Here are two things I approach with healthy skepticism. 1. Books written by politicians. 2. Anything said by a press person (no offense to all the great press people out there, you all know how it is). And so, when Karine Jean-Pierre, former White House press secretary to President Biden, hit the circuit this week talking about her new book, Independent: A Look Inside a Broken White House, Outside the Party Lines, there was plenty to be skeptical about.

But there was a moment in her extended interview with NPR’s Michel Martin that stood out to me. In talking about President Biden’s inability to communicate and the Democratic Party’s failures in the 2024 election, Jean-Pierre said “one of the reasons, too, I decided to become an independent and write this book, honestly, is to start this conversation.”

I’ll let the folks over on our Politics team suss out the, well, politics of this all, but when I heard that line I wondered – is this book the end product of an argument, or a vehicle to start one? For as much as we can bemoan the current state of the literary landscape, writing a book is still an attention grabber. It’s still a way to get booked on a show or podcast. It’s still a way to get your message out there. As long as your media hits are strong enough, it almost seems … beside the point whether people go out and buy the book or not. Because, ideally, now your arguments are out there in the ether.

What do you all think – is there a symbiosis between politicos writing books and, well, us in the media? Has Jean-Pierre’s press tour worked, and piqued your interest in possibly picking up the book? Let us know – bookoftheday@npr.org

Oh, and come listen to us chat about one of our favorite books – Interview With the Vampire – on our new Books We’ve Loved limited series podcast.