President’s List – You want to read this…

A Secret Life: The Sex, Lies, and Scandals of President Grover Cleveland by [Lachman, Charles]

Title: A Secret Life: The Lies and Scandals of President Grover Cleveland

Author: Charles Lachman

Performer: Joe Barrett

Length: 12h 24m

Series: N/A

Publishing Date/Publisher: Feb 8, 2013/Skyhorse Publishing

Format: Audiobook

Review: This can really be summed up as follows:

Book- good

Grover Cleveland- bad

I knew going into my presidential reading list that Grover Cleveland was a horrible man and I refused to read (or listen to) a book that applauds his time as president and governor, so I picked a book that deals specifically with the most horrendous moments of his life. Before he ran for public office, he sexually assaulted a woman, who then became pregnant. He kidnapped the boy (multiple times), gave him to his friends to raise, publicly humiliated the woman, and tried to get her committed to an asylum. This book dives into all the horrid details and describes the history behind why Maria Halpin would not have felt comfortable coming forward with her story.

If you, like me, are trying to read a book about every president, I recommend reading this one, as it doesn’t heap praise upon a man who is undeserving of it.

Reader: Kymberly

Rating:

Title: Washington’s Spies

Author: Alexander Rose

Page Count: 402

Series: N/A

Publishing Date/Publisher: December 2007/Bantam

Format: eBook

Review: I don’t have too much to say about this book, to be honest. I enjoyed it and I also didn’t. It was interesting but also not. It lagged a little too much to recommend highly, but I don’t want to discourage people from reading it at the same time, if that makes sense.

It was informative, that’s for sure. I learned a lot about the use of spy rings during the Revolutionary War, which is something I hadn’t even thought before: it’s not like we go into detail about it in school. But reading about how they developed their codes for letters and the danger they put themselves under was interesting.

I’m not sure exactly what it is about this book that makes it interesting and not at the same time, but it is. It’s the Schrödinger’s cat of books. So I recommend it, but simultaneously don’t recommend it.

Reader: Kymberly

Rating: