In a recent episode of Good Morning America, former first child Patti Davis joined host Joan Lunden to talk about her new book, Angels Don’t Die: My Father’s Gift of Faith. Davis showed aspiring self-promoters how almost any question — -even those about a dying parent — -can be turned into a plug for a book:
“How’s your dad, how’s he doing?” asked Joan.
Well, said Patti, “the same serenity, the same deep faith that I wrote about in Angels Don’t Die is what’s still so astounding in my father.”
Tell me about seeing your mother, said Joan.
“You know,” said Patti, “we just began talking and a lot, obviously, of what we talked about were past wounds, many of the things I had written about. And in the context of that, I heard myself saying, “Well, I think you should know I’ve written a new book, and I think you’ll like it.” And it’s called Angels. I hadn’t brought it over with me. I ended up giving it to her that evening.”
“Did you want to have her blessing on it?” asked Joan.
“Oh yes, I did,” said Patti. “And when I left the hotel to get it Xeroxed and bring it to her that evening, I really realized how perfect all of this was, that I needed her blessing before it was to be published.”
“Good having you back here with this book,” said Joan.
“Thank you,” replied Patti.
That same promotional shamelessness was on display in last week’s edition of Newsweek, in a cover story called “The Long Goodbye” about Reagan’s declining days, for which Patti was clearly the major source. In the course of it, a conversation between mother and daughter is recounted in which Patti wonders at the fact that her book Angels Don’t Die has reached #3 on the Christian bestseller list. This makes it the first book on that list by a writer who also posed nude in Playboy.
