Lyndon Johnson – Cannonball Read 17

Someday, He Will Be President

The Passage of Power: The Years of Lyndon Johnson by Robert Caro

August 16, 2024 by Jake Leave a Comment

Robert Caro’s Lyndon Johnson series has always been honest about what it is. Ostensibly, this is true about every biography. A book about the life of Amelia Earhart should be just that. Only, every biographer, no matter how well-intentioned, objective, clear-eyed or distant brings with them an angle. Perhaps a person was under appreciated in their time. Maybe they were overrated by the laudations of historical standard. Possibly they had a hidden back story that impacted their life. Caro has been clear that these books […]

Greatest Debilitating Body

Kill Switch: The Rise of the Modern Senate and the Crippling of American Democracy by Adam Jentleson

October 31, 2022 by Jake Leave a Comment

Read as part of CBR14 Bingo: elephant. The title has an elephant in the logo mold of the symbol of the Republican Party, which is an elephant. Also, the filibuster is the elephant in the room on why our congressional body is in stasis. Like other history/political books I read, I often judge them based on how angry they made me on each page. This one is definitely up there. Adam Jentleson, a former staffer for Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, has written a quality look on […]

Male, Pale, and Yale

The Best and the Brightest by David Halberstam

February 23, 2019 by Jake Leave a Comment

Or Harvard. Or West Point. Texas State. But the point remains: this book is about how liberal elites got us into an imperial war. I don’t know how you write a history text better than this. It has exactly what I look for in its subject’s great works: to be good, thorough, and damning. By the end of reading this, I was relieved to be done but thoroughly exhausted at the week-long endeavor, which I was only able to finish in seven days thanks to […]

Zirza on A Gothic Classic for a ReasonIt's one of those wish-you-could-read-it-again-for-the-first-time books. I loved it.
Emmalita on “It came to something when you found yourself hoping that the footsteps you heard were ghosts.”I loved the ending! I don’t think it’s been out long enough to talk about why though.
Dixie on Track Her Down by Melinda LeighI am just starting Track Her Down and I have read them all in order till now and thought I...
Roland of Gilead on How can you give us the gift of a crazy character named Rando Thoughtful and then just as suddenly take that gift away? We need to talk, Uncle Stevie.I came across this randomly years after it was written because I was searching "Random Thoughtful. But I have the...
Emmalita on “Only you, Em, would refer to heartbreak as a distraction. I think I would have a more sympathetic response if I asked to marry a bookcase.”Oh my goodness, Gallifrey was beautiful. I’m sure her mittens were gloriously murdery.

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