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4.44 AVERAGE
4.44 AVERAGE
I've had this book on my "to-read" list for quite a while. I think I bought a copy for my parents years ago, and it would stare at me every time I went to visit. Once I even started it when I was home, but I left it. One day I re-appropriated it and brought it home, but I never read it (thanks onslaught of presbyopia!)
I bought an ebook copy with an Amazon gift card and put it back on my list.
Theodore Roosevelt was a dynamo. I've never read about anyone so much in motion. And the real amazing part of it is how much of that motion was purpose-driven. He really didn't like to stand still. He also was remarkably resilient and able to make the best out of some really craptacular situations.
The most remarkable thing about the latter half of the book is the remarkable trajectory his life took in the late 1890s. Between 1895 to 1901 (six years!) he went from Federal Civil Service Commissioner to NYC Police Commissioner, to Assistant Secretary of the Navy, to Colonel of the "Rough Riders," to New York State Governor, to Vice-President, to President. Talk about "sleeping on an incline."
Looking forward to reading the other two volumes, but TR and I need a break right now. He is best enjoyed in small doses.
I bought an ebook copy with an Amazon gift card and put it back on my list.
Theodore Roosevelt was a dynamo. I've never read about anyone so much in motion. And the real amazing part of it is how much of that motion was purpose-driven. He really didn't like to stand still. He also was remarkably resilient and able to make the best out of some really craptacular situations.
The most remarkable thing about the latter half of the book is the remarkable trajectory his life took in the late 1890s. Between 1895 to 1901 (six years!) he went from Federal Civil Service Commissioner to NYC Police Commissioner, to Assistant Secretary of the Navy, to Colonel of the "Rough Riders," to New York State Governor, to Vice-President, to President. Talk about "sleeping on an incline."
Looking forward to reading the other two volumes, but TR and I need a break right now. He is best enjoyed in small doses.
The audio book version of this book is excellent; the narrator adopts Teddy Roosevelt's voice when reading excerpts from letters, interviews, etc. and really brings the President to life. Of course, Edmund Mortis is to be credited for such a thorough and interesting account of TR's early life and delves into this larger-than-life man filled with contradictions.
Teddy Roosevelt (apparently he hated that nickname) was such a contradiction: a conservationist who loved to hunt for sport, and a bookish academic who loved the manly pursuits and wanted very badly to fight in a war. I learned so much from this biography that it's kind of hard to process it all, but I loved it from beginning to end (well, except some of the political minutiae).
All of the details of Theodore's early life were very interesting, especially his time at Harvard and courtship of first wife, Anna. It is so much fun to imagine the skinny, hyper-intelligent and hyper-active dynamo that he must have been. I felt so much empathy for the Roosevelt who went West after Anna and his mother died on the same day (!). And the Rough Rider Colonel Roosevelt was pretty entertaining. But at the end of this book, we were just getting to the Theodore Roosevelt that I'm most interested in - the canny President.
Side note: I think that the narrator gives a bit of an odd reading sometimes, giving emphasis in strange places, but I could tell that he had lots of fun with his Teddy Roosevelt voice.
All of the details of Theodore's early life were very interesting, especially his time at Harvard and courtship of first wife, Anna. It is so much fun to imagine the skinny, hyper-intelligent and hyper-active dynamo that he must have been. I felt so much empathy for the Roosevelt who went West after Anna and his mother died on the same day (!). And the Rough Rider Colonel Roosevelt was pretty entertaining. But at the end of this book, we were just getting to the Theodore Roosevelt that I'm most interested in - the canny President.
Side note: I think that the narrator gives a bit of an odd reading sometimes, giving emphasis in strange places, but I could tell that he had lots of fun with his Teddy Roosevelt voice.
This book is well-researched and really interesting. I felt that I learned a significant amount about US culture and history during the time Theodore Roosevelt lived, as well as his life. I do have to note that I felt the author's commentary on Roosevelt's poor first wife who died very young to be distasteful and unnecessary, essentially saying she wasn't as intelligent as Roosevelt and would have been a bad match long term. First of all, that is impossible to know given the circumstances. She died in her early twenties in an era where it could hardly be said that women were encouraged to share their full talents with the world, and saying that just felt really harsh and out of place in this book. Especially considering the subject of the book's deep love and respect for her that he carried through out his life, it seemed really disrespectful to both parties for the author to judge her as he did and speak ill of the dead. It almost put me off of the book entirely, but the rest of the content is thankfully largely free of out of place insertions of the author's personal opinions.
adventurous
informative
reflective
slow-paced
adventurous
challenging
informative
tense
slow-paced
challenging
inspiring
slow-paced
To be quite honest, I expected a bit more from this biography, given its high ratings across several platforms (Amazon, Goodreads, et cetera). However, I must agree with another reviewer that this biography, while decently reviewing TR's political 'rise', fails to capture his familial side arguably at all after his second marriage. For instance, after about a third of the way through the book, his children are only mentioned again toward the very end.
This might be due to TR's private nature, but this biography really does fail to crack at the core of what made TR, and keeps our understanding of him at a very superficial level.
This might be due to TR's private nature, but this biography really does fail to crack at the core of what made TR, and keeps our understanding of him at a very superficial level.
It may be too soon to review, at the moment I'm still just about speechless.
The only consolation in this case to the typical dread of having finished a deeply affecting book is that there are two remaining volumes.
The only consolation in this case to the typical dread of having finished a deeply affecting book is that there are two remaining volumes.