I’m going to read about the presidents. The challenge is one without a time limit, and I’m planning on reading one or two books a year.

Any links on Rebecca Reads are the book titles. Any title in bold has been read (may or may not have been reviewed). Non-bold titles are books I’d like to read.

1. George Washington (1789-97) Washington: The Indispensable Man by James Thomas Flexner; George Washington and Benedict Arnold: a tale of two patriots by Dave R. Palmer;
2. John Adams, 1797-1801 John Adams by David McCullough
3. Thomas Jefferson, 1801-9 The Art of Power by Jon Meacham
4. James Madison, 1809-17 James Madison: A Biography by Ralph Ketcham
5. James Monroe, 1817-25 The Last Founding Father: James Monroe by Harlow Unger; James Monroe: A Life by Tim McGrath
6. John Quincy Adams, 1825-29 John Quincy Adams: Militant Spirit by James Traub; John Quincy Adams by Harlow Unger
7. Andrew Jackson, 1829-37 American Lion by John Meacham; Robert Remini’s The Life of Andrew Jackson
8. Martin Van Buren, 1837-41 Martin Van Buren by Donald Cole; Martin Van Buren by Ted Witmer
9. William Henry Harrison, 1841 Mr. Jefferson’s Hammer: William Henry Harrison by Robert Owens; William Henry Harrison by Gail Collins
10. John Tyler, 1841-45 President without a Party: The Life of John Tyler by Christopher J. Leahy
11. James Knox Polk, 1845-49 Polk: The Man Who Transformed the Presidency and America by Walter Borneman
12. Zachary Taylor, 1849-50 Zachary Taylor by John S. D. Eisenhower
13. Millard Fillmore, 1850-53  “Millard Fillmore: Biography of a President” by Robert Rayback
14. Franklin Pierce, 1853-57 “Franklin Pierce” by Michael Holt
15. James Buchanan, 1857-61 James Buchanan (2004) by Jean Baker
16. Abraham Lincoln, 1861-65 Lincoln: A Photobiography by Russell Freedman (for children); Team of Rivals by Doris Kearns Goodwin; Lincoln by David Herbert Donald; Lincoln’s Virtues by William Lee Miner; Lincoln: An Illustrated Biography by Philip B. Kunhardt; Abraham Lincoln by Ingri and Edgar Parin d’Aulaire (for children); Abraham Lincoln: A Man of Faith and Courage by Joe Wheeler; Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln by Doris Kearns Goodwin; Michael Burlingame’s two-volume  Abraham Lincoln: A Life; Ronald White’s A. Lincoln: A Biography; David Herbert Donald’s Lincoln; Benjamin Thomas’s Abraham Lincoln: A Biography
17. Andrew Johnson, 1865-69 Andrew Johnson: A Biography by Hans Trefousse OR Impeached: The Trial of Andrew Johnson and the Fight for Lincoln’s Legacy by David Stewart
18. Ulysses Simpson Grant, 1869-77 Grant by Ron Chernow; Grant by Jean Edward Smith
19. Rutherford Birchard Hayes, 1877-81 Rutherford B. Hayes by Hans Trefousse
20. James Abram Garfield, 1881 Garfield: A Biography by Allan Peskin ; Dark Horse: the Surprise Election and Political Murder of President James A. Garfield by Kenneth Ackerman; Destiny of the Republic: A Tale of Madness, Medicine and the Murder of a President by Candice Millard
21. Chester Alan Arthur, 1881-85 Chester Alan Arthur by Zachary Karabell
22. Grover Cleveland, 1885-89 Grover Cleveland: A Study in Character by Alyn Brodsky; A Man of Iron: The Turbulent Life and Improbable Presidency of Grover Cleveland by Troy Senik
23. Benjamin Harrison, 1889-93 Benjamin Harrison by Charles Calhoun
24. Grover Cleveland, 1893-97
25. William McKinley, 1897-1901 William McKinley and His America by H. Wayne Morgan
26. Theodore Roosevelt, 1901-9 Power and Responsibility: The Life and Times of Theodore Roosevelt by William Harbaugh; The Bully Pulpit: Theodore Roosevelt, William Howard Taft and the Golden Age of Journalism by Doris Kearns Goodwin; The River of Doubt: Theodore Roosevelt’s Darkest Journey by Candice Millard
27. William Howard Taft, 1909-13 William Howard Taft by Jefrey Rosen
28. Woodrow Wilson, 1913-21 Woodrow Wilson: A Biography (1991) by August Heckscher; Wilson (2013) by A. Scott Berg
29. Warren Gamaliel Harding, 1921-23 Warren G. Harding: The American Presidents Series by John W. Dean
30. Calvin Coolidge, 1923-29  Calvin Coolidge: The Quiet President by Donald McCoy; Calvin Coolidge: The Man From Vermont by Claude Fuess; Coolidge: An American Enigma by Robert Sobel
31. Herbert Clark Hoover, 1929-33 Hoover: An Extraordinary Life in Extraordinary Times by Kenneth Whyte
32. Franklin Delano Roosevelt, 1933-45 FDR by Jean Edward Smith; Traitor to His Class: The Privileged Life and Radical Presidency of FDR by H. W. Brands; No Ordinary Time: Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt by Doris Kearns Goodwin
33. Harry S. Truman, 1945-53 Truman by David McCullough
34. Dwight David Eisenhower, 1953-61 Eisenhower in War and Peace by Jean Edward Smith
35. John Fitzgerald Kennedy, 1961-63 An Unfinished Life: JFK 1917-1963 by Robert Dallek; The Fitzgeralds and the Kennedys by Doris Kearns Goodwin; President Kennedy: Profile of Power by Richard Reeves; Profiles in Courage by JFK
36. Lyndon Baines Johnson, 1963-69 read about in Leadership by Doris Kearns Goodwin; Lyndon B. Johnson: Portrait of a President by Robert Dallek
37. Richard Milhous Nixon, 1969-74 Richard Nixon: The Life by John Farrell
38. Gerald Rudolph Ford Jr , 1974-77 An Ordinary Man: The Surprising Life and Historic Presidency of Gerald R. Ford by Richard Norton Smith
39. James Earl Carter, 1977-81 His Very Best by Jonathan Alter
40. Ronald Wilson Reagan, 1981-89 Reagan: An American Journey by Bob Spitz
41. George Herbert Walker Bush, 1989-1993 Destiny and Power: The American Odyssey of George Herbert Walker Bush by Jon Meacham; George Bush: Life of a Lone Star Yankee by Herbert Parmet
42. William Jefferson Clinton, 1993-2001
43. George W. Bush, 2001-2009
44. Barack Obama, 2009-2016 The Audacity of Hope by Barack Obama
45. Not sure I want to read about him 2017-2021
46. Joe Biden 2021-2025 Promise Me, Dad by Joe Biden