Benjamin Franklin's Autobiography

Benjamin Franklin's <i>Autobiography</i> only covers up to the time when he was establishing himself as a printer in Philadelphia before his marriage, including a brief mention of his experiments with lightning, so if you are looking for an account of his activities during the War of Independence, Constitutional Convention, or as ambassador to France, this is not the book for you.  It's an interesting account of his early years, from his childhood, education, and apprenticeship in Boston, moving to Philadelphia, dealing with rivalry between the printing houses there, then becoming a business owner himself, starting a newspaper, traveling to England to procure printer's equipment, and his start in Philadelphia politics.

Throughout the <i>Autobiography</i>, Franklin emphasizes the lessons he learned along the way, including the high value of the qualities of thrift, resourcefulness, hard work, taking the initiative in one's own education, avoiding debt, refraining from the development of expensive habits, as well as how to get along well with others, especially how to debate in a reasonable and non-arrogant way.  These are definitely lessons on which we could all use a refresher course.  Despite being a rather vague and non-denominational Christian, Franklin was very interested in moral self-improvement, even developing a list of rules to live by that would be acceptable to any reasonable person of any denomination.

It's a shame he didn't get further along in writing the <i>Autobiography</i> than he did, but as we all know, he was a very busy man!

The Catholic Classics, by Dinesh D'Souza

This book makes a great introduction to 10 Catholic authors and the works for which they were best known:
1. St. Augustine (Confessions)
2. Boethius (Consolation of Philosophy)
3. St. Bede (Ecclesiastical History of the English People)
4. St. Thomas Aquinas (Summa Theologica)
5. Dante Alighieri (Divine Comedy)
6. Blaise Pascal (Pensées)
7. Thomas à Kempis (Imitation of Christ)
8. John Henry Newman (Apologia pro vita sua)
9. G.K. Chesterton (Orthodoxy)
10. Thomas Merton (Seven Story Mountain)

The introductions to each author are concise and include biographical information about each author, the main features of their thought, the circumstances in which they wrote their books, and how their books were received. This book is a great choice for anyone with an interest in learning about these 10 authors or who might be starting to read their works.

Alexander Hamilton, by Charles Conant

If you know little to nothing about Alexander Hamilton and his achievements as one of the American Founding Fathers and want to get a general introduction about him, you can't go wrong with this book.  It gives a good biographical overview, from his early life in the West Indies, education at Columbia University (then King's College of New York), growing involvement in the American independence movement and military service, to his service as Washington's secretary of the Treasury, disagreements with Thomas Jefferson's views and death in a duel with Aaron Burr.  Some chapters are dedicated to particular achievements, such as his contributions to the Federalist Papers, participation in the writing of the Articles of Confederation and the Constitution, his role in establishing the Bank of the United States and Congress's power to fund the national debt incurred during the war.

It's not a very long book but it is packed with information and is clearly and concisely written.  

I listened to the <A HREF="https://librivox.org/alexander-hamilton-by-charles-a-conant/">LibriVox audiobook</A> version of this title rather than reading the edition pictured on this page.