Audio Books

I am completely addicted to Audio Books.  I listen to them in the car, at work on my iPod, at home during supper, and when I am in my studio beading!  I tell people I love them because I can read and bead at the same time!  These are two of my recent books I have been listening to.  I love history (sometimes wish I had been a history teacher ~ then I come to my senses!).  The Civil War is a fascinating period in our Nation's history.

This is my current audio book.  Very interesting (though some passages are long and drawn out with battles and too many names).  I learned today that even though Lincoln fought hard to free slaves and give them their basic rights, he disliked Native Americans and didn't deal well with them.  I found that strangely ironic.  I also learned that if Mary Todd Lincoln had been a First Lady these days, she would likely have been jailed for embezzlement.  She was a compulsive shopper with expensive tastes and would file phony bills for reimbursement to cover bills she did not want Lincoln to know about.  Items such as plants and manure for landscaping were submitted, a horse and wagon also, and none were ever present at the Capital.  I heard an interesting story about a Union soldier that claimed to be a Confederate soldier and was even aided by the Confederates to get through enemy areas in order to get information back to Lincoln on the battles.  He had a smart horse that helped him escape a couple times and he was later given the horse as a reward.  He continued to report directly to Lincoln about the conditions in the battlefields until the war ended.

This is the other book I listened to and it was about the assignation of Lincoln.  It was very good (I listened to it twice!) and fascinating.  Based entirely on documentation and journals and news reports, it told the story from a couple days before the shooting to the eventual capture of Booth.  I found the details of the medical treatment the President received after the shooting and the details of Booth's escape and hiding very interesting.

Interested?  Check them out!  What are you reading?