If there is something good to say about my new three-hour commute, it is that I now have a daily-dedicated time for reading on the train. Yesterday I finished the Pulitzer Prize winner The Hemingses of Monticello: An American Family by Annette Gordon-Reed and today I started reading Shenandoah 1862: Stonewall Jackson's Valley Campaign by Peter Cozzens. I would like to say that both books are simply for pleasure, but in all honesty, I am writing an article for the magazine Patriots of the American Revolution on how slavery is being interpreted at the new Monticello Visitor’s Center and researching material for a banquet speech I am doing next summer in Lexington on Stonewall's Valley Campaign. Regardless, I am experiencing great pleasure while reading both of these extraordinary titles.

The Hemings book is an exhaustively researched and incredibly thought-provoking (albeit infuriating at times) portrait of an African-American family and I plan on reading the counter-argument In Defense of Thomas Jefferson: The Sally Hemings Sex Scandal by William G. Hyland Jr. as well. This year I read four books on Thomas Jefferson and although I had intended to keep that streak alive for the remainder of 2009, I think I need a break from TJ, hence the Stonewall Jackson book. That title looks be a great one to finish out the year as it intentionally sets out to present BOTH the Confederate and Union impressions of that military affair (the first study on the subject to do so). I may post some impressions on this one as I progress.

As this will be my last post before the holiday I want to wish each and every one of you a blessed Thanksgiving.