I LOVED this book! The closer I got to the end, the slower I tried to read, hoping to stay off the last page as much as possible - and that's saying something cause this book is thick! :)

I really like history. I was a history minor. I love the intersection of how individuals shape history against the backdrop of great events. And yet.....I found “John Adams” so stultifyingly dull that I punted. Put it away unfinished – something I almost NEVER do.

We watched the HBO mini-series (which I thought was good) and I felt like I was cheating on a book report.

While McCullough is certainly a brilliant author and historian (he made the politics and engineering behind the Brooklyn Bridge entertaining in The Great Bridge), clearly the genius of this work is Adams himself, as well as Abigail, their friends, and family. Every page of this biography seemed to seethe with written correspondence that survives to this day, painting a portrait that no Peale or Stuart could possibly approach. I do not have many to compare it to yet, but I have been told that this is one of the greatest American biographies, and I am a believer.

[Update, after 24 more presidents] I still believe it is one of the best, and it is one of three that I recommend to someone only dabbling in this genre.