Reading Recommendations: Washington: A Life, Ron ChernowIn Washington: A Life, celebrated biographer Ron Chernow provides a richly nuanced portrait of the father of our nation. With a breadth and depth matched by no other one-volume life of Washington, this crisply paced narrative carries the reader through his troubled boyhood, his precocious feats in the French and Indian War, his creation of Mount Vernon, his heroic exploits with the Continental Army, his presiding over the Constitutional Convention, and his magnificent performance as America's first president.Despite the reverence his name inspires, Washington remains a lifeless waxwork for many Americans, worthy but dull. A laconic man of granite self control, he often arouses more respect than affection. In this groundbreaking work, based on massive research, Chernow shatters forever the stereotype of a stoic unemotional man. A strapping six feet, Washington was a celebrated horseman, an elegant dancer, and a tireless hunter with a fiercely guarded emotional life. Chernow brings to vivid life a dashing, passionate man of fiery opinions and many moods. Probing his private life, the author explores Washington's fraught relationship with his crusty mother, his youthful infatuation with the married Sally Fairfax, and his often conflicted feelings toward his adopted children and grandchildren. Chernow also provides a lavishly detailed portrait of Washington's marriage to Martha and his complex behavior as a slave master.Most of all, Washington is an astute and surprising portrait of a canny political genius who knew how to inspire people. Not only did Washington gather around himself the foremost figures of the age, including James Madison, Alexander Hamilton, John Adams, and Thomas Jefferson, but he also brilliantly orchestrated their actions to shape the new federal government, define the separation of powers, establish the office of the presidency, and forge a nation.In this very unique of biographies (some 903 pages including index), Ron Chernow takes us on a page turning journey through the formative events of America's founding. With a dramatic sweep worthy of its giant subject, Washington is a magisterial work from one of our most elegant storytellers.And, The Sisters, a novel, Nancy JensenGrowing up in hardscrabble Kentucky in the 1920s, with their mother dead and their stepfather an ever present threat, Bertie Fischer and her older sister, Mabel, have no one but each other, with perhaps a sweetheart for Bertie waiting in the wings. But on the day that Bertie receives her eighth grade diploma good intentions go terribly wrong. A choice made in desperate haste sets off a chain of misunderstandings that will divide the sisters and reverberate through three generations of women.What happens when nothing turns out as you planned? From the depression through World War II and Vietnam, and smaller events both tragic and joyful! Bertie and Mabel forge unexpected identities that are shaped by unspeakable secrets. As the sisters go on to have daughters and granddaughters of their own, they discover that both love and betrayal are even more complicated than they seem.A gorgeously written novel illuminating the far reaching power of family and family secrets.And, The Real Elizabeth, An Intimate Portrait of Queen Elizabeth II, Andrew MarrElizabeth II, one of England's longest reigning monarchs, is an enigma. In public, she confines herself to optimistic pieties and guarded smiles, in private she is wry, funny, and an excellent mimic. Now, for the first time, one of Britain's leading journalists and historians gets behind the mask and tells us the fascinating story of the real Elizabeth.Born shortly before the Depression, Elizabeth grew up during World War II and became queen because of the shocking abduction of her uncle and the early death of her father. Only twenty five when she ascended the throne, she has been at the apex of the British state for nearly six decades. She has entertained and known numerous world leaders, including every U.S. president since Harry Truman.Brought up to regard family values, as sacred, she has seen all but one of her children divorce; her heir, Prince Charles, conducted an adulterous affair before Princess Diana's death, and a steady stream of family secrets poured into the open. Yet she has never failed to carry out her duties, and she has never said a word about any of the troubles she has endured.Andrew Marr, who enjoys extraordinary access to senior figures at Buckingham Palace, has written a revealing and essential book about a woman who has managed to remain private to the point of mystery throughout heir reign. See you at Rylander