Good Bye George...Hello Ben and Tom

This week I finished reading "His Excellency: George Washington” by Joseph Ellis. The book follows Washington from cradle to grave in less than 300 pages. While it has received good reviews, I found it a bit laborious to read. In fairness to Ellis, my less than enthusiastic endorsement of this book may have been caused by overdosing on the first President. Within two weeks, I have read three books on the president and heard of him often during the Gilder-Lehrman seminar. Time to move on to another founder or another time period!


Just as I was thinking about my next book selection, the Sunday New York Times Book Review arrived. Within a few minutes of perusing the pages, I found “The Americanization of Benjamin Franklin,” by Gordon Wood featured in the “Paperback Row” column and a review by Joseph Ellis of “Thomas Paine and the Promise of America” by Harvey Kaye. Both books are on my reading list but now it is time to turn to another era or maybe some fiction….so many books…so little time.