BOOK CLUBS

American Lives Discussion

This group meets on the Second Tuesday of the month at 6:30 pm on Zoom. The American Lives group will be a little different than a typical book group. It will focus on the person rather than the book. Choose to read one or more biographies about our subject, each book on the list presents an different view. This will prompt lively discussions facilitated by Bill Wilson. To get the Zoom link, email mpl@als.lib.wi.us.

Participants are invited to read additional biographies as well.

January 14, 2020: Franklin Delano Roosevelt

• Jean Edward Smith – FDR
• H. W. Brands – Traitor to His Class: The Privileged Life and Radical Presidency of FDR
• Doris Kearns Goodwin – No Ordinary Time: Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt 

February 11, 2020: Harry S Truman

• David McCullough – Truman
• A. J. Baime – The Accidental President: Harry S. Truman and the Four Months that Changed the World
• Alonzo Hamby – Man of the People: A Life of Harry S. Truman 

March 10, 2020: Harding, Coolidge, and the Roaring 20s

• John W. Dean – Warren G. Harding
• Robert Sobel – Coolidge: An American Enigma
• Nathan Miller – New World Coming: The 1920s and the Making of Modern America
• Daniel Okrent – Last Call: The Rise and Fall of Prohibition
• David Cannadine – Mellon: An American Life  

April 14, 2020: Herbert Hoover

• Eugene Lyons – Herbert Hoover: A Biography
• William Leuchtenburg – Herbert Hoover
• Richard Norton Smith – An Uncommon Man: The Triumph of Herbert Hoover  

May 12, 2020: Dwight David Eisenhower

• Jean Edward Smith – Eisenhower in War and Peace
• Stephen Ambrose – Eisenhower: Soldier and President
• Carlos D’Este – Eisenhower: A Soldier’s Life
• Geoffrey Perret – Eisenhower

June 9, 2020: John F. Kennedy

• Robert Dallek – An Unfinished Life: John F. Kennedy 1917 – 1963
• Doris Kearns Goodwin – The Fitzgeralds and the Kennedys
• Richard Reeves – President Kennedy: Profile in Power  

July 14, 2020: Lyndon Baines Johnson

• Robert Caro – The Path to Power (Volume 1), Means of Ascent (Volume 2), Master of the Senate (Volume 3), The Passage of Power (Volume 4)
• Doris Kearns Goodwin – Lyndon Johnson and the American Dream
• Robert Dallek – Lyndon B. Johnson: Portrait of a President 

 August 11, 2020: Richard Nixon

•  John Farrell – Richard Nixon: The Life
• Robert Morris – Richard Milhous Nixon: The Rise of an American Politician
• Stephen Ambrose – Nixon: The Triumph of a Politician (Volume 2 of the 3-Volume biography)
• Stephen Ambrose – Nixon: Ruin and Recovery (Volume 3 of the 3-Volume biography)  

 September 8, 2020: Gerald Ford  

•  Douglas Brinkley – Gerald R. Ford

• James Canon – Gerald R. Ford: An Honorable Life
• Scott Kaufman – Ambition, Pragmatism, and Party: A Political Biography of Gerald R. Ford
• Donald Rumsfeld – When the Center Held: Gerald Ford and the Rescue of the American Presidency 

October 13, 2020: Jimmy Carter

•  Douglas Brinkley – The Unfinished Presidency: Jimmy Carter’s Journey to the Nobel Peace Prize (this is a slightly updated version of an earlier book entitle The Unfinished Presidency: Jimmy Carter’s Quest for Global Peace)

• Stuart Eizenstat – President Carter: The White House Years
• Peter G. Bourne – Jimmy Carter: A Comprehensive Biography form Plains to Post-Presidency
• Julian Zelizer – Jimmy Carter

November 10, 2020: Ronald Reagan

• Bob Spitz – Reagan: An American Journey
• Peggy Noonan – When Character Was King: A Story of Ronald Reagan
• H.W. Brands – Reagan: The Life
• Jacob Weisberg – Ronald Reagan 

December 8, 2020: George Herbert Walker Bush 

• Jon Meacham – Destiny and Power: The American Odyssey of George Herbert Walker Bush
• Timothy Naftali – George H.W. Bush
• Herbert Parmet – George Bush: Life of a Lone Star Yankee

Library Hours

Monday: 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.
Tuesday: 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.
Wednesday: 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.
Thursday: 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.
Friday : 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.
Saturday: 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Sunday: CLOSED