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Wonder what the Presidential candidates are reading during the homestretch of the campaign? Today's New York Times takes a look at the final days of the Obama campaign and reveals the Presidential hopeful's book of the moment.

"In the last days on the trail, he is finishing Ghost Wars: The Secret History of the C.I.A., Afghanistan and Bin Laden, and taking an occasional glance at US Weekly. He reads at least two newspapers a day, vigilantly checks his BlackBerry for updates on early voting tallies and browses briefing books."

—New York Times, For the complete article click here.

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I suppose all readers have come across these from time to time-books that stick, books that jab internal sore spots we don't know we have. I'm guessing that's why we tear up without reason, flare up when we haven't been wronged. We're just taking our own sweet time, turning the pages, sipping our tea, and wham. We're blind-sided by some truth that picks the scab off an emotion that never really healed.

It's kind of like waking up after a hard day's work. We discover, in painful ways, muscles we didn't know we had. Same deal.

I certainly bump into these books-books that hurt. But I never imagined I'd write one. Writing was always my escape from pain, not my portal into it. Jerk, California, the story of a young man who struggles with both his Tourette Syndrome and the losses in his life, changed that.

My experience with Tourette's was a painful one, my journey to self-acceptance full of potholes and detours. I guess that's why my debut novel takes the form of a road-trip. It had to. For me, there was no other way to write it-no other way to express the feelings I had. This book hurt to write.