I literally just finished reading Dog Days by Ana Marie Cox, the creator of Wonkette and original contributor to that must-read sassy political blog. The book received a lot of fanfare prior to its release and really hasn’t fulfilled all the hype and excitement. That is, if you listed to the DC political community which reads Wonkette religiously but feigns disinterest whenever the topic comes up. I’m willing to say that I loved the book. In some ways, I totally understood where the main Melanie character was coming from. I felt in the know while reading the tidbits that occurred in her life as she pinballs around campaign life, cocktail party life, and oh-so-infrequent social life.

This novel begins in the crazy post-Democratic convention period of August, and how a staffer in the Democratic campaigns careens from high to low and everywhere in-between. She’s trying to deal with the crazy right wing attacks on her candidate and her discrete but insane personal life. When the two are played together, the novel kicks into high gear. I flew through the book, though felt the ending was a bit rushed. Another 20-30 pages could have cleaned up the various plot lines with a little more depth and nuance that were very evident in the first few chapters.

I have to say, I put down the book a few nights ago, about half-way through it, so I could google up price plans for a BlackBerry! Get this book and read it, especially if you’re a political hack. Players should read it too, but I’m okay with you pretending that you wouldn’t deign to read such prattle. Read it, learn it, live it!