Choosing which book to read on our 4th president was a bit challenging, but I settled on Richard Brookhiser's "James Madison" partially because it was only 250-pages versus the 800-page tomes I have been tackling. I opted for this "beach read" (as one reviewer called it) and I was not disappointed. There was little about Brookhister's book I did not like, including the length. I have read books by other accomplished biographers including McCullough, Isaacson, Chernow and Meacham and have fretted that they often failed to take their subjects to task. Not Brookhiser. He called out Madison on his lack of taking a stance on slavery, on his (and Jefferson's #3) major miscue in believing Florida was included in the Louisiana Purchase, on his ineptness as commander in chief that led to the British being able to burn Washington City to the ground during the War of 1812 (Madison's War), and for his overall poor performance as president. Brookhiser often slipped into "I" and gave his concl......

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