Wednesday Reads - 41: A Portrait of My Father by George W. Bush

Everyone knows I'm addicted to political biographies and memoirs and that I have a pretty extensive collection about all of the presidents, so I was pretty excited when Dennis got me the new book about George H.W. Bush - 41: A Portrait of My Father by George W. Bush.

The book is a beautifully written portrait of W.'s father. There are so many wonderful anecdotes that are not present in other biographies of H.W. and there is so much love and respect present for this great man that are really only present in books written by family.

At the beginning of the book, W. talks about how he got the idea for the book from David McCullough's daughter. The Bushes are only the second father and later son presidency. John Quincy Addams didn't write about his father, so W. is the only one to take on the challenge.

I thought it would be an interesting to see a role reversal in the last thought as well, if H.W. wrote a book about his son after the 43rd presidency. It was also interesting to see W.'s painting of this father, read about H.W.'s sky dives (even at 90!) and hear W.'s take on Barbara's quips.

For those who are not into political biographies or memoirs because of the length, I would definitely recommend this book. It's short with clear sections of each of the main points. There are so many great stories that the books moves quickly.