Will I love And There Was Light?

Gripping, heartbreakingly beautiful storytelling by one of our most brilliant historians about Abraham Lincoln, who is referenced to the point of cliché in American politics, but poorly (or incompletely) understood.

I read/listened to this book on a long overseas assignment, with lots of solitary time, hikes, and travel—some of it by boat. This book was the unifying thread that ran through this trip.

Reading it was a sort of voyage itself, the kind that offers perspective and at the end, made me wiser, clearer, and somehow a better citizen. It could have been a too heavy subject, but the book… show more.

In general, I dislike politics, but so many of our friends recommended Meacham’s new book on Lincoln that my husband and I decided to read it together.

Oh. My. Goodness. The book not only reveals so much more about Lincoln, the man than I knew, but it took us deep into the politics and the mind of the nation as it plunged into the Civil War.

It was not only mesmerizing but sobering. In many ways, the “state of the nation” back in the 1860s sounded eerily similar both to the polarized political parties of our day but also deeply… show more.