• Washington: A Life by Ron Chernow (April 2015)

• You Never Forget Your First by Alexis Coe (April 2021)

These two books have been my favorite to date. Ron Chernow set a high benchmark when I began this personal challenge, but I kept seeking out female voices. Where were all the female authors? Thank goodness for Alexis Coe who wrote a compelling and fair biography of our first president.

• First Family: Abigail and John Adams by Joseph J. Ellis (May 2015)

• Making the Presidency by Lindsay Chervinsky (January 2025)

When I was reading Chernow's Washington I kept being drawn to Abigail Adams and not her husband. Therefore, I chose a book that focuses on their relationship and not just John Adams as a president. I plan to circle around and probably pick up David McCullough's John Adams at some point.

• Thomas Jefferson: The Art of Power by Jon Meacham (June 2015)

• James Madison: The Founding Father by Robert Allen Rutland (August 2015)

• The Last Founding Father: James Monroe and a Nation's Call to Greatness by Harlow Giles Unger (September 2015)

• John Quincy Adams by Harlow Giles Unger (May 2016)

• American Lion:  Andrew Jackson in the White House by Jon Meacham (June 2016)

• Jacksonland: President Andrew Jackson, Cherokee Chief John Ross, and a Great American Land Grab by Steve Inskeep (March 2025)

• Martin Van Buren  by Ted Widmer, The American Presidents Series (August 2016)

• William Henry Harrison by Gail Collins, The American Presidents Series (September 2016)

• John Tyler by Gary May, The American Presidents Series (January 2017)

• Polk: The Man Who Transformed the American Presidency By Walter Borneman (April 2020)

• Zachary Taylor by John S.D. Eisenhower, The American Presidents Series (April 2020)

• Millard Fillmore by Paul Finkelman, The American Presidents Series (May 2020)

• Franklin Pierce by Michael F. Holt, The American Presidents Series (June 2020)

• Worst. President. Ever.: James Buchanan, The POTUS Rating Game, and the Legacy of the Least of the Lesser Presidents by Robert Strauss (June 2020)

He was... pretty awful, but is he the worst? I would disagree.

• A. Lincoln by Ronald White (August 2020)

• The Impeachers: The Trial of Andrew Johnson and the Dream of a Just Nation by Brenda Wineapple (September 2020)

Andrew Johnson, ugh!

• Grant by Ron Chernow (January 2021)

Ron Chernow does it again. This is a huge book, but well worth the read.

• Rutherford B. Hayes by Hans Trefousee, The American Presidents Series (February 2021)

• Destiny of the Republic: A Tale of Madness, Medicine and the Murder of a President by Candice Millard (February 2021)

If you can't really see yourself reading a ton of presidential biographies, but you like narrative non-fiction, this book is for you. It might be my favorite presidential book to date.

• The Unexpected President: Chester A. Arthur by Scott Greenberger (April 2021)

When James Garfield was assassinated in 1881 Chester Arthur stepped up into the role and didn't win a re-election. He didn't even really put his heart into it because he knew he was dying of Bright's Disease. He died just a few years after his term in office.

Arthur is best known for taking on civil service reform during his brief presidency. This came as a surprise after exploiting the very same system and becoming a very rich man. I found myself a bit fond of him for this reason. 

• The President Is a Sick Man: Wherein the Supposedly Virtuous Grover Cleveland Survives a Secret Surgery at Sea and Vilifies the Courageous Newspaperman Who Dared Expose the Truth by Matthew Algeo  (May 2021)

What a title, right? While Cleveland is the main topic of this book it also covers many aspects of life at the end of the 19th century. In particular, it looks at journalism and the different newspapers of the time. Really interesting read and I appreciated the wider lens.

• Benjamin Harrison by Charles W. Calhoun, The American Presidents Series (June 2021)

This remains one of my least favorite books. I felt the author meandered from point to point and sometimes didn't bother wrapping up his initial idea.

• The President and the Assassin: McKinley, Terror, and the Empire at the Dawn of the American Century by Scott Miller (June 2021)

More than just a presidential biography, this book takes a wider view of the time McKinley served as president. 

• Mornings on Horseback: The Story of an Extraordinary Family, a Vanished Way of Life, and the Unique Child Who Became Theodore Roosevelt by David McCullough (September 2021) 

This book focuses solely on Theodore Roosevelt's childhood and young adulthood. It never touches his presidency, so if you choose to read this one you will need to follow up with a separate book focusing on that aspect of his life. That being said, I have no regrets about starting with this one. I enjoyed learning about Theodore's family, especially his father and his sister Bamie. 

• The Bully Pulpit: Theodore Roosevelt, William Howard Taft, and the Golden Age of Journalism by Doris Kearns Goodwin (October 2021)

See William Howard Taft for review.

• River of Doubt by Candice Millard (November 2021)
  
  After losing his bid for re-election in 1912, Teddy Roosevelt and his son went down to Brazil and embarked on an expedition to go down the Rio da Duvida, also known as the River of Doubt. Its co-leader was the explorer, and military officer, Cândido Rondon.

Everything that could go wrong went wrong on this trip. Roosevelt severely underestimated the dangers of the Brazilian rainforest and nearly got himself and his son killed. It did kill members of the expedition. This actually might have been a boring book in lesser hands but Millard did a great job of infusing the narrative with the history of Brazil and the ecology of the rainforest. She also spends a good amount of time analyzing many of the party members and not just Roosevelt. The story truly came to life and made you feel like you knew the people and the setting of the rainforest.

• The Bully Pulpit: Theodore Roosevelt, William Howard Taft, and the Golden Age of Journalism by Doris Kearns Goodwin (October 2021)
  
  The Bully Pulpit takes off right where Mornings on Horseback leaves off. Theodore Roosevelt is remarried and starting his prominent political career. At the same time this book introduces William Howard Taft, a large, thoughtful man whose greatest ambition is to be a Supreme Court Judge.

Their personalities could not have been more different. Roosevelt was larger than life. He loved the spotlight and power. Taft was very cerebral. But fate threw them both on a course that changed the Republican and Democrat parties forever. Roosevelt was made President after McKinley was assassinated and Taft served in his cabinet. When Roosevelt's time in office was up he hand picked Taft to succeed him. Taft ended up being more conservative and less effective than Roosevelt and they ended up running against each other in 1912. It's a sad ending to their friendship and both lose after splitting the ticket.

Even though this book was 900+ pages I was pretty sad to finish it. Doris Kearns Goodwin is an excellent writer and the pacing and storytelling in this book is superb.

• Woodrow Wilson: A Biography by John Milton Cooper (December 2021)

Oh, Woodrow Wilson. I finished this book thinking I would never have voted for this guy and then it occurred to me I couldn't have voted at all. He's the last president before white women gained the right to vote in 1920.* 1920! After reading 28+ presidential biographies it seems crazy that I couldn't have voted for any of them.

Anyways, Woodrow Wilson. This was a pretty fair assessment of him, although I remember at one point the author compares him to a "dying star" at the end of his presidency and I had to laugh. He's really the most academic president of them all. He was a college professor and president of Princeton before throwing his hat into politics. He spent a lot of his administration hammering out banking and anti-trust legislation.

He led the US in and out of WWI but never got the US to ratify the League of Nations. This wasn't helped by the fact that he suffering a stroke with more than a year left in office AND HE STAYED IN OFFICE. He absolutely should have resigned but was propped up by those around him, including the Vice President who definitely knew the extent of his condition.

Wilson was also a racist. He supported segregation and prevented Black men from entering Princeton while he was president of the university. (Women weren't even admitted until 1963!) He wasn't that progressive about women either, though he was in favor of women's right to vote. He spent time teaching at a women's college and you could just tell he thought men were intellectually superior and couldn't wait to teach at a "real" university. 🙄

• The Teapot Dome Scandal: How Big Oil Bought the Harding White House and Tried to Steal the Country by Laton McCartney  (January 2022)

Murder, corruption, and blackmail. The Warren G. Harding administration had it all. This is why it's so surprising that more Harding biographies don't exist. I selected this one because while Harding is thoroughly discussed I wanted a wider lens regarding the scandal at the center of it all: the Teapot Dome Scandal.

I felt like this book should have been more captivating than it really was and even now I'm not sure I have a handle on all the intricacies of what occurred. Harding is depicted as a puppet president controlled by stronger powers, which gave him time to focus on what he really wanted to do - drink and carry on affairs. (Which resulted in a love child and the aforementioned blackmail.)

A so-so read. In better hands this could actually be really interesting. I bet this would also make for a really good dramatic TV series. Maybe I better get cracking on the screenplay before someone else gets to it first. 😂

• Coolidge by Amity Shlaes (January 2022)

Calvin Coolidge, or Silent Cal as he was known, was the 30th President of the US. He was an accidental president to begin with and was Vice President when Harding died in office. He won his second term and...yeah. He's... well, he's kind of just silent. 🤷‍♀️

I kept imagining what I'd add to this review to give a sense of who he was as a man but honestly he was kind of a fussy person. His main contributions and battles centered around cutting the federal budget and lowering taxes. (For this reason he's become something of a conservative darling in recent times and the author is married to the owner of a conservative newspaper.) If you're a finance nerd you might appreciate this book but I am not so parts of this felt like a slog.

The thing I will say for Coolidge is that he was the opposite of Harding. He didn't want to touch scandal with a ten foot pole whereas Harding seemed endlessly mired in it. Coolidge was also a devout family man. He lost his youngest son on the eve on being re-elected and you can tell it just shattered his world. In that respect I felt the author did a good job of peeking behind the curtain of Coolidge's inscrutable nature.

• Herbert Hoover by Glen Jeansonne (February 2022)

I closed this book feeling very annoyed. The author and historian of this book really loved his subject and passionately railed against those that would criticize Herbert Hoover. I feel like he spent a large amount of the book defending Hoover rather than presenting Hoover through facts and primary accounts.

The funny thing is that had Hoover never been President he probably would have gone down in history as an admirable man. He was an orphan who rose high and spent his young adulthood as an international businessman in Australia and China. During WWI he organized food and aid relief in Belgium and helped feed Europe after war had ceased. He worked in both the Wilson and Coolidge administrations as head of the US Food Administration and later as Secretary of Commerce.

Hoover was then elected in 1929 and only served one term thanks to his mishandling of the Great Depression, but to hear Jeansonne tell it you would have never thought Hoover made a single mistake. It was so overtly pro-Hoover that it made me question the integrity of the information presented.

Ugh. Pick any book but this one if you want to learn about Hoover's presidency.

• No Ordinary Time: Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt: The Home Front in World War II by Doris Kearns Goodwin (March 2022)

Franklin Delano Roosevelt was elected President of the US four times. He was the longest serving president before presidential term limits were amended to be a maximum of two consecutive terms. He's best known for his New Deal policies and leading the country during WWII. He died in office shortly before the war ended.

And yet, for all that, he wasn't the most interesting thing about this book.

That honor belongs to his wife, Eleanor Roosevelt. Eleanor was a tour de force, and while I vaguely knew about her work for civil rights, women's rights, and human rights, I really didn't know about her as a person or her relationship with FDR. I was therefore surprised to learn how closed off FDR really was. I think I expected him to be like his cousin (and Eleanor's uncle) Teddy Roosevelt. Though FDR and Eleanor appeared to respect one another, they were very different people. FDR also conducted at least one physical affair, and I think they both had emotional ones.

No Ordinary Time concentrates on FDR and Eleanor's days during WWII. While I appreciated this deeper dive into their White House days, it did make me want to explore other time periods in their lives. In particular, I think I'm going to find a biography about Eleanor and learn more about her post-war efforts.

• Truman by David McCullough (July 2022)

Clocking in at 1,100+ pages, Truman was a big undertaking, but it actually flew by rather quickly. Its author, David McCullough, has the gift of telling an expansive story without making it feel like a slog. He places you within the time period and makes you understand the culture and technology of the day. He’s also exceedingly fair. While I think he had a lot of admiration for Truman the man, he held him accountable for his shortcomings and failures.

Truman’s presidency encompasses huge and controversial topics too nuanced for a single Instagram post. He oversaw the end of WW2 and approved dropping nuclear bombs on Japan. He was there for the founding of the UN and recognized the state of Israel. His presidency kicked off the Cold War and he was widely unpopular for US involvement in the Korean War. He desegregated the military and addressed civil rights issues but continued to uphold racist ideas and language. Lastly, he fought for progressive policies and systems but never succeeded in having them pass through a Conservative Congress. It’s a complicated legacy to be sure and I thought McCullough did a good job untangling all the various threads.

• Harry Truman's Excellent Adventure: The True Story of a Great American Road Trip by Matthew Algeo (July 2022)

Okay, hear me out. I know I just finished a 1,100+ page book on Harry S. Truman. Like, what the f*** else is there to learn about him? Before you think I’ve gone crazy, I knew I had to pick this one up because I really like the author, Matthew Algeo.

Algeo wrote an excellent book about President Grover Cleveland undergoing mouth surgery at sea AND NO ONE KNEW. I still marvel at that book so I knew I needed to pick this one up. This one is about Truman and his wife taking a road trip post-Presidency. (Not as dramatic as surgery at sea, but oh well.)

Algeo makes the excellent point that US Presidents didn’t retire with million-dollar retirement packages at the time. Truman had an Army pension and that was about it. They also weren’t given any Secret Service protection so Harry and Bess were on their own. What follows is a pretty delightful romp that Algeo himself retraces in modern times. After such a serious examination of Truman, it felt like a nice palate cleanser.

• When Harry Met Pablo by Matthew Algeo (October 2023)

• Eisenhower in War and Peace by Jean Edward Smith (July 2022)

I’ve been chronologically reading presidential biographies since about 2015 and it dawned on me while reading my latest about Dwight D. Eisenhower that I’ve made it far enough along that he is the first president that my parents were alive for. These biographies are starting to shift from the historical to the modern and the issues of their day can be felt even now, though of course it’s all related.

Anyways, to read a book about Eisenhower is really to read a book about WWII. I knew this going in but it reaffirmed that I’m not a great lover of military history. I am interested in war-related stories but my eyes glaze over at battle strategy. Ike was a military man through and through and he’s best known for becoming a five-star general (General of the Army) and the first Supreme Allied Commander Europe. He oversaw Operation Overlord, which would ultimately free France and swing the war toward victory for the Allies.

His military life makes up roughly 65% of this book and it’s probably the most interesting part. (I would find myself commiserating with his wife as a fellow military spouse.) His presidency is honestly less interesting and the book focuses mainly on his foreign policy, which is actually pretty much what he focused on. He grapples with the Korean War, Chinese relations, and the start of the Cold War with the Soviet Union. Civil Rights are disappointingly given little room by the author.

The author concludes that Eisenhower was a hard man to know and after finishing this book I can see why. With some presidents you have a pretty good feeling of who they were and what they stood for. It’s hard to understand what drove Eisenhower beyond a deep sense of duty, but it’s definitely that sense of duty that helped us and our allies win the war. 

• An Unfinished Life: John F. Kennedy, 1917-1963 by Robert Dallek (June 2022)

John F. Kennedy is a pretty beloved president so I was looking forward to picking up a Kennedy biography. There are plenty to choose from, but I went with Robert Dallek because he seemed to offer up the most unbiased critique. The man Dallek depicts in this book is not one I was expecting to find, but honestly other than his assassination I knew little about the real Kennedy.

Kennedy was born into a large Catholic family. His father, Joe, grew to be wealthy and eventually became an Ambassador under FDR. Joe pushed his children, particularly his sons, towards political aspirations. JFK’s oldest brother was on track to pursue presidential ambitions but was killed during WWII. After his brother’s death, and after JFK also served in the war, he then started on his own path to the White House. He was successful in 1960 until his untimely murder in 1963.

There’s a lot more to the story than that of course, but what stands out in this book is just how ill Kennedy really was. He was constantly hospitalized during his youth and health problems continued to plague his adulthood. He was finally diagnosed with Addison’s disease in 1947 but this was not known during his lifetime and really only came to be known because of Dallek’s research. Because of so many health problems, Kennedy was in a lot of pain and the drugs he took were pretty extensive.

Another aspect of Kennedy’s character that I only vaguely knew about was his sex addiction. The book calls it womanizing and I’m pretty sure if I did a search on how many times Dallek used that word in the book it would number in the thousands. (Kidding. Maybe.) Dallek kind of writes it off as a product of the time and Kennedy’s live fast and die young mentality, but was it?

• Lyndon Johnson and the American Dream: The Most Revealing Portrait of a President and Presidential Power Ever Written by Doris Kearns Goodwin (September 2022)

Lyndon B. Johnson took over the Oval Office after the assassination of John F. Kennedy in 1963. Until that point he had been a powerful Senator from Texas. This book spends a fair amount of time examining how Johnson accumulated power at every level of government and what a formidable ally or enemy he could be.

There’s a lot that occurs during the 1960s and there’s not enough space to get into it all in a short blog post. LBJ called his domestic agenda the “Great Society”. Medicare and Medicaid were created. Civil Rights and Voting Acts were signed into law. Communism and the Vietnam War loomed over everything. LBJ’s administration is both praised for making social progress and criticized for its role in international conflicts.

This book was unique in that the author had worked with Johnson during his lifetime. She was able to give insight into Johnson’s somewhat bombastic character that I think few other authors could. For all that, there’s A LOT of armchair psychology woven into the narrative that I didn’t always feel was necessary. It made the book drag for me. This is Goodwin’s first major work, and she’s become one of my go-to authors for historical books, but this book wasn’t my favorite of hers.

• Richard Nixon: The Life by John A. Farrell (February 2023)

Is it weird to say I was looking forward to reading about ol’ Tricky Dick? Probably. Prior to reading this book I only had a vague notion about what Watergate was all about. (Thanks American public education.) I only knew that it ousted Nixon from office and that he left office aboard a helicopter. ✌🏻

Richard Nixon is the only president to resign from office. Love or hate his politics, but ultimately he’s deemed not a great president by history because he got caught condoning illegal activities by his administration. He only avoided jail time because his successor pardoned him.

So who was the man? If this well researched and balanced biography is to be believed then Nixon was a man who always felt insecure. He came from humble beginnings in California and never got over the sense that others judged and looked down on him. Even after a successful career that spanned from the Navy to the White House, Nixon always felt he wasn’t given his due and this resonated with the “silent majority” that we’re still talking about today. Had he not been caught I wonder if he would be more of a Republican darling today.

In any case I thought this was a well written account of the man and the times he lived in. His political career spanned over a very interesting time in American history, which included the Vietnam War and the conclusion of the space race with Russia. Domestically, Nixon contended with the Civil Rights movement and the counterculture of the 60s/70s. He died in 1994 after mostly staying out of the public eye post-presidency.

• An Ordinary Man: The Surprising Life and Historic Presidency of Gerald R. Ford by Richard Norton Smith (April 2023)

The title of this presidential biography would have you believe that Gerald Ford was ordinary, but of course, he wasn’t because he became Vice President and then President of the United States. The abnormal part is that he was never elected to either position.

Gerald Ford’s presidency is inextricably linked with that of Richard Nixon’s. Ford had been a member of the House of Representatives and had risen to Minority Leader. When Spiro Agnew resigned in disgrace he became Vice President under Nixon. When Nixon also resigned in disgrace he became the 38th President. He ran on his own merits for a second term but lost to Jimmy Carter.

Ford’s bid for re-election was hampered by his decision to pardon Richard Nixon. He said he did it to heal the nation and restore trust in public office. Whether he was sincere or not is up for debate but it certainly didn’t win him any favours in 1976.

As for the book itself, I really enjoyed this hefty biography. It was very readable and flew by at a nice pace. I’ve read 40+ presidential books at this point and this one has catapulted into my top 10.

• A Full Life: Reflections at Ninety by Jimmy Carter (May 2023)

• His Very Best: Jimmy Carter, A Life by Jonathan Alter (June 2023)

Carter is perhaps best known for his long-time post-presidential career as a human rights advocate and builder of houses for Habitat for Humanity. Prior to his presidency he served in the Navy, operated a peanut farm, and eventually got into politics as a Senator and Governor of Georgia. For all that, he was seen as a long shot when he ran in 1976 for president. But win he did.

This was the first time I made it a point to read both a biography and a memoir. It was really interesting to see what Carter himself had to say about the events written about in Alter’s book. I thought Alter was a fair biographer. He painted a less rosy picture than Carter sometimes did, but it was valuable to read why Carter made the decisions he did.

• Reagan: An American Journey by Bob Spitz (July 2023)

Ronald Reagan. The darling of modern day Republicans. Former actor. Reaganomics. That’s essentially all I knew of Reagan before picking up this biography. Reagan was president when I was born so I have zero memories of him, though I’m fairly sure my mom voted for him.

Reagan had a large and interesting life. He was the son of an alcoholic salesman who eventually moved to Hollywood to pursue acting. He had a fairly successful career. He wasn’t the biggest star, or else he might not have turned to politics, but he definitely had name recognition and star power.

Reagan’s turn into politics began about the time he was president of the Screen Actors Guild. His movie career had begun to take a nose dive, but he was an effective orator (plus a rich white dude) and these things led him to trying his hand at politics. He changed parties in 1962 and won the governorship in 1966.

Fast forward to 1980 and Reagan trounced Carter for the presidency. George HW Bush was his VP. There’s lots to be said about Reagan as President but not enough room in an IG post. There’s the Iran-Contra affair, PATCO, tax cuts galore, an attempted assassination, and Nancy. If you’re interested in the politics of the 1980s then this is an interesting lens through which to view it.

Reagan was a two term president who died in 2004 from Alzheimer’s complications. For half the country he’s a conservative political hero. The other progressive half (to include me) dislike him, his policies, and his impact on global issues.

In the grand scheme of history, Reagan hasn’t been gone that long. That makes it hard to find non-partisan biographies, which has been my goal for this reading challenge. I thought this book was well researched and readable. I found it fair and discerning in both its criticisms and praise of a divisive historical figure.

• Destiny and Power: The American Odyssey of George Herbert Walker Bush by Jon Meacham (August 2023)

George HW Bush was Reagan’s VP and essentially extended the Reagan era another 4 years. He’s probably best known for overseeing the Gulf War. He was a one term president who lost to Clinton in 1992. He’s also, of course, George W’s father.

Once again I turned to Pulitzer Prize winner Jon Meacham. I had previously read his books on Thomas Jefferson and Andrew Jackson. Meacham is good at what he does, and this book was no exception, but I did feel like it was a pretty rosy account of who, to me, seems like a fairly unremarkable leader. Meacham spent a lot of time interviewing Bush for this biography, and I wonder if that influenced how it was written. How could it not? Bush died in 2018 at the age of 94.

• My Story by Bill Clinton (November 2023)

The book I want to read about Bill Clinton for my #presidentialreadingchallenge doesn’t exist yet. Throughout this entire reading endeavour I’ve tried to find well researched, non-partisan biographies that cover the president’s entire life and career. Everything I looked at was very much partisan and/or only covered aspects of the life he is still very much living.

So because I’d like to finish the presidential reading challenge this year, I turned to Clinton’s memoirs. My Life is written like a true politician’s memoir in that it is easily digestible, but not always forthcoming. To me, who was just a kid when he was in office, Clinton writes with intelligence and affability, but definitely keeps his audience at a distance.

I think Clinton’s presidency is hard to gauge at this point, or at least I closed the book with mixed emotions. He was successful in some aspects. I think it can be argued he ushered in economic stability. He signed FMLA into law. Some of it was misguided, like his Crime Bill. And then there’s the very bad like DOMA, and, of course, the issue that he will probably always be best known for: the Clinton-Lewinsky scandal.

Clocking in at nearly 1,000 pages, there’s much more I didn’t cover in this short synopsis. It will be interesting to see how history remembers Bill Clinton.

• Bush by Jean Edward Smith (January 2024)

• Dream From My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance by Barack Obama (March 2012, January 2024)

• A Promised Land by Barack Obama (January 2024)

• What Were We Thinking? by Carlos Lazada (January 2024)

• Joe Biden: The Life, the Run, and What Matters Now by Evan Osnos (February 2024)

• In the Shadow of Liberty: The Hidden History of Slavery, Four Presidents, and Five Black Lives by Kenneth C. Davis (October 2016)

• Never Caught: The Washingtons' Relentless Pursuit of Their Runaway Slave, Ona Judge by Erica Armstrong Dunbar (May 2021)

• The Other Madisons: The Lost History of a President's Black Family by Bettye Kearse (June 2022)

• What Happened by Hillary Clinton (September 2017)

• Becoming by Michelle Obama (November 2018)

• Assassination Vacation by Sarah Vowell (December 2015)

• Partly Cloudy Patriots by Sarah Vowell (2010, February 2021)

• The Only Plane in the Sky: An Oral History of 9/11 by Garrett M. Graff  (May 2021)

While I wouldn't call Sarah Vowell a presidential biographer, her smart and funny writing centers around them a lot. Assassination Vacation looks at the lives and impact of three of our assassinated presidents, Lincoln, Garfield, and McKinley. Highly recommended.

The Only Plane in the Sky is a painful book to read, but it gives some insight into George W. Bush's actions during and after the 9/11 attacks.