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I read more books in 2008 than I had in many previous years and can't begin to write about all of them. While I read a variety of fiction and non-fiction books, some of the better books I read centered around American History during the 1950s and 1960s, particularly political history.

Part of the reason I chose books about the 1950s and 1960s is that those were the decades of my childhood. While I remember some of the events that took place, like the assassination of President Kennedy, I was unaware at the time of much that was going on. Since I am interested in writing a memoir about my childhood, reading books about this era has been helpful.

I am especially interested in the three presidents that dominated my childhood years. While I was born when Dwight D. Eisenhower was president, I remember nothing about him, as I was too young. However I do remember Presidents Kennedy, Johnson and Nixon. While I knew about the corruption during the Nixon administration when I was growing up, it was only through my reading during 2008 that I realized that I had grown up under three of the most powerful and corrupt presidents of all time.

During 2008 I read the first two volumes of Robert Caro's four volume biography of Lyndon Johnson, The Years of Lyndon Johnson. This is a masterful work. While Caro did the writing, his wife did much of the research. Her research gives the books more punch than they might have if Caro had done all of his own research. For example, in order to show the depths of the poverty, back breaking labor and isolation of the Texas hill country where Johnson was born, Mrs. Caro did extensive research on what it was like to be a farmer and a farmer's wife during the early 1900s.

Her research was so detailed she could enumerate approximately how many gallons of water a day each farm woman had to carry from the well. This detail explained the stooped over, prematurely aged look of Texas hill country women. Why all this detail? Because the Caros wanted to show what changes good roads, electricity and radio brought to the hill country. And it was Lyndon Johnson that brought them.

Along with the Johnson biography, I read Taking Charge The Johnson White House Tapes 1963-1964, edited by Michael Bechloss. This book is a must read for anyone interested in President Johnson. The tapes reveal Johnson as a charismatic and vulgar man, neither traits which he revealed very often in public. They also show that Johnson was the consummate politician, trading favors and

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