
Against a backdrop of glamour, drama, and intrigue, this is the story of a young woman learning what truly matters, and, in the process, discovering her voice.
Praise for From the Corner of the Oval
"Who knew the West Wing could be so sexy? Beck Dorey-Stein's unparalleled access is obvious on every page, along with her knife-sharp humor. I tore through the entire book on a four-hour flight and loved reading all about the brilliant yet hard-partying people who once surrounded the leader of the free world. Lots of books claim to give real insider glimpses, but this one actually delivers." --Lauren Weisberger, author of The Devil Wears Prada
"Dorey-Stein . . . writes with wit and self-deprecating humor." -- The Wall Street Journal
"Addictively readable . . . Dorey-Stein's spunk and her sparkling, crackling prose had me cheering for her through each adventure. . . . She never loses her starry-eyed optimism, her pinch-me wonderment, her Working Girl pluck." --Paul Begala, The New York Times Book Review (Editors' Choice)
"A memoir"--Cover.
In 2012, Beck Dorey-Stein was just scraping by in DC when a posting on Craigslist landed her, improbably, in the Oval Office as one of Barack Obama's stenographers. For five years, Beck was a part of the elite team of men and women who accompanied the president wherever he went, recorder and mic in hand. She got to know everyone from the White House butler to the secret servicemen, advance team, speechwriters, photographers, and press secretaries. On whirlwind trips across time zones, she forged friendships with a tight group of fellow travelers in the bubble -- young men and women who, like her, left their real lives behind to hop aboard Air Force One in service of the president. But as she learned the ropes of protocol, Beck became romantically entangled with one of the President's closest aides, who was already otherwise engaged... Set against the backdrop of the White House, this is the story of a young woman finding friends, falling in love, getting her heart broken, finding her voice as a writer, and finding herself in the process.
Reviews provided by Syndetics
Library Journal Review
It may seem improbable that answering an ad for a position as a stenographer on Craigslist would lead to a dream job as a staff member of the Obama administration, but that's what happened to Dorey-Stein. For five years, as part of the White House steno pool, the author attended interviews and dignitary visits in the Oval Office and other White House venues, traveled the world on Air Force One, and rode in presidential motorcades to tape Obama's remarks and transcribe them for press releases and administrative record. Providing plenty of stories about incidental interactions with POTUS and a solid account of life in "the Bubble," Dorey-Stein also describes relationships with White House staff members-both romantic and platonic. Through it all, the author maintained close friendships with other women working in the White House who supported her during her emotional crises and whom she, in turn, did the same. VERDICT Dorey-Stein offers a fascinating look at the lower-level workings of White House operations. Readers who enjoy insider stories about the presidential office, specifically the Obama administration, will enjoy this book immensely.-Jill Ortner, SUNY Buffalo Libs. © Copyright 2018. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Publishers Weekly Review
In this hilarious memoir, Dorey-Stein gives an insider's glimpse into the White House from her perch as Barack Obama's stenographer. In 2012, 25-year-old Stein responded to a Craigslist advertisement to be a stenographer at a law firm; the "law firm" was the White House. On her first day on the job, she overpacked and needed to empty the contents of her bag to find her recorder while flying on Air Force One: "Oh, dear God, my travel-sized hair straightener in its little travel-sized hot pink silk bag looks like a vibrator! Jay Carney thought I was talking to him, on Air Force One, with a vibrator in my hand." When she forgets her underwear for another overnight, she notes, "Today, I'll be traveling commando with the commander in chief." Dorey-Stein traveled with the president's envoy across the world-to Cuba, Mexico, India, and Saudi Arabia-and to all corners of the U.S. As Dorey-Stein became accustomed to living aboard Air Force One, she began an affair with a man in the president's inner circle. What follows is pure tragicomedy, and Dorey-Stein writes with honesty and panache about her fun job and her eventual heartbreak. It's thrilling to get a front-row seat to the Obama White House, and she has stayed on with the Trump administration, where the "West Exec parking lot is no longer filled with Priuses and Chevys but with Porsches and Maseratis." Beltway gossip hounds will hope to hear more from Dorey-Stein. (July) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Booklist Review
Exactly how much drama can happen under the nose of the leader of the free world is apparently the question Dorey-Stein attempts to answer in this memoir. Drunken escapades, affairs, betrayals, and cattiness may not have been what she was expecting when, at age 25, she took a stenographer job working for the Obama presidency, but it's what she got. She also witnessed history (the devastation of Sandy Hook and ISIS as well as the passing of the Affordable Care Act and gay marriage) while traveling the world on Air Force One and making lasting friendships with other ambitious, hardworking, and passionate people. A fly on the wall of almost every important event from 2012 to 2017, Dorey-Stein relates the highs and lows of the Obama presidency intermixed with those from her personal life in a compulsively readable style think history lesson meets soap opera. In this poignant, brutally honest, and often-funny work of self-reflection, Dorey-Stein pulls no punches and tells all she learned from and about the president who taught me to look up. --Alison Spanner Copyright 2018 Booklist
Kirkus Book Review
Politics and romance among Barack Obama's staffers.In 2011, 25-year-old Dorey-Stein moved to Washington, D.C., to spend a semester teaching at Sidwell Friends, the school to which presidents and Congress members send their children. Her job was "to help those hormonally charged stressballs chill out." She suspected she wouldn't live in "this ego swamp of a city" for long, however, even after she fell in love with Sam, a Californian who worked on the Obama campaign in 2008. Then she responded to a Craigslist ad for a stenographer position that turned out to be a job at the White House. For the next five years, she traveled the world with Obama, recording his speeches and interviews and releasing official transcripts. The author's focus, however, is not politics but relationships, most notably her romance with Jason, a senior staff member she initially referred to as Jim Carrey's doppelgnger. Jason cheated on his girlfriend with Dorey-Stein, and Dorey-Stein felt guilty about cheating on Sam. Before long, Jason cheated on the author, the author confided in female colleagues, a couple of whom Jason subsequently pursued, and on it went. Much of the book reads more like commercial fiction than political memoir, with lines such as, "my chest clenches as though my ribs are biting down on my heart." Even readers who enjoy a mix of romance and politics may tire of the countless I'm-so-lucky, how-is-this-my-life exclamations and the effusive dialogue. ("We should hang out!" Dorey-Stein told Jason shortly after they met. "Definitely!" he replied.) The author does provide some interesting behind-the-scenes glimpses: jogging next to Obama on adjacent treadmills; Obama's reminiscing aboard Marine One about the day he met Michelle; and a genuinely touching section on the 2015 shooting at the Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, South Carolina, when, after the service, an emotionally drained Obama walked through Air Force One and uncharacteristically didn't talk to anyone.Gossipy books can be fun; if only this one had been better written. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.