Godges Outsells George W. Bush, Nears Keith Richards at Village Books

Dec. 2, 2010 - PRLog -- Time to smile! The humble family memoir by John Paul Godges has sold twice as well as the memoir by former U.S. President George W. Bush and nearly as well as the memoir by Rolling Stones guitarist Keith Richards at Village Books in Pacific Palisades, California, according to store owner Katie O’Laughlin.

“This was a very great turnout!” she noted merrily while tallying her receipts from Godges' November 15 discussion and reading of passages from his memoir, Oh, Beautiful: An American Family in the 20th Century. Village Books hosts three to four book events a week, but O’Laughlin said few events have drawn an audience as enthusiastic and appreciative as did that for Oh, Beautiful.

The standing-room-only crowd of about 40 people came out on a Monday night to hear Godges discuss the why, the how and the fun of writing his family memoir. He credited his parents’ 50th wedding anniversary as his inspiration, shared secrets of extracting his family’s oral history and revealed how Ellis Island helped him solve a century-old family riddle. In his readings, Godges rekindled an act of great compassion from the Great Depression, invoked The Sound of Music as an American Catholic milestone and stoked the “Fun, Fun, Fun” of a California surfer girl.

The crowd also came to toast one another with the author's Montepulciano d’Abruzzo wine. Because of either the book or the wine or perhaps both intoxicating substances, many guests were left gushing adjectives such as “wonderful,” “inspirational,” “charming” and even “whiz-bang” to describe the performance.

“It was such a soothing evening,” Godges polished off a bottle once the guests had departed. “If only the world were Village Books!”

When not appearing at book events, Godges works at the Santa Monica-based RAND Corporation as editor-in-chief of its flagship magazine, RAND Review, a position he has held since 1998. He also lives in Santa Monica.

Fourteen videos of the event at Village Books are available on the author's YouTube channel at http://www.youtube.com/user/JohnPaulGodges?feature=mhum

The author website can be found at http://www.johnpaulgodges.com

# # #

Oh, Beautiful: An American Family in the 20th Century is a courageous family memoir that explores what it means to be American.