Bookshelf

Alexander Hamilton by Ron Chernow is a terrific book. I loved reading it. I hauled a copy to the Nike factory in Wilsonville, Oregon when I was called to work, before the company shuttered it and moved operations to Memphis. Obviously, I did not go with them. Ever since working there, my esteem for the company has evaporated. Like so many others, Nike is a bloated, spoiled, corrupt business. But I digress. Back to books!

I have been a fan of Edgar Allen Poe since middle school, when I read The Tell-Tale Heart. I wrote a few stories of my own inspired by him and his work. His life story is a sad one.

Another author I greatly admire is Arthur Conan Doyle. His Sherlock Holmes tales have entertained me for years.

Though like Chernow’s Hamilton it is lengthy, The Rise and Fall of the American Whig Party: Jacksonian Politics and the Onset of the Civil War, is well written and easy to read. I first read it years ago. The prose helped me understand this period of American history much better than I had before.

I am of the opinion that every American should read the autobiography of Frederick Douglass. It has a remarkable narrative, and it is a true story.