No one beats David McCullough!

I just finished watching one of my favorite programs - American Experience on PBS. Of course, seeing I am a reader of American history, this comes as no surprise. Tonight's episode was about the Donner Party - the crossing of America from Illinois to California, but it wasn't just any crossing. About 30 people (men, women and children) break off from a large wagon train crossing on a path that is to cut off many days from the tried and true path. It takes them three weeks longer instead. Once they reach the Sierra Nevada a snowstorm hits preventing them from going through a pass, now called the Donner Pass. The snow continues and traps them there for nearly 4 months. Attempts are made to get through the pass and, unfortunately, several of the folks who die were eaten as the food was gone and so were the animals. Several rescue attempts are made to no avail until February and they are finally found.

Anyway, the episode is narrated by David McCullough, one of my top three authors. If you aren't familiar with him, he is the narrator of the movie "Seabiscuit" made in 2003 starring Jeff Bridges and Tobey Maguire. McCullough's narrations are just like his writing: smooth, clear, thorough, precise, and complete. If i had to choose just one book as a favorite, which is nearly impossible because I don't really have favorite anythings (not even color), it would be McCullough's John Adams. The reader gets an absolute complete history of the 2nd President of the United States. Adams is brought to life through his letters to his politically involved wife, Abigail, and hers to him. They seem to have spent most of their married life apart than together. We see Adams through his relationships with other Founding Fathers, specifically Jefferson and Franklin. Even though we already know that their son, John Quincy Adams, becomes a president himself as well, we come away with a complete understanding as to how and why that came about as well.

It's not the suspenseful drama that fiction readers enjoy. But it is a fast page turner for me. The book is a Nobel prize winner. And this isn't McCullough's first Nobel prize either. Librarian of Congress James Billington doesn't refer to McCullough as the "citizen chronicler" for nothing.

So if you want to read an award winning author and you don't mind reading about American history, do yourself a favor and read anything written by David McCullough. If you want to read about John Adams, you won't be able to find any better work than this.