George W. Bush Memoir "Decision Points" Coming Nov. 9

Former President George W. Bush's memoir, "Decision Points," will include "gripping, never-before-heard detail" about the Bush presidency, according to Crown Publishers, which is releasing the book. The presidential memoir will hit bookshelves on November 9th, just days after the midterm elections.

Crown has revealed details of the book as well as its cover, which shows a pensive looking Mr. Bush, holding a briefing book, looking off into the distance while standing in the Rose Garden Colonnade. (See at left.)

"Decision Points" will be structured around 14 "critical and historic" decisions made by the former president, both political (his response to the Sept. 11 attacks and the contentions 2000 election) and personal (his decision to quit drinking and "discovery of faith").

''Since leaving the Oval Office, President Bush has given virtually no interviews or public speeches about his presidency,'' Crown said in a statement. ''Instead, he has spent almost every day writing 'Decision Points,' a strikingly personal and candid account revealing how and why he made the defining decisions in his consequential presidency and personal life.''

A source tells the Associated Press that Mr. Bush, who has indeed maintained a low-profile since leaving the White House, has finished the first draft of the book and that it is now in the editing process.

In its statement, Crown said Mr. Bush ''writes honestly and directly about his flaws and mistakes," while also discussing "his historic achievements in reforming education, providing life-saving treatments for HIV/AIDS and malaria for millions of people in Africa, safeguarding the country from another terrorist attack, and other areas.''

Continues the statement: "President Bush brings readers inside the Texas Governor's Mansion on the night of the hotly contested 2000 election; aboard Air Force One on 9/11 in the gripping hours after America's most devastating attack since Pearl Harbor; inside the Situation Room in the moments before launching the war in Iraq; and behind the Oval Office desk for his historic and controversial decisions on the financial crisis, Hurricane Katrina, Afghanistan, Iran, and other issues that have shaped the first decade of the 21st century."

Mr. Bush is planning a book tour, though details have not been released. The memoir will have a list price of $35 (though it can be had for less), and 1,000 signed and clothbound special editions will be made available $350.

Former first lady Laura Bush's memoir "Spoken from the Heart" will be released on May 4th. Former Bush adviser Karl Rove's memoir, "Courage and Consequences," was released last month, and former Vice President Dick Cheney is working on a memoir as well. That book is expected to be hit stores next year.