Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

More American Leadership

Leadership: In Turbulent Times by Doris Kearns Goodwin

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This book was a birthday gift from my sister last year and I loved it. I previously read Team of Rivals which deserves every word of praise it garners so I was excited to read another book by DKG. This book highlights four different American presidents: Abraham Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt, Franklin Roosevelt, and Lyndon Johnson. DKG points out that she is only focusing on LBJ’s civil rights policies, and avoiding his handling of the Vietnam War. I also learned that DKG was an intern for […]

White whale for a blackout (cbr12bingo 2: white whale)

Team of Rivals by Doris Kearns Goodwin

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This is a door stopper of a book at 754 pages, but I’ve read longer books quicker. I don’t read enough history, and despite my historian father being obsessed with the civil war in particular, I know the highlights and half-remembered tidbits from AP history.  Team of Rivals has been THE Lincoln book since its publication, so it seemed like a good enough place to start. So I did.  Years ago.  And this whale got beached. I’m glad I finished it, but it is a […]

Meets All the Hype

Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln by Doris Kearns Goodwin

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I wanted to read this book for years. I even bought it an Audible during a sale at one point but I put off reading it due to its length.  I was really just looking for the right time to commit to it fully. That happened this summer as my family and I moved back across the country from California to Virginia.  My wife and the kids flew as our children are really young.  I drove with the dogs and rocked out to a few […]

Stick with Doris Kearns Goodwin

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One of the issues with being a history nut (besides the fact that people tell you to get a better hobby, have you tried knitting?) is that you end up covering the same ground a lot. Normally that’s pretty interesting; I’ve read way too many books about the Roosevelts, but I’m able to glean something new from each new book. Unfortunately, sometimes you read a history book that’s decent, but it doesn’t really give you something new. Bloody Crimes: The Chase for Jefferson Davis and […]

With malice toward none, with charity for all.

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If you’ve ever asked yourself, Abraham Lincoln, what is with that guy? This is the book for you. The answer to that question is both simple and complex. It’s complex because all people are complex, and the political landscape that Lincoln navigated–although lacking 24 hour news cycles, talking heads, and loudmouthed pundits–was nevertheless a treacherous and multi-faceted one. Team of Rivals is in large part Doris Kearns Goodwin’s attempt to illustrate just exactly how it was that he navigated those treacherous waters: gaining the presidency, winning the […]

The More Things Change …

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Winner of a Pulitzer Prize for non-fiction in 1994, this history of the Roosevelts and the home front from 1939 until FDR’s death in 1945 is a meticulously researched and engaging look at both the inner workings of the White House and the changing landscape of the US economy and society during World War II. Both the Roosevelts and the American public showed themselves to be extraordinarily brilliant and sometimes terribly flawed at a critical moment in world history. Goodwin did extensive research on her […]



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