In her introduction to Tweet Land of Liberty, Elinor Lipman explains how a social networking lecture inspired her incisive collection of tweets. Encouraged by a panelist, Lipman wrote her first tweet about New York's governor signing a bill legalizing same-sex marriage. "I'm twittering!" she told her son. Rising to the challenge of creating more rhyming political observations and the lure of entertaining her "fellow political junkies" led to her pledge to tweet a new political poem every day until the 2012 presidential election.
Tweet Land of Liberty contains the early highlights, beginning with her declaration: "I'm here to parse the candidates/ And be your wingman at debates." There are tweets about early Republican candidates like Michele Bachmann and Herman Cain, as well as issues including immigration, voter ID laws and the end of the military's "don't ask don't tell" policy. Headlines provide context for many of the tweets, and spare but telling graphics dot the pages.
Not all of Lipman's tweets are humorous, but unless you're a dyed-in-the-wool Republican, you're likely to find chuckles along the way. Lipman's instinct for comic verse is truly bipartisan, rhyming "Santorum" with "adore 'em" and "Barney Frank" with "witty crank." The trick for readers will be resisting read-alouds to anyone within earshot. --Cheryl Krocker McKeon, bookseller