Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson

Steve Jobs was an arrogant asshole. You still with me? Ok, now you should totally read this book. While I know members of this fine family have their personal feelings about Apple and Apple products, perhaps even about Steve Jobs himself, this is a book worth picking up. As an iPhone and iPad owner, I clearly drank the Kool-Aid. And boy is it tasty. Mmmm…sugar.

Focus, Becky. Ok, but seriously, you don’t need to own or have owned an Apple product or even like Apple products to have respect for just what Apple has done for our society. Good, bad, or in between, it’s changed us. And Steve Jobs, love him or hate him (and there are about 10 people, I think, who loved him), was a mad genius. And I don’t mean that in the Boston “wicked-smart” sense, either. He was mad, and he was a genius.

While this book is more than 600 pages long, I didn’t find anything slow or extraneous about it. Walter Isaacson, the author, has written a few biographies that I think mom and dad have read – Einstein and Benjamin Franklin. And as Isaacson states in his intro, he’s quite sure that Steve Jobs saw himself as a natural progression of that list.

This was a fascinating portrayal of a very complicated, mercurial, selfish, brilliant, eccentric, sensitive, strong, elusive man. He brought computers into the mainstream, made them cool, accessible, flashy, and functional. He brought animation into the 21^st century before we were even in it, and he changed the way in which we buy and access music, movies, and information. Steve Jobs was an arrogant asshole. And this was one of the best books I’ve ever read.  

Lincoln - The Biography of a Writer by Fred Kaplan

Not another Lincoln bio. Aren't there like a million of them? Yep, give or take but this is different from any of the others I've read. The author answers the "why another" question with "...there is no modern study of the origin and development of Lincoln's literary sensibility and genius... Lincoln's reading in the textbooks and literary anthologies of his youth, the literature that helped shape his mind and his prose style, is an essential part of the story."

Kaplan does a first rate job of looking at the available literature of Lincoln's youth, his favorite authors (especially poets) of his adulthood and the speeches by others who Lincoln admired and shows the echos of those sources in his famous and not so famous essays. Kaplan calls them essays rather than speeches because Lincoln almost never spoke extemporaneously. He laid out each formal speech in a tight format that made the point while allowing for inserted jokes and stories (mostly "earthy") as the situation dictated. He wrote decent poetry, made two of the best speeches by any politician ever and could well be called the political Mark Twain. Kaplan also focuses on areas skipped over by everyone else I've read, including his unhappy (and coerced?) marriage, his treatment of the Indians, and his alienation from his father. Lincoln's use of language and his personal philosophy of how honest language is a critical factor in presidential leadership brings into sharp focus why the presidential utterances of the last eight years have been such an unsatisfying experience and what contributed in great part to his (GWB) impotence as a leader. For anyone who is interested in Lincoln, this is a must read.

The Life of Andrew Jackson by Robert Remini

I picked this up to fill in some gaps about American politics in the first half of the 19th century. It is an abridgement of a three book set that won the National Book Award in 1984.

From the beginning, Jackson's life was an adventure. He fought in the Revolution at 13 and was orphaned in the same year. He fought duals, had a controversial romantic life, fought Indians and the British, and reshaped American political and governmental life. It is a life that a fiction script writer would risk criticism for inserting so many near-death experiences, national firsts and bigger than life characteristics. He is justifiably controversial for having elevated the presidency to its modern executive status, for moving almost all eastern native American tribes to lands west of the Mississippi, for balancing the budget for the first time since the Revolution, changing national banking practices, etc.

When I read about FDR last month I came away with mixed emotions due to his character flaws and strengths combined with some governmental successes. He pales in comparison to Jackson, both for his flaws, his strengths, and his governmental outcomes. What was most surprising was the many similarities to issues that were addressed in this last election. Jackson took actions that reminded me of Bush, except Jackson was more courageous and competent. He also took stands that Democrats would applaud, especially since he created the Democratic party. He probably reminds me most of Teddy Roosevelt but is a unique individual. You will not be bored with this story and will come away with an excellent understanding of people like Calhoun, Clay, Webster, J.Q. Adams, and those presidents who followed Jackson into the 1840's. A worthwhile read and one that will leave me thinking about a president's place in the American governmental triumvirate for a long time.

Eden's Outcasts: The Story of Louisa May Alcott and Her Father by John Matteson

For all the Little Women fans among us, this 2008 Pulitzer Prize winning dual biography will likely be of interest to you. Although Louisa May is the better known member of the Alcott family, her father, Bronson was an eminent philosopher, teacher and friend of fellow transcendentalists, Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau. As a family man, however, Bronson was, for the most part, a useless provider (of money or affection). As he chased after his lofty philosophical ideals and utopian pursuits (which were usually miserable failures), his wife, Abba and older daughters, Anna and Louisa were left to be the breadwinners of the family, taking jobs as governesses, teachers, writers, or whatever they could find. And more than once, the family had to be rescued from destitution by their Concord neighbors/friends Emerson and Thoreau- who sometimes even provided them with a place to live. This biography depicts the complicated and often troubled relationship between Bronson, ever the idealist and Louisa, always the pragmatist. Although they differed in fundamental ways, the two shared the same birthday, found literary success around the same time and died within two days of each other.

I initially decided to read this biography because I wanted to know more about the American Transcendental movement. Transcendentalism is one of those broad brush terms that gets tossed around in literary circles and one that I never fully understood. As one would expect of a Pulitzer Prize winning book, Matteson has done a superb job of capturing the essence of this 19th c. movement by reflecting it through the lens of the Alcott family story. The narrative pulls you into the life and times of this unique American family and makes you feel as if you have actually known them in life. In Matteson's closing paragraph he writes: "To the extent that a written page permits knowledge of a different time and departed souls, this book has tried to reveal them." I believe he has done a masterful job.

Einstein, His Life and Universe

"I did it!"(as Katie would say). Now I don't need the magic Internet fairy to add pictures for me.

I try to mix up my reading list with biographies now and then and Einstein was my most recent subject. This 550 page tome did not disappoint, although I must admit that I did skim over some (ok, much) of the more detailed explanations of his experiments and scientific papers. Clearly, Issacson understood all the intricacies of relativity and quantum mechanics and did a masterful job of describing it. And, really, I do think it's awesome, but reading too much about it makes my head want to explode. Hence, I'll leave the science to others while I explore the humanities aspect of the individual.

I especially like biographies because so much of what I was taught in school about "famous" people was so one dimensional and boring. However, when I read a good, well-researched and balanced biography like this one, I feel as if I really understand the man behind the genius- human frailties and all.

Unfortunately, Einstein's genius in the scientific realm did not carry over into his personal life. Although married and the father of two sons he basically abandoned the family (he did send money sometimes) for years while he moved around in the pursuit of his science. And, as is so often true of exceptionally talented individuals, the pursuit of their "passion", whether it be in art, music, math, science or whatever, becomes the driving force of their lives to the exclusion of just about everything and everyone else (except their professional peers).

As the book jacket reads, "his success came from questioning conventional wisdom and marveling at mysteries that struck others as mundane. This led him to embrace a morality and politics based on respect for free minds, free spirits, and free individuals." If we can take just one lesson from Einsteins' life, it would probably be that education must not stifle independence or creativity. "A society's competitive advantage", as Issacson writes, "will come not from how well its schools teach the multiplication and periodic tables, but from how well they stimulate imagination and creativity." Amen.

John Adams by David McCullough

Jackie recommended this and it's very good. If any of you saw the recent HBO series based on the book, I'd suggest that, although the series was good, the book is better. All I'd heard of Adams in the past was that he wrote extensively to his wife while at the Second Continential Congress and that he also shared a correspondence with Jefferson late in life. The book paints a picture of a complex man who worked hard for his country and his family. I came away with thinking he'd have been a good friend and deserves more praise than he gets. His contribution was major in getting the Declaration of Independence written and approved. He also made multiple contributions during the Revolution and prior to becoming Vice President. Jefferson, on the other hand, was also a complex man who is depicted as a lesser man than Adams when it comes to honesty and a willingness to engage difficult issues. Usually, when the going got tough, Jefferson went to Monticello.

I'm continuely amazed that the U.S. survived the first 80 years of its existance and this book puts an exclamation point to that thought. The book is well written and easy to follow. I found myself actually looking for more anecdotes in a book that is 651 pages. Don't let the length deter you, you'll zip through it. Enjoy.