what I’m reading: you never forget your first by alexis coe.

You Never Forget Your First: A Biography of George Washington is the first biography of Washington written by a woman in at least 40 years (according to the Washington Post). It claims to be a fresh new biography that takes a closer look at Washington and finds that he might not be quite the man we remember. I have not read any other biographies of George Washington so I have no reference to base these statements on, but I found this book entertaining. I learned some new things about Washington that I didn’t know but I can’t tell you if there is anything groundbreaking in this book.

While I did find this book to be a page-turner, I was disappointed that it seemed not to go into much specifics about anything. Rather, the book is a broad overview of Washington’s life. Coming in at a little over 200 pages (not counting footnotes), it is not surprising that the book lacks the depth and detail that other biographies have. It hits the main points of Washington’s life but doesn’t provide much information about anything else.

For instance, the book basically skips over the 12 years of so between when Washington returned from the French and Indian War and when he became Commander of the Continental Army in the Revolutionary War. I guess for all its hype about telling me something I didn’t know about Washington, the fact that a decade is completely skipped over was a bit frustrating.

I did enjoy reading about what Washington was like as a person and his life as the first President. I think this book does go into a bit more detail about Washington as a slave owner. I also found it interesting to read about all the diseases he survived during his lifetime.

This book is super easy to read and the chapters are fairly short. It is filled with listicles, boxed text, and copious footnotes, and it pretty much reads like a fiction novel. It is meticulously researched and the only parts that were a bit difficult to comprehend were when Coe was quoting directly from letters as she kept spelling and word capitalizations the same as they were written in the 1700s.

If you’ve never read a biography of George Washington, this book is a great place to start. If you’ve read other biographies or already know much about Washington, I would pass.

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