It took my longer than I thought with the quarter starting to get through The Reagan Diaries. I finished it early this morning. So here we go.

When Character Was King

This 352 page biography of President Reagan is one of the best I've seen. It reads well and covers the major events in Reagan's life from Illinois to after his death in 2004. You get to know about the kind of man Reagan was and why he thought the way did. Reagan was president at a time when the country was tired of economic and foreign policy mismanagement of Jimmy Carter and hungry for something new that Reagan was able to give us: pride. He makes a couple of great speeches that are covered in this book. This is apropos considering this book was written by one of his speechwriters, Peggy Noonan. This was a great introduction to Reagan for me. Even though it wasn't really an introduction since my Papaw has talked to me about Reagan for years. He voted for him first when he ran for Governor of California. It was like getting to know a little more about an old friend. Finished February 26, 2008.

Reagan's America

In 572 pages Garry Willis gives the reader more of an overview of the history of the America that Reagan lived in from the communist witch hunt days in Hollywood to Iran-Contra than a biography on Reagan's life. It took me a while to get into the book and get that premise down. This was the story of the America Reagan knew and the role he played in it. Parts of it were dry, but overall it was a good read. February 28, 2008.

Reagan and Gorbachev: How the Cold War Ended

This is a book about two men who were leading their nations during very interesting times written by Jack Matlock who as ambassador to Russia worked with both of the men. They found that they could work together and even admired and respected each other. Reagan and Gorbachev had a hard relationship at times when they couldn't agree on issues especially human rights and the Star Wars Defense System (SDI). A lot of the work accomplished by these men especially Reagan helped bring about the end of the Soviet Union. The book is full of summits and arguments and distrust and agreements that unraveled at the last minute. Yet, these two men could work together and helped usher in a new era. Reagan saw 3 Soviet leaders die in his early years in the White House and Gorby was a younger man that he could work with because he was reform minded and saw that communism was no longer working and must be reformed. Good read. Finished March 2, 2008. 384 pages.

One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich

This was my break from Reagan. I found this book in an old stack of books and decided to make it my introduction to Russian literature. It's only 188 pages long so it was a quick read. Alexander Solzhenitsyn wrote this book as a scathing review of the Gulag system in the Soviet Union. He chronicles a day in the life of Vanya while he's in the gulag. He was there for 10 years and we see a day. It's an amazing story and an amazing peace of literature. Finished March 3, 2008.

The Reagan Diaries

This was the perfect finale to my Reagan reading. I got the overview in the beginning and I got to finish my reading with a daily log of his years as President. He and Mrs. Reagan were upset that they hadn't kept a diary while he was the Governor of California and so he kept a daily log of his 8 years as president. It's great in the diary I read the biggest events of the eighties written about in typical Reagan style(simple and terse) and accorded the same space if not less than the fact that Nancy was gone on a trip and he missed her. The one that stood out to me is his writing about his "Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall" speech. He wrote big crowd for speech in front of Brandenburg gate...I think it went well. He talks about his children and how he thinks that insanity is hereditary and that parents get it from their children. I got an in depth look at his thoughts on his relationships with Gorby and Margaret Thatcher. He really liked Thatcher. They were political soulmates. Reagan had the air of an ordinary guy who was an actor at his core and cared about his approval rating a lot. It was always high, 70 something percent when he left office. I highly recommend reading this even if you don't like Reagan. It's just a really cool thing to be able to read the daily thoughts of a president as he went about his job. I also got to meet Dr. Douglas Brinkley who edited the diaries when he gave a talk at Trinity and I got to buy the book and have him sign it. I got to see him speak with my Papaw. That meant a lot. After hearing him talk about it and reading Reagan talk about it I want to see the Reagan Library. Finished March 13, 2008. 784 pages.

Not too shabby. I read 1496 pages over the break and altogether 2280 pages. Considering I read 3900 something pages all last year, that's not too bad. :)

I'm working on reading Andy Peterson's book now. I'm off to bed and I have my conference tomorrow. I present at 1.15pm. Prayers appreciated.

I had an independent study meeting today and the information for the exhibit is coming together..yay!

Grace and Peace

JRM