Running book list?

[Jennifer]

I find myself coming back to this site often. As are many of you, I'm reading Presidential books in sequential order. I want to make sure the book (or books) I choose to read on a given President is both informative and enjoyable. Many of you have great comments and thoughts; can we make a running list of notable President books to easily refer to?

[Jerry]

I would be up for contributing to that. Would we want to accomplish that on the group's bookshelf or through some other means?

[Sean]

Hi all, I'm new to this site (let alone this group!) but love reading Presidential Biographies - and always looking forward to the next one!

As Jennifer said, organising books that people recommend for a particular President would be very useful! Perhaps a dedicated discussion for each President (this is perhaps a good idea since this has already kind of started?) where people can post their book recommendations and discuss them.

Thanks a lot, really looking forward to discussing with you all.

[David]

For easy reading I would start with Ellis' bio on Washington and for Adams, the recently hot seller by McCulloch. Another reputable Adams bio was wrtitten by John Ferling. The definitive multi-volume bio for Washington was written by Douglas Southall Freeman. For Jefferson, goodness, Alexandre Dumas' multi-volume is the definitive with Burnstein and Ellis both writing excellent one volume bios. I own Ketcham's bio on James Madison but I have not done much research yet on quality bios out there for our fourth president. I hope this helps somebody.

John Adams
His Excellency: George Washington
George Washington, A Biography
Thomas Jefferson
American Sphinx: The Character of Thomas JeffersonJefferson the Virginian
John Adams: A Life
James Madison: A Biography

[Donny]

Jennifer - I am attempting to read in sequential order as well. Sometimes I go all over the place, but I feel when you go an order not only are you getting a in-depth read on each President, but you are also getting a chronological narrative on the history of The United States as well. To echo David, I recommend McCulloch's Adams - after reading def pick up a copy of HBO's Adams. Provides a nice visual history of the book. In terms of Washington, I particularly enjoyed Washington: A Life.

[John]

Anything by Ferling for the founding fathers is great. If you like intertwining stories Washington, Adams Jefferson Setting the World A Blaze is a great one. And I just finished reading Washington the First of Men really done well by Ferling. I am kind of all over the map on presidential bios because of books I have and read peaked my interest.

[Reed]

I'm wanting to read them in chronological order starting in the 20th Century. Any recommendations that are must reads for the biographies of post-1900s presidents?

[Doug]

The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt/Theodore Rex/Colonel Roosevelt by Edmund Morris
Truman by McCullough
FDR by Jean Edward Smith (also did a great book on Grant)
Coolidge: An American Enigma

Woodrow Wilson: A Biography by Hecksher - I haven't read it yet but it was highly recommended by the guides at his boyhood home.

[Nancy]

I loved Franklin and Winston by John Meacham.

[David]

I am not sure why, but I have something against Brookhiser. I think it was the "moral biography" he wrote about Washington. There was absolutely nothing new in that book, I learned absolutely zilch. That really soured me on his future work from that point.

[Jason]

I just got WAY too excited that this group exists. Thanks for creating it!

I'm starting my reading list with presidential memoirs, and then branching out to biographies of the Presidents and memoirs of staffers (Alexander Haig, Henry Kissinger and Christopher Warren are towards the top of that list).

The Washington Post published a list of the the best biographies of each president (submitted by their readers): http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/t...

Also, I've got Arthur Schlesinger's American President Series on the list as well, if only because they're about 200 pages each and I imagine that'll be a nice break from the standard 800+ page biographies/memoirs of most presidents. http://www.americanpresidentsseries.com

I'm on my 4th memoir - LBJ's Vantage Point - after finishing Bush's "Decision Points," Nixon's "RN" and Carter's "Keeping Faith." Despite the obvious faults of reading about a Presidency from the President's perspective (he uses the memoir to leave the best possible legacy) it's been great to get insight into how major decisions were made and how the President thought them out.

Best so far: LBJ's thoughts on the Kennedy assassination, Carter's excruciating struggle with the Iran hostage crisis and Nixon's secret back and forth with China before his historic visit there.

[Eric]

The Life of Andrew Jackson, by Remini is on-sale as a Kindle book for only $1.99! Here's the link: http://amzn.com/B0053JJPJ0

[Eric]

David wrote: "I am not sure why, but I have something against Brookhiser. I think it was the "moral biography" he wrote about Washington. There was absolutely nothing new in that book, I learned absolutely zil..."
I felt the same way about this book, it really felt like he just phoned it in.