U.S. Sen. Scott Brown signed copies of his newly released book "Against All Odds: My Life of Hardship, Fast Breaks and Second Chances" at Barnes and Noble in Holyoke.
HOLYOKE - U.S. Sen. Scott Brown drew a crowd of admirers at a book signing at Barnes and Noble on Saturday morning, during the second week of his nationwide tour.
He spent more than an hour scrawling his signature and “# 41,” a nod to his wild card 41st vote status when he was elected to the body in 2010, on his newly released tome “Against All Odds, My Life of Hardship, Fast Breaks and Second Chances.”
The Republican junior senator from Massachusetts quickly gained rock star status when he beat Attorney General Martha Coakley and Democrat in a special election for the late Sen. Edward M. Kennedy’s seat, and that appeal seemed to hold judging from the long queue of book-buyers who lined up to meet him on Saturday.
“Keep up the great work, senator!” one man said after introducing his grandson to Brown near the end of the signing.
And, it wasn’t all conservatives who came out to purchase a copy. Chicopee Mayor Michael D. Bissonnette, a Democrat, joined the crowd at the book retailer to get his signed copy.
“I’m impressed by a number of things I’ve heard him speak about, so I want to read it,” Bissonnette said. “‘It’s important for kids to know that you can rise above the challenges and the baggage .¤.¤. That sort of transcends politics.
Brown said he sat with a collaborating writer from 6 to 8 a.m. most mornings for three months, conducting taped interviews before transcribing the material and crafting the book. The story ultimately shaped up to be more of a personal than political memoir chronicling a difficult childhood and an instance of sexual abuse by a camp counselor, among other themes.
“I wanted to give people an honest account of my life - the good and the bad,” Brown said, while rapidly signing a stack of books, and commenting to a store employee: “We did OK today .¤.¤. a buck and a quarter at least, right?”
Brown said the book also includes local references during his campaign for office and “inside baseball” accounts of his political rise. He added that he believes many readers will relate to some of the subject matter in the book: broken families and finding mentors in sports and the arts, for instance.
Brown matter-of-factly noted that the book has done surprisingly well, whether due to the content or Brown’s part rock star, part folk hero, part Republican darling persona.
It was number five on the New York Times best-seller list this weekend - lagging only slightly behind former President George W. Bush’s book: “Decision Points.”