Pairing Books with Musicals: American Lion

American Lion

Andrew Jackson in the White House

by Jon Meacham

★★★★

In recent years I’ve learned that I love a good biography. Presidential bios are particularly interesting because I think it takes a specific kind of person to want to be in such a lauded and attacked position of power. American Lion has been on my radar for a while and it didn’t disappoint.

Jackson broke the mold of presidents at that time. He was a fighter, a pioneer, a country boy, the opposite of the elite group of founding fathers in New England. I think he rivals Teddy Roosevelt for the title of most badass president of all time. At one point he was shot in the chest during a duel and he kept fighting!

He was more astute than most people gave him credit for. His critics often focused on his temper and stubborn nature, but he seemed to know when to back down or be cordial if he would benefit from it. He was fiercely loyal to his family and friends, at times to a fault. I thought it was interesting that even hundreds of years ago, the presidential office was filled with scandal and petty fights, etc. That was nothing new in the 20th century.

Jackson had his own moral code and he stuck by it. There are certainly some dark spots during his tenure as president, especially the trail of tears, which was created by his policy even if it was enacted in another president's term. Just like any other president, there were both good decisions and bad, and I’m sure that it’s much easier for us to judge them with hindsight.

BOTTOM LINE: Jackson was such an interesting president! Also, I’ll keep reading whatever Meacham chooses to write. He’s up there on my list of must read nonfiction authors with Erik Larson, Mary Roach, Bill Bryson, and a few others. I didn’t love this one as much as the author’s biography ofThomas Jefferson, but I think that has more to do with my fascinating with Jefferson. 

“I was born for a storm and a calm does not suit me.”

Pairing Books with Musicals: I’ve never paired a book with a musical before, and a presidential biography isn’t the obvious place to start, but I think this is a perfect fit. My first real glimpse into Jackson’s life was through the musical Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson, which is fantastic. It turned Jackson’s wild life into a fun rock ’n’ roll theatre piece. Following that same trend, there’s now a musical about Hamilton’s life on Broadway. It stars Lin-Manuel Miranda who also created “In the Heights”! Anyway, I’m dying to see it, especially after finishing American Lion.

Top Ten New-To-Me Authors I Read In 2013

This week's Top Ten from The Broke and the Bookish asks Top Ten New-To-Me Authors I Read In 2013. The following are all new ones I was thrilled to discover. I’ve already got a second book or two in the queue for 2014 from some of them.

1) Erin Morgenstern (The Night Circus)

2) Olive Ann Burns (Cold Sassy Tree)

3) Madeline Miller (Song of Achilles)

4) Carol Rifka Brunt (Tell the Wolves I’m Home)

5) Veronica Roth (Divergent trilogy)

6) Maria Semple (Where’d You Go, Bernadette?)

7) Laurie R. King (The Beekeeper’s Apprentice)

8) Jon Meacham (Thomas Jefferson Biography)

9) Elizabeth Wein (Code Name Verity)

10) Jeannette Haien (The All of It)

Thomas Jefferson: The Art of Power

Thomas Jefferson

The Art of Power

by Jon Meacham

★★★★☆

Thomas Jefferson has always fascinated me more than any other politician and most other men. He was an inventor, an avid reader, and a brilliant writer. He started a college, helped America gain independence and then served as the Vice President and then President. He loved wine, travel (especially to France) and staying active. He built an incredible home and gardens. He was a good friend and host, a loyal husband and loving father and grandfather.

Meacham paints Jefferson’s life in broad strokes. From his early days when he become the man of the house after losing his father at the tender age of 14; to his days as President when our country doubled in size thanks to the Louisiana Purchase.

Jefferson’s wife died young after bearing him too many children too quickly. Though he was only in his 30s, he made a promise never to remarry, which he kept. Later he had a relationship that lasted for decades with a slave, Sally Hemings, who was actually his wife’s half sister.

One thing I learned from the book is that American politics have changed very little in the past 200 years. There were people that thought America was going to hell because Jefferson was elected. Others thought that Adams would be its downfall. There always seems to be someone willing to do something dirty for politics and others who are truly trying to further the interests of the country as a whole. It’s good to have some perspective, things are rarely as bad as we think.

(The text inscribed on the interior walls of the Jefferson Memorial)

BOTTOM LINE: This is such a well-done biography. It’s fair and honest. It doesn’t shy away from tough issues, but it doesn’t needlessly focus on them. It is a portrait of the life of an incredible man. The only reason this is a 4.5 instead of a 5 is because I have never felt the desire to re-read a biography. I only give 5 stars to books I know I will re-read.

“He loved… ‘the ineffable luxury of being the owner of my own time.’”

Jefferson’s Musing on Libraries:

“I have often thought that nothing would do more extensive good at small expense than the establishment of a small circulating library in every county; to consist of a few well-chosen books to be leant to the people of the county under such regulations as would secure their safe return in due time.”

Wonderful Advice from Jefferson:

1) Never put off to tomorrow what you can do today.

2) Never trouble another with what you can do yourself.

3) Never spend your money before you have it.

4) Never buy a thing you do not want, because it is cheap, it will be dear to you.

5) Take care of your cents: Dollars will take care of themselves.

6) Pride costs us more than hunger, thirst and cold.

7) We never repent of having eaten too little.

8) Nothing is troublesome that one does willingly.

9) How much pain have cost us the evils which have never happened.

10) Take things always by their smooth handle.

11) Think as you please, and so let others, and you will have no disputes.

12) When angry, count 10, before you speak; if very angry, 100.

Photos by moi.

Undaunted Courage

Undaunted Courage

by Stephen E. Ambrose

★★★★☆

This sat on my shelf for years until a recent road trip out west sparked my interest in Lewis and Clark’s famous trip. This nonfiction account of Meriwether Lewis and William Clark’s incredible journey covers everything from the earliest planning stages to the final attempts at publishing the journals from the trip.

Written by the revered author of Band of Brothers, the book reads like a novel at many points. The men encountered Native American tribes (both hostile and friendly), diseases, wild animals, vicious turns in weather and a myriad of other obstacles to complete their goal. 

They traveled across the majority of the United States to reach the far west coast with canoes and horses as their only form of transportation. That alone is impressive, but then you realize that they also gathered and inventories dozens of new animal and plant species along the way. They worked on mapping out the entire area that they traveled along while also gathering new scientific data and establishing trade routes.

The project was a goal of Thomas Jefferson’s and when he became the president he began to put his plan into action. The book mainly focuses on Lewis’ life, his struggles and his role in blazing the trail out west. He was a brilliant, but troubled man and this trip was both the greatest and hardest endeavor of his life.

BOTTOM LINE: One of my favorite nonfiction books of the year. I know that traveling out west this fall certainly prompted my reading this book, but I think I would have loved it regardless of that. I learned so much about the individuals behind the trip and the sheer scope of what they accomplished. I highly recommend if you’re a fan of US History or just great nonfiction stories of accomplishment.

p.s. While in Montana we visited the Lewis and Clark Interpretive Center and the photos above are from those exhibits.

Reading the States: Virginia

State: VIRGINA 

Fiction:

- The Known World* by Edward P. Jones

- Hour Game by David Baldacci

- Big Stone Gap by Adriana Trigiani
- The Confessions of Nat Turner by William Styron

- Bridge to Terabithia* by Katherine Paterson

- The Kitchen House by Kathleen Grissom

- Meet Felicity: An American Girl* by Valerie Tripp
- Lie Down in the Darkness by William Styron

- Against the Country by Ben Metcalf

Nonfiction:

- Animal, Vegetable, Miracle* by Barbara Kingsolver

- Notes on the State of Virginia by Thomas Jefferson

- Battle of Cedar Creek by Theodore Mahr

- Pilgrim at Tinker Creek by Annie Dillard

- American Slavery, American Freedom by Edmund S. Morgan

Authors Known for Writing in or about the State:

- Patricia Cornwell

- Rita Mae Brown

- Thomas Jefferson

Authors Who Lived Here:
- V. C. Andrews

- Willa Cather

- David Baldacci

- Tom Wolfe

Great Bookstores:
Blue Plate Books

Books and Co.

Chapters Bookshop

Book People

Fountain Bookstore

*Books I've Read

Photo by moi.