Last year, I was saddened with the news of the death of author David McCullough. I came to be a devotee of David’s works of nonfiction a little over ten years ago. The first time I read one of his books, John Adams, was in April 2011. From the start, I fell in love with David’s ability to take us on journey about our American history. From my vantage point, his writings were more from his heart as a student of American history than that of an author.
I am an avid, life-long reader of fiction. I never touched many nonfiction books, especially ones about history. As a student, I didn’t like history as a subject. When I stumbled upon David McCullough as an author, by accident, I had a change of heart. Within the last 10 years or so, I have rediscovered a love of history and I now try to read two to three books a year about history.
In April 2011, I picked up David’s book, John Adams. At the time, a lot of people in my life had read the book and watched the HBO mini-series about John Adams. I didn’t know much about President John Adams, just that he was our second president and served one term. I didn’t know much about author David McCullough, just that he had written a book about John Adams that was just over 700 pages. I half-heartily gave David’s book a chance, before I would watch HBO mini-series – as I prefer to read the story before the movie. After I finished the first chapter of the book, I became a fan of President John Adams, first lady Abigail Adams and author David McCullough.
As a side note, my family and I visited Boston, Massachusetts in early Spring 2013 and toured the John and Abigail Adams homes in Quincy, Massachusetts. I highly recommend this tour and the Stone Library building which holds many books. John Adams and his family were avid readers and book collectors!
I find David’s style as more of a storyteller of a historical subject than just reciting facts about what happened. His stories follow a good timeline which keeps the subject matter interesting from start to finish. He also includes historic drawings and pictures about the subject matter to give a visual perspective.
I have read several books by David McCullough. I strongly recommend the following:
- John Adams, a story that is a love letter to our second president
- “1776”, a story on the impact of the year 1776 on the American revolutionary war
- The Wright Brothers, a story of the humble beginnings of the first airplane in Dayton, Ohio
- The Pioneers, a story about the settling of the West, from the perspective of late 1700s
My bucket list of David’s books include the following:
- The Greater Journey, Americans in Paris
- Truman
- Mornings on Horseback
- The Great Bridge
I want to thank David McCullough for turning me into a student of American history. I highly recommend David McCullough as an author of nonfiction and more so as a storyteller of American history.
Me: I am Diane M. Spolar and I live in Willowbrook, Illinois (a suburb outside of Chicago) with my husband, son and cat. I am a CPA by day, and a reader by night and on the weekends. I am a lifelong lover of books.
Diane's Book Club 