Alexander Hamilton – Ron Chernow

It’s an enormous book but it’s worth the look You won’t regret the time that reading it took It’s a comprehensive story about Alexander Hamilton And includes a lot about Jefferson and Washington It’s got politics and love, war and duels Guys shooting at each other like ignorant fools Big names, big egos and founding […]

Unbeaten – Mike Stanton

I knew very little about Rocky Marciano before I read this book.  I knew he was the only undefeated Heavy Weight fighter (49-0), I knew Larry Holmes threatened his record in the eighties before losing his 49th fight to Michael Spinks (and I remember rooting for Spinks because Holmes was classless in how he disparaged […]

The Gambler – William C. Rempel

First of all, let me clarify that this is not a biography of Kenny Rogers.  You won’t learn the importance of knowing when to hold ‘em and when to fold ‘em if you read it.  It’s actually a biography of Kirk Kerkorian, and the title refers to his willingness to gamble huge stakes on his […]

Born Standing Up – Steve Martin

This is not a new book – written in 2007 – but I read something about it a few months ago and so have had it on my ‘to-read’ list for this year.  I’m glad I did.  It started out a little slow, but after a couple of chapters I started enjoying it and really […]

The Unexpected President – Scott S Greenberger

The book is a biography of Chester Arthur and the title refers to his becoming president after James Garfield was assassinated.  Arthur had been added to the ticket purely as a sop to the New York contingent at the Republican convention, not because anyone thought he would make a good president.  So he was unexpected […]

Maximum Volume – Kenneth Womack

First of all, I really like biographies about people in the music industry.  The stories of people or bands who make it big in rock or even in other genres are fascinating to me – probably because it’s so outside of my experience.  I also really like music from the sixties and I especially like […]