most of my reading...

Most of the books I read come from the library, and are something that I generally pick up at random, looking interesting when I am perusing the stacks. But I will occasionally request a particular book that someone recommends, or I have read a review of that sounds like it would be enjoyable. One I recently requested from the holdings at the library was something I'd read a review of and thought it might be worth reading. I've mentioned it to several people, and recommended it to a couple of folks who are attorneys - since that is basically what the story revolved around.

"The Impeachment of Abraham Lincoln" starts with the idea that the assassination we all know about was only an attempt, with the president only being injured by John Wilkes Booth, in what we now know was un-survivable. So you have to sort of suspend your factual knowledge to get interested in the story. I had a hard time early on, it did not capture my attention. I'm to the place in life that I know I don't have to finish something that is not interesting, as there will be no 'test' or book reporting requirement for a grade, so if it does not compel me to turn the pages, I have no hesitation about returning it unread. But that interview with the author, a professor at Yale, made it sound so intriguing, I stuck with it, and just finished over the weekend.

The main character is a young, well -educated and very smart black woman who has found a job as a clerk for a law firm in Washington City. She finds the people she is working for are the men who will defend the president when Congress decides that he overstepped his authority in his effort to win the war. Women have few rights, Black people have even less, and this woman struggles to find her place in a white man's world. Lincoln's wife is dead, an event that might have been suicide.  Two sons are dead. Lincoln is beleaguered by many in Congress, various presidential wanna-bes all hoping he will be unseated, and they can apply for his job. He is beset by a secret society of Radicals who want to see him removed as head of state. Recommended reading.

This is worth repeating/quoting, as the main character, Abigail, is speaking to Mr. Lincoln:
"Men think of great ideas first, and of friends and family after. With respect, Mr. President, you yourself voiced that very sentiment just moments ago, when you said you could not leave this office, no matter what tragedies struck your family, because your work is unfinished. It is the nature of men, sir, especially great men, to see themselves as indispensable. Whereas it is the nature of women to see their friends and families as indispensable. You were a man, relying on other men for advice, and so you overlooked the possibility that my sister's love for Rebecca might be greater than the love for her own duty..."  Not particularly germane to the overall plot, but just something that struck me as possibly being a great tru-ism, one of the profound differences between males and females, how we interact and build relationships.