From the corner of the Oval

In 2012, Beck Dorey-Stein was just scraping by in DC when a posting on Craigslist landed her, improbably, in the Oval Office as one of Barack Obama's stenographers. For five years, Beck was a part of the elite team of men and women who accompanied the president wherever he went, recorder and mic in hand. She got to know everyone from the White House butler to the secret servicemen, advance team, speechwriters, photographers, and press secretaries. On whirlwind trips across time zones, she forged friendships with a tight group of fellow travelers in the bubble -- young men and women who, like her, left their real lives behind to hop aboard Air Force One in service of the president. But as she learned the ropes of protocol, Beck became romantically entangled with one of the President's closest aides, who was already otherwise engaged ... Set against the backdrop of the White House, this is the story of a young woman finding friends, falling in love, getting her heart broken, finding her voice as a writer, and finding herself in the process.

"A memoir"--Cover.

Guidelines for aspiring stenographers -- Prologue : This place -- Act I: 2011-2012 : Connecting the dots ; Welcome to the neighborhood ; Pool days ; Vagiants ; The circus ; In the name of feminism ; Paradise, party of one ; Dream big dreams ; The scampering strategist ; Look up ; Gutted -- Act II: 2013 : Get where you're going ; Hope and change ; Chasing the sun ; The knots in our laces ; Triangles of light ; Don't drink the water ; Bloopers ; Living the dream ; We just try to get our paragraph right -- Act III: 2014 : Split right down the middle ; Scar tissue ; If prayer were made of sound ; The girl who has everything ; Triple bogey ; Do the math ; I believe in hope ; Sinking -- Act IV: 2015 : Lonely at the top ; The path ahead ; Get up, stand up ; Imitations of intimacy ; Amazing grace ; Go toward the good ; Swann song ; Singles, doubles, and strikeouts ; We will not be terrorized -- Act V: 2016-2017 : Don't blow it ; Back in the game ; The upside down ; Black-tie disguise ; All is fair ; Welcome to thirty ; Pulse ; Turn and face the strange ; Slam-dunk the outside shot ; Quit this shit ; The sun will come out ; It's about the work ; Mahalo ; You can't keep the end from ending …