James Madison

via whitehouse.gov I read a short biography of Madison, our fourth president, in my Presidential reading series. The book is from the American President series, which was also the series I chose for George H.W. Bush. I suspect it will be the only option when I get to presidents like Taylor and Polk. This one was interesting because it was the first biography of a President I’ve read that was pretty down on him. Madison was the “father of the constitution” and his significance as a Founding Father is pretty high. But that doesn’t guaranteed he’d be a good President. Read more…

William Gibson’s “Blue Ant” trilogy

Or maybe it's the "Hubertus Bigend" trilogy. Anyway, I finished his recent trilogy this past weekend, and really enjoyed it. The books are: Pattern Recognition (2003), Spook Country (2007), and Zero History (2010). They are primarily about marketing, art, design, technology, and such, but they are also spy thrillers to a certain extent. I found all of them to be really interesting. Good stories, a good touch of irony, some action, strong leads, and a lot to think about. Gibson is known for his science fiction work primarily (in the 80s he coined the term cyberspace in his debut novel). Read more…