The Dark Side of Camelot. Seymour Hersh.
Hersh is back in the news because his New Yorker article was a big factor in breaking the Iraqi prison abuse story. Perhaps because of this, his 1997 book about Kennedy was on display in the Schipol airport so I grabbed a copy. Those who decry liberal media bias(1) will certainly enjoy all the dirt Hersh digs on one of the most famous Democrats. After reading the book I had to do some research to find out that Hersh is generally considered to have discredited himself with this book, making extreme claims on flimsy evidence in his drive to find the dirtiest truth possible. I think that overstates the case; at a minimum, he has plenty of people on record describing how extreme Kennedy's sex addiction was and (ok, here he starts stretching) how it may have impacted policy. More meaningful and damning were the description of Kennedy's mob ties, out-bribing of Stevenson in the West Virginia primary, and out-dirty-tricking Nixon in Chicago among other places.

An example of a weaker claim is

1. In 1962 Kennedy's defense secretary Robert McNamara awarded the TFX contract to General Dynamics over Boeing, even though Boeing's entry had won all four rounds of competition.
2. The FBI reported that the two sons of the head of security at General Dynamics broke into an LA woman's home and may have planted bugs
3. The LA woman was Kennedy's mistress

Hersh suggests that General Dynamics blackmailed Kennedy to select them. An alternate, simpler suggestion is that Kennedy was just giving pork to Texas.

In any event, it's a very entertaining and readable book and it gives a lot of perspective to mid-20th century American politics.

The Piano Tuner. Daniel Mason.
I thought about putting it down in the first few pages because the writing is a bit precious, but the voicing grew on me. Usually. To the extent there was a plot, I liked it. The fawning over Burma got to be a bit much.

1. As we all know, it's actually a bias towards making a profit and serving corporate masters.