For the final email of the year, we take a break from life insurance to do a book summary where I share some of the better books I’ve read this year.
I am a history buff and also particularly enjoy biographies, so this year I decided I would embark on a project to read a biography of each president. Having read His Excellency several years ago and not wanting to tackle Chernow’s 700 plus page tome, I started with McCullough’s John Adams and got through James Garfield. I hope to finish next year.
So far, the most over rated president, or perhaps I should say the president with the most favorable reputation relative to his accomplishments is Thomas Jefferson; the most under rated. Grant. The best was, hands down, Lincoln but there was some serious competition for worst. The fact that the republic survived Filmore, Pierce, Buchanan (back to back to back!) and Andrew Johnson is a testament to the system, and bodes well for the future.
For some of the lesser known presidents, I chose biographies from Schlesinger’s The American Presidents Series. They are not great books, but the ones I read were solid. I used this site extensively, and read every review before deciding on which bio I would read.
The best non-presidential biography I read was Custer’s Trials, recommended by a reader of this newsletter. It’s unfortunate that he is remembered only for Little Big Horn, as he was a complex individual and a Civil War hero. Runner up goes to The Diving Bell and the Butterfly. I also enjoyed Saban by Monte Burke.
Against the Gods by Peter Bernstein was the best business book I read. Sub-titled The Story of Risk, it describes the conception and evolution of probability theory and the individuals who advanced it.
I was quite lax in my fiction reading this year, as I only read four novels, the best one being Gone With the Wind. While an excellent story, it is part of the “Lost Cause” genre that attempts to portray the South and its cause in a noble light. Runner-up was A Blue Afternoon, a thoroughly enjoyable story recommended by a reader.
Without a doubt the funniest book I read all year was Living With a SEAL. Written by Jesse Itzler, he hired a retired Navy SEAL to not only train him, but to move in with him and his family for a month. While laugh-out-loud funny, it also has several excellent work-out routines.
Sources of potential reading material surround us. Shane Parrish over at Farnam Street is a must read for me. Delancey Place is also excellent as is browsing in a bricks and mortar bookstore. If you have a book(s) or author(s) that you particularly enjoy, please let me know. My current reading queue is quite long so I may not get to it for a while, but highly recommended books have a way of making it to the front of the line.
There will be no emails the next two weeks, but they will resume on January 3rd.. I wish all of you the happiest of holidays, and thanks for reading.