Mimi Coffey's Reading List

Mimi Coffey's 2007/2008/2009/2010/2011 Reading List

My favorite thing to do outside of work is read. I am always too busy working, but I have always said that my ultimate vacation would be to spend 2 weeks from sunup to sundown in either of the Dallas or Fort Worth public libraries so that I could read nonstop breaking with a host of different literary diversions. My favorite thing is news: I am an avid reader of the New York Times and cannot live without the Sunday edition. I go through each week's Time magazine in about an hour. I supplement this with watching a taped version of Keith Olberman's Countdown Monday through Friday. Just give me cold, hard facts, no spin… My favorite books are on the lives of our Founding Fathers. To understand those who formed this country and its constitution gives me the inspiration and guidance I need to carry on with those principles as I seek justice through the law to help others. Here is a list of books I have completed this year. The astericks mark my favorites. They are close in order to how they were read. Before television and radio, the intellects of generations past prized their books and shared their reading lists. To understand the books one reads is to have a window to their soul. Most of the Founding Fathers read the classics, I read them in turn as classics. Here is a bird's eye view to my soul and required reading for my children in their adulthood (and hopefully my descendants) if they are to understand diplomacy in whatever walk of life they should so choose:


Reading List 2007:

1*Joseph Ellis: Founding Brothers-the Revolutionary Generation. Pulitzer Prize Winner
2.Joseph Ellis: Passionate Sage: the Character and Legacy of John Adams
3.Joseph Ellis: His Excellency: George Washington
4.Joseph Ellis: The American Sphynx: the Character of Thomas Jefferson
5.Richard Brookhiser: Alexander Hamilton, American
6.Thomas Fleming: Duel: Alexander Hamilton, Aaron Burr & the Future of America
7.*Nancy Isenberg: Fallen Founder: the Life of Aaron Burr
8.Walter Stahr: John Jay
9.*H.W. Brands: The First American: Benjamin Franklin , Pulitzer Prize finalist
10.Richard Brookhiser:Governeur Morris: the Rake Who Wrote the Constitution
11*Craig Nelson: Thomas Paine: Enlightenment, Revolution and the Birth of Modern Nations
12.Jeff Broadwater: George Mason: Forgotten Founder

Not only have I derived factual basis to understand our laws, these books have brought to life in my mind the cities of Philadelphia, New York, Paris,Boston, London and Washington D.C. as they existed in those times. It is with great excitement that I look forward to visiting (& revisiting for some but now with new knowledge) these cities to see monuments and tombs of those I most admire. Cicero once said: "Not to have knowledge of what happened before you were born is to be condemned to live forever as a child." Long live democracy through all it ugly aches and pains. – Mimi Coffey, Sr.

Mimi Coffey's 2008 Reading List
*1. General and Madame de Lafayette: Partners in Liberty's Cause in the American and French Revolutions by Jason Lane
*2. Samuel Adams: Father of the American Revolution by Mark Puls
3.A Son of Thunder: Patrick Henry and the American Republic by Henry Mercer
4. James Madison: The Struggle for the Bill of Rights by Richard Labunski
5. John Hancock: The Picturesque Patriot by Lorenzo Sears
*6. John Marshall: Definer of a Nation by Jean Edward Smith
7. Patriot Pirates: The Privateer War for Freedom and Fortune in the American Revolution by Robert H. Patton
*8. Boone: A Biography by Robert Morgan
**9. The Great Upheaval: 1788-1800 by Jay Winek (my favorite book covering the Founding Fathers period thus far, very well written and hard to put down)
10. American Creation by Joseph Ellis
11. American Lion: Andrew Jackson in the White House by Jon Meacham

2009 Reading List
1. Matthew Lyon "New Man" of the Democratic Revolution, 1749-1822 by Aleine Austin
*2. Rochambeau by Arnold Whitridge
3. Financial Founding Fathers by Robert E. Wright and David J.Cowen
*4. Two Fighters and Two Fines: Lives of Matthew Lyon and Andrew Jackson by Tom Campbell
5. Jefferson THe Scene of Europe 1784-1789 by Marie Kimball
6. 1776 by David McCullough
7. Revolutionary Characters by Gordon Wood
8. (Obama is a Founding Father on his own terms, hence his acceptance into my reading category) Dreams from my Father by Barack Obama
9. Forgotten Patriots by Edwin G. Burrows (the untold story of American Prisoners duringi the Revolutionary War)
*10. Adopted Son:Washington, Lafayette, and the Friendship that Saved the Nation by David A. Clarey



2010 Reading List
* 1. Undaunted Courage (the Lewis and Clark expedition) by Stephen Ambrose
2. The Intimate Lives of the Founding Fathers by Thomas Fleming
3. Libery to Lucy Moore (the Founders were influenced by France, this is a book on the French Revolution)
4. Signing Their Lives Away: The Fame and Misfortune of the Men Who Signed The Declaration of Independence by Denise Kiernan & Joseph D'Agnese
5. The Traitor and the Spy: Benedict Arnold and John Andre by James Thomas Flexner (no doubt Benedict Arnold would have been a huge Founding Father due to his military successes had he not lost his way, a sad tale on how he became a traitor)
6.Travels in North America in the years 1780-1781-1782 by The Marquis de Chastellux (fascinating to see the new America through the eyes of a French nobleman who fought our Revolution and was friends to everyone powerful at the time from Washington, Sam Adams , Thomas Paine to Madison...just proves that birds of a feather truly flock together)
7. Franklin and his French Contemporaries by Alfred Owen Aldridge 1957 New York University Press: great insight on how the French was influenced by Franklin and his attachments both scientifically, philosophically, diplomatically and socially with them. Amazing to know the French as a whole value Franklin even more than Americans.
8. The WOrks of Dr. Benjamin Franklin consisting of Essays, Humorous, Moral, and Literary: with his Life, Written by Himself, a rare book printed in 1835



2011 Reading List
1. The Private Franklin: The Man and His Family by Claude-Anne Lopez adn Eugenia W. Herbert 1975
2. The Secret Loves of the Founding Fathers by Charles Callan Tansill
3. Revolutionaries by Jack Rakove
4. The American Revolution 1763-1783 by William Edward Hartpole Lecky, M.P. arranged and edited by James Albert Woodburn, copyright 1898. This was a very interesting book as it is the American Revolution seen through the eyes of a British historian. Amazing to study our country's founding through this perspective. The British made way too many wrong assumptions and blunders. Had it not been for these, like Canada we probably would have remained British for a very long time.
*5. Aaron Burr: The Years from Princeton to Vice President, 1756-1805 by Milton Lomask, a great book on understanding how the natural cycles of politics work
6. A Magnificent Catastophe (the tumultuous election of 1800) by Edward Larson 2007, 2 valuable lessons from this book: 1) No way was Aaron Burr ever a traitor, he could have cinched the 1800 election easily and despite the tie vote did not for the good of the party (no wonder he was later found Not Guilty of treason in the western conspiracy). This proves that good character always pays off particularly in politics. 2) John Adams was hated by his own Federalist party for not declaring war on France when the country could least afford it but is respected for it now. Always do what is right in the situation, not what is politically expedient.
7. The Founders on the Founders by John P. Kaminski, a very interesting book on how the founders of our great country viewed eachother in their own words as found in their letters and writings
*8. Jefferson and Hamilton by Claude G. Bowers, 1925 Houghton Mifflin Co., so well written that you feel as if you are a fly in the room as Bowers takes you back in history and you witness so many great Founders in their bravery and wisdom as they interact between Hamilton and Jefferson. A true depiction of the genius of both of these two men.

2012 Reading List
*1. Stevens Thomson Mason: Misunderstood Patriot BY Kent Sagendorph. Turns out he was the grandson of the first Stevens Thomson Mason of Virginia who fought for freedom of the press when Congress voted to forbid printing of the controversial Jay Treaty. This Mason was the boy Governor of Michigan. An incredible story. He led the charge for Michigan to become a state, built railroads and personally would rode around the state helping people when cholera broke out and many people died. He truly loved Michigan and did extraordinary tasks while it was still a wild west territory.

2. Founding Mothers by Cokie Roberts, great read. It's inspirational to read how the mother of 2 Founding Fathers ran 3 plantations all alone at age 16 and that a woman was brave enough to print the Declaration of Independence and also signed her name on the bottom willing to die with the signers themselves if caught.

3. Philip Freneau, the Poet of the American Revolution by Mary Stanislas Austin. Frenaua's poetry deeply moved the country at a time when emotions were all we really had in the lopsided battle. He also fought for the country on our seas and was captured and nearly died on a British war ship. He ended up living a long and productive life creating newspapers that assisted the political agendas of Thomas Jefferson and James Madison. Makes you understand the power of the written word, you can move mountains.